Ed Wood Wednesdays: Crossroads of West Pico (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)

Ed Wood associate Don Nagel (pictured, lower right) figures in this sordid story.
FADE IN:
EXT. CITY - NIGHT.

A montage of nighttime scenes showing the hustle and bustle of life in the big city. Cars and trucks rushing about. Lit up storefronts casting their ruddy glow out into the night. And everywhere people. People... all going somewhere... all with their own thoughts... their own ideas... all with their own personalities.

DISSOLVE TO MEDIUM SHOT OF CRISWELL

We see CRISWELL, wearing a dark suit and evening coat, standing in profile to the camera as he browses through magazines at a news kiosk. Holding the most recent issue of Weird Tales, he turns and looks straight into the camera.
                                                            CRISWELL
                            I am Criswell. For years, I have told the almost
                            unbelievable, related the unreal and showed it
                            to be more than a fact. Now I tell a tale of the
                            entertainment industry, so astounding that some of
                            you may faint. This is a story of those in the twilight
                            time. Once human, now actors, in a void between
                            the employed and the unemployed. Actors to be
                            pitied, actors to be despised. A night with the
                            thespians, the thespians reborn from the innermost
                            depths of Hollywood.

MONOLOGUE CONTINUES AS CAMERA CUTS TO FULL MOON STOCK FOOTAGE, WOLF HOWLS

                                                            CRISWELL (Voice Over)
                            It is said on clear nights, beneath the cold light of the
                            moon, howl the dog and the wolf, and creeping things
                            crawl out of the slime. It is then that thespians cavort
                            in all their radiance.
                            My friends, it is 10 PM on the evening of March 15, 1949
                            and a full moon is overhead as we stand on West Pico
                            Blvd in Los Angeles. Two young men – marginally employed
                            actors and friends since high school – are moments away
                            from a date with destiny. If I am not pleased with tonight's
                            entertainment, I shall banish their souls to everlasting
                            damnation!
TITLE MUSIC BEGINS