Saturday, July 15, 2017

FINAL CURTAIN - Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1957)

 Tonight's Saturday Night Special was supposed to be a pilot episode for a projected anthology series titled "Portraits in Terror." It didn't happen!

 "Final Curtain" is a 20 minute Ed Wood film that was all but lost forever before being unearthed and restored by Jason Insalaco and Jonathan Harris in 2012!

 "Final Curtain" is an vaguely interesting piece of work! There are two actors with no speaking parts and a narrator, the IMDB describes the plot thusly......and I quote...
"After a horror play's final performance, The Vampire roams the theater." Yep, that's about it, but it's a must see for any real fans of  Ed Wood or film history in general!

 "Final Curtain" was filmed in it's entirety at Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica, Ca.

 There's never a whole lot going on in Ed Wood's full length features, so you just can't expect a lot out of 20 minutes, and that's just about what you'll get!

 Here's the "Final Curtain" itself!

 This is the "Final Curtain's" cousin, the always welcoming water cooler!

 James "Duke" Moore shows a lot of depth of character as 'The Actor!'
"Final Curtain" was the Dukester's first film with Eddie. He would go on to work with Ed in five more films including "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and "Night Of The Ghouls," 

 At first you think 'The Vampire" is a mannequin............

 .............Until she smiles!
Jeannie Stevens ( she used her stage name Jenny in this role) was only ever in one more movie, and that was Ed's "Night Of The Ghouls" as 'The Black Ghost!'

 The rest of the 20 minutes is padded with shots like this!!

Narrator Dudley Manlove, (What a great freakin' name) was also in "Plan 9" and was the only one of the three who branched out from Ed's troupe to be in two episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Creation Of The Humanoids," and a few other things!
Whether you are a big fan of Ed's or you can't stand his work really doesn't matter! The fact of the matter is that he did it, and has his place in history no matter what, and for that, he will always be a Dungeon hero!

1 comment:

Lord Litter said...

...looking at the screenshots..mmmhh..(yes I've seen this film months ago) ..again I see something that vaguely brings memories..of... David Lynch....the shots with no actors..and *The Vampire* .. (coming to think about it ..whose Eraserhead comes across a bit like a intellectual planned Ed Wood movie) ...yeh yeh yehh...LL

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