Horror History: Ed Wood (1994)

Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood” is a masterful tribute to the misunderstood passion of one of cinema’s most infamous directors.

I admit I didn’t know who Ed Wood was when I first saw Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic. But after seeing it, I had to know more about the man.

Ed Wood is one of Tim Burton’s best films. Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Wood as a quirky, wide-eyed dreamer and incurable optimist is endearing, to say the least. Martin Landau plays horror icon Bela Lugosi with a comedic twist. And, of course, who can forget Bill Murray as Bunny Breckenridge?

With Ed Wood, Burton produced a unique biopic that, like its subject, Edward D. Wood Jr., is in a class by itself.

Filmed in black and white to capture the era in which Edward D. Wood Jr. lived and worked, the film follows Wood’s relentless pursuit of making very low-budget movies. The movie depicts a director’s unyielding drive to create horror and sci-fi films. While no one else around him takes him seriously, he does. As everyone else dismisses his work as crap, each film is a gem, a masterpiece in his eyes. He’ll stop at nothing to get funding or complete a movie, including casting a producer’s son as the hero and incorporating an explosion at the end at the producer’s request.

While Ed Wood received critical acclaim, it was a box office flop, earning only $13.8 million against an $18 million budget. The film earned two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Martin Landau and Best Makeup for Rick Baker, Ve Neill, and Yolanda Toussieng.

Based on the book Nightmare of Ecstasy by Rudolph Grey, the screenplay was written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski in six weeks. Alexander and Karaszewski were students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Inspired by Wood’s story, they saw it as a chance to break away from their family-friendly film reputation.

Nightmare of Ecstasy is a collection of interviews with Wood’s friends and letters he wrote to the studio.

Burton signed on to direct with no changes to the screenplay.

Burton was reportedly intrigued by Wood’s optimism. He really believed in his films and wrote to studio execs as if each one were a masterpiece.

Burton didn’t want to make a typical biopic. He decided that Wood needed to be portrayed as a dreamer in the relentless pursuit of success. This is exactly how Depp portrays Wood: as a dreamer who takes his work seriously, even in the face of adversity.

I recall the scene where Wood’s girlfriend, Dolores (Sarah Jessica Parker), loses her temper on set and screams, “These movies are terrible!” and walks off. As Depp portrays Wood, you can’t help but feel sorry for him. If you’ve ever had a creative project that you poured everything into and someone stomped on it, you know the feeling.

In an interesting side note, the real-life Dolores Fuller criticized Parker’s portrayal in the film. She described Parker’s portrayal as “bitter” and “argumentative.” In real life, Fuller was very supportive of Wood. She reportedly broke up with him due to his alcoholism.

While Fuller didn’t appreciate Parker’s performance, she certainly appreciated Depp’s. After seeing Depp in character on the set, dressed in feminine clothes, she said, “He looks just like Eddie!”

The main part of the narrative is Wood’s relationship with Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau). Wood idolized Lugosi in real life. While the friendship between the two was genuine, Wood also saw the relationship as an opportunity to capitalize on Lugosi’s name. The film also depicts Lugosi’s battle with morphine addiction. At the time, Lugosi was the first celebrity to go public with substance abuse issues.

Martin Landau won an Oscar for his brilliant, comedic portrayal of Lugosi.

However, Lugosi’s son pointed out that the movie’s depiction of his father wasn’t entirely accurate.

He said that his father never swore. Specifically, Landau’s Lugosi curses out fellow horror icon Boris Karloff any time Karloff is mentioned. This is another factual error—Lugosi harbored no anger towards Karloff in real life. In fact, both actors had a great deal of respect for each other. Nonetheless, Landau’s portrayal in those scenes is memorable, to say the least.

Film School Rejects reports that Landau hesitated to take the role. Many comedians he knew did impressions of Lugosi. Landau wanted to deliver a more nuanced performance, a mix of “sad and funny.” He wanted to avoid playing a caricature. While preparing for his Oscar-winning performance, Landau watched the film Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla three times. He was intrigued that Lugosi would participate in such a poorly made film.

Of course, as in any biopic, some events are embellished and fabricated, such as when Wood meets his second wife, Kathy O’Hara (Patricia Arquette). In the film, the two meet in the waiting room at the hospital where Lugosi is recovering. In real life, they meet at a bar one night when Wood is out drinking with Lugosi.

When Burton approached Depp to discuss the film in 1994, Depp was about ready to give up on acting.

Many sources reported that Depp was “depressed about making films and filmmaking.” Depp saw playing Ed Wood as a “chance to stretch out and have some fun,” and said that working with Martin Landau “rejuvenated my love for acting.”

Burton intentionally avoided extensive preparation for the movie, such as detailed shot planning or set ups, to achieve the spontaneous and unrefined aesthetic characteristic of Ed Wood’s films.

The film also depicts Ed Wood dressed in drag on the set, which was accurate. In order to prepare himself for wearing feminine attire, Depp wore slips during pre-production. Burton urged writers to handle the cross-dressing aspect carefully. His concern wasn’t about public reaction, but rather avoiding it becoming a farce or joke.

The writers described the film as “a cry for tolerance” and aimed to avoid sensationalizing the cross-dressing, unlike films such as Some Like It Hot.

In turn, Ed Wood introduced the director to a new generation of fans, thus rejuvenating interest in his work.

After I saw the movie, I wanted to watch Wood’s films and get to know more about him.

Looking through Tubi’s selections, there are plenty of low-budget horror and sci-fi movies that are “so bad it’s good” or just plain bad. After watching a low-budget film, I often wonder about its creator. Did they pour their heart into it? Was it a masterpiece in their mind? Did Wood’s story inspire them to realize their visions?

Ed Wood is an original and entertaining biopic that does more than just reenact the events of the subject’s life. It paints a picture of a relentless dreamer in pursuit of a goal. No amount of negative criticism deters him as he approaches each letdown with wide-eyed optimism.

Film School Rejects quotes Burton saying,

“The badness of [Wood’s films] was also part of what made them special and good. It was the first thing that made you realize there was a razor’s edge between something that was good and bad.”

In the end, Ed Wood realized his visions. In an intriguing twist of irony, if it weren’t for his unrelenting ambition, he never would have won the title of “Worst Director of All Time.” I look at it this way: his movies are preserved for posterity and are entertaining in their own way.

If you’re inclined to see the glass as half-full, if you can’t be known as the best, being known as the worst is something too, isn’t it? Besides, what some view as trash, others view it as treasure. I tend to fall under the latter category.