first rate all the way!!!

Rating: Null/10 (25 October 2003)

It is really ironic to me that one of the best film biographies should have been made about a man who people consider the worst movie director of all time. Ed Wood was a transvestite (ironically he was a very decorated Marine in WWII who fought wearing a bra and panties underneath his uniform, he said one of his worst fears was being wounded in combat and having the medics cut off his clothes and revealing his secret). Wood was a good and decent man and this is well shown in this film when he befriends Bela Lugosi. Lugosi was one of the biggest Hollywood horror stars when he made Dracula in 1931, however he made a horrible mistake when he turned down the role of Frankenstein that Boris Karloff took. This part made Karloff a star and he was able to enjoy a bountiful career. He was able to play other parts that proved he was a fine actor when he wasn't playing a monster. However, Lugosi was typecast for the rest of his life and never approached Karloff's success. Maybe that is why he didn't like him. There is a funny scene in this film where Martin Landau as Lugosi goes off on a profane tirade about Boris Karloff. Johnny Depp and Sarah Jessica Parker and Bill Murray all give wonderful performances in this film, but it is Mister Martin Landau who makes it for me. He simply IS Bela Lugosi. This is the finest screen performance of a real life person since George C. Scott played Patton. It is almost like Landau stepped out of his own mortal soul and became Lugosi. I think one of the reasons he did such a wonderful job is that there is a connection between him and Bela. Maybe I should explain, Landau was thrown aside by Hollywood for so many years after he did Mission Impossible. He had to do garbadge like The Harlem Globetrotters On Gilligan's Island (I kid you not that was one of his roles!) Lugosi had to do trash like that as well. One of his films was called Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla. Landau was able to make a comeback with films like Tucker: The Man And His Dream. He was able to make the comeback Bela could not. In fact when he won the Oscar, one of the things he said was "Bela wherever you are thanks". The thing about this film that really got me is that Ed Wood was somewhat noble. He was a person who loved filmaking and was as genuinely dedicated to his craft as any great director like Orson Welles, William Wyler or John Frankenheimer, he just wasn't any good at it!