how much of this movie is true?
I know a lot about Ed Wood (Because i'm a movie nerd), but what in this movie is not true about the Ed Wood Story
shareThere are few things in this movie that are out and out fabrications, but most of the big whoppers involve Bela Lugosi:
- This movie would have you believe there was no one else in Lugosi's life when he died but Ed Wood, but Lugosi still had other friendships and was even married when he died. What the movie gets right is that Wood was the only person who tried to help Lugosi on a professional level.
- Lugosi was not released from drug treatment early, he made a full recovery and newsreel footage still exists of him leaving the hospital in great spirits. Having him kicked out early is taken from the fact that he was transferred from the original facility he entered to a different one midway due to insurance issues.
- Being a rather cultured European gentleman, Lugosi was not prone to fits of swearing. This is a comic device and supposedly Tim Burton minimized the amount of swearing from other characters to make Lugosi's funnier. Additionally, Lugosi rarely expressed any opinions about Boris Karloff, positive or negative.
There can be a lot of nitpicking done about the rest of the film, was there anything in particular you were wondering about?
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interesting. thx.
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Anyone interested in the Lugosi angle in Ed Wood should view the Criterion Collection edition of The Haunted Strangler with the commentary track on to hear Alex Gordon (brother of Richard Gordon, one of the producers of The Haunted Strangler) who knew and worked with both Lugosi and Karloff (and wrote the first script for what eventually became Ed Wood's Bride of The Monster and later discovered Wood's deficiencies as a director) tear up Burton's movie and its vile misrepresentation of Lugosi's language and that there was animosity between Lugosi and Karloff. Gordon describes Lugosi as a gentleman at all times who never in his presence used a four letter word nor ever expressed an unfavorable opinion about Karloff. Gordon was also not displeased that the movie that he describes as 99.5% fabrication did not do very well at the box office. It is a shameful liberty Burton took with the memory of an actor worthy of the respect of an accurate portrayal. The biggest difference between Tim Burton and either Lugosi or Karloff is not the quality of work, nor money but that the latter two were not self-centered jerks.
Up to now my biggest complaint about Burton has been the horrific literary vandalism he committed against Alice in Wonderland. This is smaller but more despicable offense.
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Reference points to Alex Gordon commentary in The Haunted Strangler.
13:30
Gordon has two scripts some time around 1953
The Atomic Monster with Karloff in mind
Dr. Voodoo with Lugosi in mind.
15:04
First mention of Ed Wood ("Eddie Wood") as co-re-writer on The Atomic Monster followed by various travails about one or two movies and production credits.
16:48
Karloff accepts the changes, willing to work with Lugosi based successful work in the past, and sympathetic to Lugosi's money problems. Lugosi is entirely cooperative by virtue of his professionalism as well as necessity.
18:54
Ed Wood back as producer (based on his claim he can find the money) for what became Bride of the Monster.
20:50
Karloff and Lugosi (also Lon Chaney Jr.) ready to go when the whole project evaporates.
21:29
Gordon's searing appraisal of the slanderous portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Burton's Ed Wood, and satisfying schadenfreude at its box office failure.
22:00
end of relevant section, returns to the main topic Boris Karloff.
CB
Good Times, Noodle Salad
Mr. Gordon is certainly entitled to his opinion, but I don't think that giving Lugosi some four-letter words destroys 99.5% of the accuracy.
It does seem, though, that that was a sore point for Bela Lugosi Jr as well. I can't necessarily defend the language, but it does have to be considered that Ed Wood is intended as a comedy first, biopic second.
I've always felt that on the whole Landau and Burton's interpretation of Lugosi is very respectful, and grants the man much more dignity than he was granted by many both while alive and by those assessing his career after his death.
What about count 2? Inversion of his actual relationship with Karloff.
CB
Good Times, Noodle Salad
Sort of the same thing. Ed Wood is a comedy, and that scene where he rants about Karloff is arguably the funniest scene in the film.
Lugosi in real life resented Karloff's luck, success and the privileges that he was granted more than the man personally. He might have not liked him, but as an old-school European gentleman he wouldn't have expressed that one way or another. I actually discussed these points just a few posts up in 2013.
It's funny you should mention Richard Gordon because I just saw him featured in a documentary about the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. In same documentary he refers to the 1938 Reginald Owen version as 'totally inaccurate' which is, to say the least, an exaggeration. It seems he just likes that kind of hyperbole.
But Bela Lugosi Jr did eventually see the film and loved it!! He claimed they were far more respectful than he expected.
Plus other people have claimed Bela did swear on occasions while others claim he didn't // but then we all swear in front of certain people and not others.
But the film wasn't meant to be a documentary, it was about the love of film making and friendships, this is why they skip other Edward's first marriage, a few of his other films and didn't make a huge issue about his cross-dressing.
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