I will perfect my own race of people! A race of Atomic Supermen that will conquer the Woooorrrrrlllld!

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2007)

Tragic story of a great genius who was born way before his time and who's time came after he sadly left us. Like Franz Kafka and Vincent Van Gogh Ed Wood, Johnny Depp, was never recognized as the genius that he was until he had to die and then be discovered by millions of film lovers. People who for the most part were born long after he wrote directed and starred in his last film.
Following his life long dream of making movies Ed Wood started out as man with ideas that were just to far out for anyone in the Hollywood of the early 1950's to take seriously. It was in 1952 when Ed saw a story in the newspapers about former combat veteran Chris Jorgenson having a sex change operation that got him interested. Ed, being a closet transvestite, decided to do a movie about Jorgenso and secretly about himself. Going from studio to studio all Ed got was the run around and door slammed, or laugh at, in his face. It wasn't until he ran into washed up movie horror king Bela Lugosi ,Martin Laundau, fitting himself for a coffin at a L.A funeral home that things started to turn around for the young and hungry director.
The movie "Ed Wood" centers around the friendship that was developed by Ed Wood and, at the time, the highly morphine addicted Bela Lugosi. Bela who hadn't made a movie in four years was now on his last legs and it was Ed who gave him the chance to revived his career which he did in three unforgettable films that Wood directed: 1."Glen or Glenda" 2. "Bride of the Monster" and 3. In a cameo role in what many people consider to be Wood's "Citizan Kane" the film that they broke the mold after he made it "Plan 9 from Outer Space".
Were also introduced in "Ed Wood" to Ed's two wives Doloros Fuller, Sarah Jessica Parker, who left Ed when he gave her a supporting, not leading, role in his classic "Bride of the Monster" and also Kathy O'Hara, Patricia Arquette, who met Ed when he was at the hospital having his friend Bela dry out and kick his drug habit. Kathy turned out to be Ed's real and true love of his life who, unlike Dolores, stood by him through thick and thin and never left his side up until he suddenly collapsed and died from a heart-attack on the evening of December 10, 1978.
Having his first big success with "Glen and Glenda" in 1953 Ed set out to do films that would give his friend Bela Lugosi, who was the puppet master in that film, something to really stick his teeth into and came up with "Bride of the Monster" in 1954. Getting together a number of aspiring actors and actresses, like Tony McCoy Loretta King & 400 pound ex professional wrestler Tor Johnson, to play in the movie it took almost a year until Ed could get the money to finally finish the project.
"Bride of the Monster" was not the smashing success, financially not artistically, that Ed hoped it would be but watching it now, like those who were lucky or brave enough to see it back then in 1955,it really stood the test of time after all these years. Seeing the great Bela Lugosi in what turned out to be his last speaking role and very possibly the signature performance of his career, as the insane and at the same time sympathetic Dr. Eric Vornoff, that's filled with so much tension electricity and passion that it completely blows away anyone who watches it. Bela delivering his unforgettable "I Have'a no Home" speech to his bitter rival in the movie Professor Strowski has to be seen, and heard, to be believed. Not to take anything away from actor Martin Landau, who received a Academy Award for his part as Bela Lugosi, you have to see Bela himself deliver he lines in the movie "Bride of the Monster" to really appreciate what a great actor he really was and, with Ed Wood's writing and directing, again became in the twilight of his magnificent film career. Even Marlon Brando at his absolute best couldn't come close to duplicate Bela's unbelievable performance in that movie!
With no worlds left to conquer after classics like "Bride of the Monster" "jailbate" " The Violent Years" and "Glen or Glenda" already in the can Ed went out to make the movie that he would forever be identified with "Plan 9 from Outer Space". Sadly enough he wouldn't have Bela Lugosi, who died just as the filming began, to star in it.
Touching funny as well as heart-breaking story of the Great Ed Wood Jr who had to die, after being laughed snickered and scorned at while he was still alive, to be recognized and become the film and movie genius that he is today. The movie wisely ends just as Ed has his greatest success at the opening of his forgotten, and now rediscovered, anti-war and anti-nuclear testing sci-fi classic "Plan 9 from Outer Space".
It was fitting to end the movie "Ed Wood" before we saw him, and his great talents, go downhill leaving him a broken and forgotten man who was left to sneaking out of one apartment and into another to prevent himself from being thrown out for not paying his rent. It's even sadder that Ed Wood didn't live long enough to get the appreciation that he so rightfully deserved to get from the movie going public. If there is a life beyond death I can see Ed there now looking down and basking in the love and critical acclaim, from both the public and critics, that he's getting now in death that eluded him all those years in Hollywood where he slaved and grabbed to get his movies made and distributed while he was still alive.