MovieChat Forums > Glen or Glenda Discussion > Can Editing Be Funny? Sure!

Can Editing Be Funny? Sure!

posted 17 years ago by buffalonemo
12 replies | jump to latest

Let me start out by saying that I loved Ed Wood Movies. But this one has the only example of editing that caused me to laugh out loud.

When Lyle Talbot reads the suicide note, that we hear as a voice over by the dead character, there is a sudden cut to a radiator. A radiator? Huh? Then the shot returns to the “action”. Why? I dunno! My personal thoery is that Ed wanted to show the method of suicide he planned to cut o an oven, but since none was on the set, a radiator did very nicely thank you.

Maybe Ed thought you killed yourself with an oven by bakeing your brain. Hey, a heat source is a heat source.

[–] Zooluu 17 years ago

I just watched this movie again, and thought the very same thing! The knob on the radiator appeared to be missing, so this was the method of suicide? Steamed to death! LOL, it was funny!

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 17 years ago

Not as funny as it was spiritually enticing.

Nothing exists more beautifully than nothing.

[–] bok602 17 years ago

Well, it could have caused death.

Have you ever seen a drag queen out on a humid day? All that steam from the radiator would have ruined her hair and sent her into cosmetic fits.

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

[–] bok602 17 years ago

Actually, until you brought it up, I always assumed -as in other old movies- the victim gassed himself---until you pointed out it was a steam radiator.

Maybe Ed was hoping the audience would just see a radiator and take the hint the way I did -as visual shorthand for the manner of suicide in old movies; and completely overlook the fact that it wasn't a gas radiator.

Also, there was a stove available for the set, as we see one twice in the various other kitchen sets Ed used..

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

[–] martn2420 17 years ago

Could this be what inspired David Lynch to make Eraserhead?

You spoony bard!

[–] haewatein 16 years ago

I'm sure of it!

_____________________
--- BE TROLL 2!!! ---

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sambuca 16 years ago

I must have missed that scene. What part of the movie was it in?

-Goodnight, mother of six!
-Goodnight, father of two!

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Zooluu 15 years ago

What do you know? Haven't you heard of suspension of disbelief?......
Ed Wood

[–] et18 14 years ago

it was probably a gas heater so turn it up high and you inhale and it can kill you!

[–] franzkabuki 12 years ago

Maybe it was supposed to be foreshadowing The Radiator Lady in Eraserhead. Just as Bela Lugosi´s character seemed to anticipate Eraserhead´s Man In The Planet.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan