Joe Blevins's Blog, page 10

Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 213: 'The Muddled Years of Edward D. Wood, Jr., 1946-1948' (2025)

In his new book, James Pontolillo covers a misunderstood era of Ed Wood's life.
The biopic Ed Wood (1994) only covers a brief span in the life of its title character. The story starts with Ed (Johnny Depp) directing a production of his play The Casual Company circa 1952 and ends with the (improbably grand) premiere of Ed's feature film Plan 9 from Outer Space in 1957. That's five years out of a 54-year life, about 30 of which were spent in Hollywood. In their introduction to the published screenplay of Ed Wood, writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski explain their reasoning for limiting the film's scope:

First, we decided that most film biographies were boring. They seem compelled to follow the subject from cradle to grave. We felt this was too much to cover. Why is somebody's death important? The result often ends up quickly skimming the surface and being uninvolving. So we determined that we would only cover five years—the period that Ed was actually "famous" for.

I heartily agree with this streamlined approach. A good biopic should take the life of its subject and mold it into a satisfying three-act story, and that's exactly what Ed Wood does. Besides, most people who watch that movie will be content with seeing Ed during his prime years, making his most iconic films and working with his idol, Bela Lugosi (as portrayed by Martin Landau).
But then, there are the diehards. The completists. The collectors and catalogers. The makers of lists and writers of essays. They can't be satisfied with a mere capsulized history of their hero. They want the entire, sordid Ed Wood saga, stem to stern. Well, they're in luck this week, because James Pontolillo is back with his second, extremely niche book about Eddie's early years. 
James' first book, The Unknown War of Edward D. Wood, Jr. 1942-1946 (2017), laid bare Eddie's much-mythologized service record as a Marine during World War II. The sequel, The Muddled Years of Edward D. Wood, Jr. 1946-1948 (2025), basically picks up where the previous volume left off. It covers Ed's life from the time he was honorably discharged through the making of his abortive Western, Crossroads of Laredo (1948).
This was a pivotal time in Ed Wood's life, as it would be in any young person's life. From his birth in 1924 to his induction into the military in 1942, Ed's fate was obviously guided by his parents, his employers, and his teachers. After that, Uncle Sam was definitely calling the shots, even telling him when to get up and when to go to bed. But, as of 1946, Eddie was officially an adult in charge of his own destiny. So what did he do with his newfound freedom?
We've heard various accounts of this transitional period in Ed Wood's life, most of them coming from Eddie himself. But the director of Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) had a tentative relationship with the truth, to put it mildly, so it's difficult to know what's accurate and what isn't. Did he really perform in drag in New York nightclubs? Did he tour with a traveling carnival as a half-man, half-woman? Did he study with famed choreographer Martha Graham? Did he spy on the Ice Capades for the U.S. government? James Pontolillo is here to investigate each and every one of these claims, plus several more.
Look, I can't "review" this book in any objective way, since I wrote the foreword to it and am quoted in the text several times. But I can honestly report that this book not only gave me a lot of new information, it also caused me to look at Ed Wood's career in a new way, particularly in regards to the various plays Ed studied that may have influenced his later writing. 
James has told me he didn't intend for his book to be any kind of definitive, final statement about this time in Ed's life. And he admits that there are still gaps in the chronology that have stubbornly resisted even his formidable research abilities. But The Muddled Years of Edward D. Wood, Jr. certainly supplies ample food for thought. And what better compliment can I pay it than that? Like The Unknown War, this is a quick, fulfilling read that sheds light on some of the darker corners of Ed Wood's colorful life. It's worth your time.
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Podcast Tuesday: "Wisconsin Fonzarelli and the Chest of Wonders"

Fonzie (Henry Winkler) is menaced by snakes on The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang.
Timbuktu. It's one of those faraway places I've been hearing about since childhood, but I never really knew where it was or what happened there. Well, now, thanks to The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, I at least have some idea. Timbuktu is a city in the West African nation of Mali, and it became a center of both trade and learning in the 1100s. The city lost its influence over time, due to various wars and invasions, plus the shifting of trade routes. But Timbuktu still exists today, and its rich history is currently being cataloged and preserved. 
Isn't that interesting? There's only one thing that could make the city even more interesting, and that's if the cast of Happy Days somehow managed to materialize there in a flying time machine, accompanied by a "future chick" and a talking dog. And wouldn't you know it? That's exactly what happens in the November 1981 episode "All This and Timbuktu."
This week on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast , we talk about that episode and the effect it's had on our lives. We sincerely hope you'll join us for what should be a frank and eye-opening discussion.
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Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 212: Comparing two prints of 'Hellborn' (1956)

Two views of Conrad Brooks as a juvenile delinquent in Hellborn.
When Woody Allen was dissatisfied with September (1987), a somber, Chekhov-inspired drama he'd written and directed, he did something truly remarkable. Even though the movie was already in the editing stages, he scrapped everything he had completed, revised the script, recast all but two of the major roles, and reshot the entire film from scratch. The resulting motion picture garnered lukewarm reviews and earned back only 5% of its $10 million budget. It remains one of the biggest money-losers in the Allen filmography.
I think this story establishes Woody Allen as the cinematic opposite of Ed Wood, despite the passing similarity of their names. Eddie rarely had the luxury of throwing away footage that he'd shot and developed. His most famous film, Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), was literally built around using some precious silent film he'd shot of actor Bela Lugosi shortly before Bela's death. And when Ed's juvenile delinquent epic Hellborn (1956) ran out of money and couldn't be completed, Ed took some of the footage he'd shot for it and recycled it in Night of the Ghouls (1959) and The Sinister Urge (1960), regardless of whether it actually fit.
Generally, when we talk about Ed Wood's career, we can divide his film projects into two major categories: ones that got made and ones that didn't. Hellborn is in that rare middle territory, along with Range Revenge (1947), Crossroads of Laredo (1948), and The Night the Banshee Cried (1957): ones that sort of got made. Which is to say, enough footage was shot to give us a vague idea of what this project was supposed to have been. The remains of Hellborn were included in a 1993 documentary produced in conjunction with Cult Movies magazine that I reviewed some time ago on this blog.
Recently, however, reader Brandon Sibley informed me that the 2017 Blu-ray of The Violent Years (1956) from Vinegar Syndrome contained the Hellborn footage as well. This was certainly news to me, and I was eager to compare the 1993 and 2017 editions to see if there were any notable differences between them. Fortunately, since I don't own the Blu-ray (yet), Brandon was kind enough to rip a copy of the Hellborn footage for my perusal.
At first, I was shocked to see that the Vinegar Syndrome version ran over nine and a half minutes, while the Cult Movies version lasted only about seven minutes and 50 seconds. Had Vinegar Syndrome found nearly two minutes of precious extra Hellborn footage? Nah. A side-by-side comparison revealed that both versions of Hellborn contain the exact same shots in the exact same order, but the 1993 version runs about 25% faster than the 2017 version, hence the shorter running time. When I slowed down the 1993 edition just a little, it synced up with the 2017 edition perfectly. This begs the question, which running time is more accurate? I have no idea. My copy of the 1993 Hellborn documentary was made from a VHS tape, but Vinegar Syndrome says its copy of the footage was sourced from VHS as well. You'd think they'd run at the same speed. Nope.
Content-wise, as I indicated earlier, the two Hellborns are the same. I've never seen a script or even a plot outline for this film, but it seems to center around two violent street gangs—one all male, the other all female. We see both groups committing crimes, including mugging a man in an alley, terrorizing an ice cream salesman, and robbing a gas station. At the end, the two gangs rendezvous in the park. Conrad Brooks has a central role as a gleefully violent thug. Ed Wood plays two parts: a switchblade-wielding crime boss and a female robber. Mona McKinnon also turns up as a gun moll (or knife moll, if you will). Conrad's brother, Henry Bederski, has a memorable cameo as the aforementioned ice cream salesman.
There is a striking visual difference between these two transfers of the Hellborn footage. Neither one, it must be said, is in great shape. The source footage, much like that of Range Revenge, is alternately underlit and overexposed. Perhaps Ed's camerawork was faulty or the footage was poorly preserved. The 1993 transfer is rather dark and murky, but there's a reassuring, homogeneous smoothness to the images. In contrast, the 2017 version is considerably brighter but also quite a bit grainier, giving it a scratchy, speckled appearance.
As seen in Hellborn (sort of): Atlas Batteries and RPM Lubrication.
When I was performing the side-by-side comparison described above, my eyes initially preferred the dark-but-smooth 1993 version. But ultimately, the Vinegar Syndrome version won the day because it was sharper and revealed more background details. For instance, when the girl gang robs the ice cream joint, there's an oval-shaped neon sign in the window that reads "OPEN ICE CREAM." In the 1993 edition, this is just an indistinct ovular blob, but it's clear as day in the 2017 edition. Similarly, during the famous sequence in which Ed Wood (in full drag) robs a service station, there are signs advertising "ATLAS BATTERIES" and "RPM LUBRICATION" in the background. They're visible in both versions, but they're only legible in the 2017 version.
Another point in favor of the 2017 version is its soundtrack. The surviving footage for Hellborn is totally silent. One wonders what Ed Wood's plan would have been for completing the film. Stock music? Narration? Post-dubbed dialogue? It's a moot point, since the project was abandoned. The Cult Movies version from 1993 adds some tinny, lackluster synthesizer music to Ed's flickering, soundless footage. The score has a very distinct '80s/'90s sound and doesn't really match the footage at all. Meanwhile, Vinegar Syndrome chose to underscore Hellborn with some rambunctious 1950s rock music driven by saxophone, drums, and guitar. There's a snarling version of "Malagueña" that I especially enjoyed. If Hellborn's juvenile delinquent characters had been real, these are the records they might well have listened to!
I remain skeptical that Hellborn is a "lost masterpiece" or that it's of particular interest to anyone other than Wood completists. But, if you want it, it's out there to be found. In multiple places, no less!
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Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 211: The incredible artwork of Shenandoah See (and my total failure as an Ed Wood fan)

I think this piece captures something essential about Tor Johnson.
In August 2021, I did what I had hoped never to do again: I returned to full-time office work. It seemed like my only option, since my freelance writing career was truly dead by then. I couldn't sell any articles to editors, at least not enough to cover my monthly expenses, and Dad Made Dirty Movies: The Erotic World of Stephen C. Apostolof (2020), the book I'd authored with Jordan Todorov, wasn't exactly opening a lot of doors. Meanwhile, I needed medical insurance and a reliable source of rent money. It was time to go back to the only life I'd ever known.
Turns out, cubicle jobs like the ones I'd had in the '90s and '00s weren't as common in the 2020s—especially after the pandemic—but I found a reliable (if low-paying) position at a mortgage company and have stayed there for over three years. Since then, free time has become my most precious commodity, maybe the only thing I really treasure anymore. Every second away from that office is golden, even if I'm spending it in traffic or waiting in a checkout line.
Since time is my most/only valuable asset, I have to decide how to spend it wisely. Maintaining this blog is one of my main hobbies, but it's not the only one. Believe it or not, I have a life beyond Ed Wood. Since 2018, for instance, I have cohosted a podcast called These Days Are Ours that requires many hours of research and editing. I'm also a member of the Glenview Concert Band, an ensemble that rehearses and performs regularly. So I have at least three sirens calling out to me. But there is a fourth that outranks the others: the urge to do nothing at all. Often, when I drag myself home from work, all I want to do is stare blankly at the TV for a couple of hours and then crawl into bed without accomplishing a single thing.
I feel guilty about all this, because earnest, well-meaning people continue to email me with questions, comments, and suggestions—pretty much all of it related to Ed Wood. To be honest, I've barely skimmed most of this material. In many cases, these fine folks are working on books and documentaries of their own, and they want my input or participation. If I respond at all, it's usually something like, "Sounds interesting!" or "Keep me posted!" Some help I am, huh? 
One of the people emailing me lately is a talented writer and artist named Shenandoah See . Even though I have been shamefully lax in responding to his emails, he graciously said I could share some of his work however I see fit. This is how I see fit. Here is a little gallery of Shenandoah's work. I genuinely hope you enjoy it.
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Podcast Tuesday: "Fonzie Circumnavigates His Own Cool"

Ralph (Don Most) screams at God from inside a loving cup.
Due to a lack of time and money, I travel very rarely these days. The last time I even left the state of Illinois was in 2023, when I visited relatives in Indiana for Christmas. And that's just one state over! But it's probably for the best that I stay put. I am, to be frank, not good at traveling. Everything about it discombobulates me. I also dislike being confined to any mode of transportation, like a train or a car, for an extended period of time. I start to feel confined and claustrophobic. I don't know how people deal with those monstrously long flights to Australia or New Zealand. I'd lose my mind.
Fortunately, there are plenty of domestic and international travelers who post about their adventures online, and I can live vicariously through them without having to go through customs. There are also numerous movies and TV shows about this topic, including the episode of The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang that we're reviewing this week on our podcast. In "Around the World in 80 Ways," which originally aired in November 1981, Fonzie (Henry Winkler) and his companions have to win a race around the globe so that they can claim a solid gold loving cup that happens to contain their time machine, which has been shrunk down to the size of a toy. How did the time machine get in there? Does it really matter? What matters is that Fonzie and friends visit New York, Paris, Shanghai, and more.
But does that equal a good half hour of television? Only one way to find out: listen to the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast .
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Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 210: Flame of Islam (1953)

Ed Wood's Flame of Islam has apparently been located under the name Cleopatra Follies.
For a raging alcoholic with an unpredictable-at-best career, Ed Wood did an admirable job of keeping track of his numerous film and writing credits. From at least the early 1950s to the late 1970s, the optimistic Eddie kept updating his résumé in the hopes of scoring future work. Happily, some of his résumés have survived and have made it into the hands of fans and scholars. Bob Blackburn, for instance, has used these documents to track down various short stories and magazine articles Eddie wrote in the 1960s and '70s.
An article mentioning Flame of Islam.One title that has long intrigued me is a film called Flame of Islam (1953) that Eddie claimed to have written, but not directed, when he was still fairly new to the motion picture industry. What could such a film be about? Would it have anything to do with the Islamic faith? Would it be controversial by today's standards? I despaired of ever finding this incredibly obscure movie until January 2015 , when reader Douglas North informed me that Islam was likely an early '50s burlesque short featuring dancer Shirley "The Pussycat Girl" Hayes. According to a Billboard article from 1953, Islam was just one of two "three-dimension pix" that Shirley had made, along with something called Murder in Paris.
It's now January 2025, a full decade later, and I can now report that I have finally seen Flame of Islam under the admittedly-less-intriguing title Cleopatra Follies. The film is indeed a three-dimensional burlesque short featuring Shirley Hayes, along with Zabuda and Paula French, and it has been preserved shockingly well over the course of 70-plus years. My opportunity to see this strange film came through a Kickstarter-backed Blu-ray of Arch Oboler's Domo Arigato (1973), a movie I'd never even heard of. Cleopatra is included as a bonus feature on the disc.
So what do we get here? Well, as presented on this Blu-ray, the film starts with a lengthy, somber onscreen caption describing its provenance and current condition:

FLAME OF ISLAM was the first of five burlesque shorts presented in anaglyphic 3-D by Oakland and San Francisco burlesque theater magnate, Harry A. Farros. Photographed in Los Angeles circa May 1953, the title was changed to CLEOPATRA FOLLIES shortly before release on August 8, 1953. While working with George Weiss at Screen Classics in the spring of 1953, Edward D. Wood, Jr. wrote the script for this 3-D film under the title FLAME OF ISLAM. Wood lists it in a resume that he circulated around that time and we are grateful to Brendon Sibley for providing this information. 

3-D Film archive founder Bob Furmanek discovered the original left/right 35mm elements for CLEOPATRA FOLLIES at the shuttered Movielab Film Laboratories in Hollywood circa 1985. Despite our best efforts, we were not able to secure the material and it's likely they were junked with other orphaned film elements. Fortunately, we recently acquired a very faded 35mm anaglyphic print. Thanks to advanced digital techniques developed by 3DFA Technical Director Greg Kintz, we have been able to extract the original left/right data. Due to this severe fade, some baked-in ghosting on the left eye element remains.

Despite all this hand-wringing and disclaiming, the film actually looks quite good, probably sharper and clearer than it did in 1953. 
What stands out here, literally and figuratively, are the three-dimensional effects. After the opening disclaimer ends, Cleopatra Follies runs about ten minutes and showcases three separate dancers, each performing in what looks like the spacious courtyard of a large California home. There are vases in the foreground and archways in the background, and these objects really lend a sense of depth to the image. The dancers themselves occasionally add to the effect by extending their arms toward the audience. And when they walk around, it's almost as if they're walking off the screen into your lap. Imagine Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) watching that fateful hologram of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in Star Wars (1977).
The film's opening credits are simplicity itself: "Harry A. Farros presents Cleopatra Follies. Copyright MCMIII. Broadway Roadshow Productions ." No surprises there. Ed Wood's involvement in this project was limited to the film's script. Apparently, he was given some already-completed footage of the three dancers and asked to write some narration for it. In retrospect, this assignment was not unlike his later work for Bernie and Noel Bloom, writing photo captions for adult magazines and subtitles for porno loops. Only here, the women keep their clothes on.
Burlesque dancer Zabuda.The first dancer to appear in the film is the raven-haired Zabuda (aka Gloria Robles), clad in the kind of scanty, diaphanous costume that we might imagine a harem girl wearing in an old movie set in the desert. Here's what the narration says about her: "May we present Zabuda in an Oriental specialty entitled Slave to the Sultan!" That's it. These exotic dance routines were Zabuda's specialty in the 1950s, and she took particular pride in her graceful arm movements. It is her routine, vaguely evocative of the Middle East, that gives this film its now-startling title. It's my guess that the name Flame of Islam was meant to suggest the mystery and intrigue of a faraway land, not to refer to any religion. I know that seems weird to us now, but keep in mind that this movie was made over 70 years ago. Anyway, Zabuda's routine, like those of the other two dancers, is underscored with generic jazz.
Next up is a slim brunette named Paula French. I suppose she was a West Coast burlesque star of the era, too, but almost everything I can find about her online is related to this specific film. When I searched through an archive of vintage newspapers, I found a few ads for Paula's nightclub appearances in North Hollywood and Van Nuys, dating from about 1954 to 1957. Someone named Paula French turns up in Sacramento in 1967, selling "home furnishings," but I don't know if its our gal. Here's what our narrator tells us about her in Cleopatra Follies: "The Gold Coast of California is the natural habitat of pretty girls, and one of the tops is Paula French in her interpretation of Exotic Mood." (It might be "Exotic Moon" or "Exotic Moods," but the audio cuts off. The narrator also pronounces "habitat" as "habi-tot.") Paula has shorter hair than Zabuda, and her dance is filmed in what seems to be a different part of the same courtyard.
The third and final performer in Cleopatra Follies is the aforementioned Shirley Hayes , the red-headed dancer that Douglas North mentioned to me ten years ago. If Zabuda's gimmick was evoking the Middle East, Shirley's gimmick was imitating a cat by wearing a whiskered mask and prowling the stage in a feline sort of way. "And now for your pleasure," says our deep-voiced narrator (not Ed, by the way), "we bring you the firebrand from New Orleans, Shirley Hayes, in an unusual creation, The Pussycat Girl." Shirley then does her signature routine for a few minutes, still accompanied by anonymous jazz. She does remove her mask before the short ends, allowing us to see her entire face. The "Pussycat Girl" sequence has the same backdrop as the "Slave to the Sultan" sequence, including the same vases.
Overall, with its lengthy wordless passages and its bevy of sexy dancing girls writhing for our enjoyment, Cleopatra Follies reminded me a great deal of Orgy of the Dead (1965) and the burlesque sequences in Glen or Glenda (1953). The Wood content amounts to a mere 61 words of narration. Is this film essential to our understanding of Edward D. Wood, Jr.? Hardly. But it's a neat curio and a valuable souvenir of a long-gone era of "adult" entertainment.
Some images related to the film have been posted here .
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Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 209: Ed and Bela ring in the new year

This kid knows how to have a good time, obviously.
Is New Year's Eve a big deal for you? It isn't for me. Neither is New Year's Day, though I'm happy to get some time off work for it. I've just never been big on celebrating the start of another year or lamenting the end of the previous one. Neither one means a thing to me.
Maybe it's because I don't drink. But you know who did? Edward D. Wood, Jr. I'm sure Eddie had a few eventful December 31sts along the way. Somehow, though, the holiday doesn't play a major role in his films or his writing as far as I can tell. The one major exception that comes to mind is an anecdote Ed included in his posthumously-published manifesto Hollywood Rat Race (1998). Today, I thought I'd share that anecdote in its entirety.
A little context: It's December 1953, and Eddie is trying to revive the career of his friend, actor Bela Lugosi. Putting the frail, 71-year-old actor in a play would be too demanding, Ed decides, so the best strategy will be for Bela to make personal appearances and meet his fans. But where? Well, I think I'll let Eddie take over the story from here.
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Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 208: A look back at the year in Ed Wood

There was a lot of Ed Wood in 2024. Too much, perhaps?
In his career-spanning book Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play (1995), author Ben Watson astutely observes that "1984 was a bamboozling year for Zappa consumers: The Perfect Stranger, Francesco, the triple-box Thing-Fish and then, as if that was not enough, a full-scale double rock album of new tunes, Them Or Us." 
Ed Wood consumers could relate, as 2024 was a bamboozling year for them too. This was the 100th anniversary of Eddie's birth in Poughkeepsie, NY, and it seemed to inspire a torrent of releases and rereleases. Fans could barely keep up. And by "fans," I mean me.
Ed Wood's Saving GraceLet's first talk about the books. God, there were so many! For quite a while, Rudolph Grey's Nightmare of Ecstasy (1992) stood alone as the only full-length book about Edward D. Wood, Jr. Now, Woodology is practically a literary subgenre unto itself. This year gave us a few more entries.Bob Blackburn released Kathy Wood and I: How I Fell Down the Ed Wood, Jr. Rabbit Hole  (BearManor Media), an affectionate, meandering memoir in which he describes his unlikely friendship with Eddie's loyal widow during the final years of her life. My review is here .Meanwhile, Angel Scott released the highly unusual Drown the Devil: A Spiritual Biography of Ed Wood (BearManor Media), a religious-minded volume that I will review in the near future on this blog. Kurt McCoy edited a colorful anthology of Wood-inspired short stories entitled Warm Angora Wishes and Rubber Octopus Dreams (Arcane Shadows Press). I reviewed all the pieces in this collection individually,  one story at a time over the course of two months . This was probably my biggest Wood-related project of 2024.Dennis Smithers, Jr. oversaw a new edition of Ed's long-lost 1975 novel Saving Grace. The late Greg Javer and I discussed this incredibly intriguing book on a podcast in 2021 .Will Sloan announced his upcoming book Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA (OR Books), due in June 2025. It promises to be a wide-ranging critical study that includes Ed's movies as well as his novels and other written works.I should also mention Fred Olen Ray's wonderfully goofy horror novel  Deep Red (Retromedia Press), based on an unproduced screenplay Fred cowrote with a drunken, dying Eddie in the late 1970s. Fred's book came out in 2023, but I didn't find out about it until 2024. Ed Wood fans, you have your reading list for the next six months. Or more. You'd think that would have been enough for me, but this was also the year that I purchased a stack of vintage Ed Wood paperbacks from a seller on Facebook.
Has Flame of Islam been found?And that's not even half the story! There were some significant home video releases in 2024 as well, all of them on Blu-ray. I guess the era of affordable, accessible DVDs has ended. Oh well. It was nice while it lasted. Here are the titles I added to my collection within the last 12 months.In May 2024, a specialty label called Gold Ninja Video , which bills itself as the "Criterion of Public Domain Bargain Bins," released a two-disc limited edition of Ed Wood's Revenge of the Dead (1959). This is a movie we already know well under the rerelease title Night of the Ghouls but this edition includes the original credits, plus a slew of supplements and commentary tracks. Also included in this set are transfers of Jail Bait (1954), Final Curtain (1957), and (if you go snooping) The Sinister Urge (1960). There are also numerous extras related to actor Paul Marco, who portrays Kelton in the film, as the folks at Gold Ninja are big fans of his. Unfortunately, this seems to have vanished from the market shortly after its release. If you don't already own it, good luck finding it on auction sites.Arguably the biggest Ed Wood home release of the year was Severin's Hard Wood: The Adult Features of Ed Wood . This is a three-disc set containing new—and, in some cases, drastically improved—scans of Necromania (1971), The Only House in Town (1970), The Young Marrieds (1972), and Shotgun Wedding (1963), plus some of Ed's adult loops from the 1970s. Again, there are numerous commentary tracks, some featuring the late, great Greg Javer, plus various featurettes. This is arguably the most ambitious Ed Wood home video release since Big Box of Wood (2011). I only regret that Greg passed away so shortly after its release and that we couldn't go through the contents of this set together. Unlike Revenge of the Dead, this collection is still available .Just this week, I received a disc from BayView Entertainment and The 3D Film Archive containing a new transfer of Arch Oboler's forgotten feature Domo Arigato (1973) , which I'd describe as a cross between a romantic drama and a travelogue of Japan. The dramatic parts are middling at best, while the travelogue parts are often spectacular, making excellent use of the 3D "Space Vision" gimmick. My interest in this particular disc is that it also contains a short film alleged to be Ed Wood's long-lost Flame of Islam under the title Cleopatra Follies (1953). It's extremely tame burlesque footage, including rather listless performances by Paula French and Shirley "The Pussycat Girl" Hayes, but the 3D effects are again quite impressive. Eddie's involvement was supposedly limited to writing the (sparse) voiceover narration.As a result of all these releases, I definitely exceeded my "Ed Wood budget" for 2024. Bob sent me a complimentary copy of Kathy Wood and I, but the other books and discs I got were ones I'd paid for out of my extremely meager salary. Oh well. Who needs such trivialities as food and rent when you can have Necromania on Blu-ray? 
Before 2024 comes to a close, we must remark on the times Eddie made the news this year. As I mentioned earlier, October 10, 2024 would have been Eddie's 100th birthday. This year is also the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994). So, as you might guess, there were screenings of that film as well as Ed's most famous 1950s films in theaters across the country in October, especially in his home state of New York and his adopted home of California. It's wonderful that Ed's birthday happens to fall during "spooky season," as does the birthday of his most famous star, Bela Lugosi.
While I was not able to attend these screenings in person, I did attend one virtually via Zoom and even got to host a Q&A after a screening of Ed Wood in the Poughkeepsie, NY area. Not long afterward, this same town saw fit to designate Ed Wood's childhood home as an official historical site , complete with its own marker. This recognition came about because of the efforts of some high schoolers in the area who cited this very blog as one of their sources! It does my heart good to know that Greg was aware of all this before his passing.
Look, I'd love to say that 2024 was a banner year in Woodology. In a lot of ways, it was—the 100th birthday, the books, the Blu-rays, the historical marker. That was all great, and it's nice that Ed Wood and his career are still generating such interest well into the 21st century. But Greg's death casts a pall over the entire year. A lot of the books, articles, and films I reviewed for this series were only available to me because Greg had sent them. Where we go from here, I don't know. I'm still regrouping. We'll figure this out, week by week. In the meantime, I hope you and yours are enjoying the holiday season.
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2024 Comics Fun Advent Calendar, Day 24: And, unto us, a Superman is born!

Yeah, he has super vision but not in the back of his head!
We all know that Superman is Jesus, right? So much has already been written about the parallels between the Lamb of God and the Man of Steel that I don't really have to rehash it all for you here. Suffice it to say, many people have seen the Superman mythos as a Christian allegory, even though the character's creators (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) are Jewish. I've gotta admit, the theory makes sense. John and Martha Kent, for instance, make pretty plausible stand-ins for Joseph and Mary. Superman even died and came back to life, just like Whatshisname.
Anyway, I couldn't think of a better way of ending this 2024 Comics Fun Advent Calendar that a whole bunch of Superman parodies, again mostly drawn from Comics Outta Context. Enjoy and have a lovely holiday season! var infolinks_pid = 3415273; var infolinks_wsid = 0;

2024 Comics Fun Advent Calendar, Day 23: Even more Batman ones

"No jellybeans? But isn't this Easter Island?"
Batman. The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The World's Greatest Detective. Whatever you may call him, he's been appearing in comics since 1939 and has crossed over to every possible medium since then. After so many decades of TV shows, movies, video games, and merchandise, is there anything left to say about this character? Probably not. But that hasn't stopped me from trying. I have a bunch of old, unposted Batman comics and cartoons left over on my computer, so I thought we'd just blitz through all of them in one post.
Ready? Then let's proceed. You wanna get nuts? Come on! Let's get nuts! var infolinks_pid = 3415273; var infolinks_wsid = 0;