Note: this review is a contribution to the Accidentally Hilarious Blogathon hosted by the great folks over at Movies Silently. A blogathon of unintentional humor in classic film.
Night of the Ghouls (Edward D. Wood, Jr., 1959)
The sequel to Ed Wood's infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space, Night of the Ghouls presents the story of a phony medium called Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan), okay they had me right there
with the opening credits and the name of this character, trying to rob poor people that try to reach to their dead relatives. Mixed with that a weird cop story of an inspector (Johnny Carpenter), too swell to be a policeman, the lieutenant (Duke Moore), and one of the most laughable cop I've ever watched on the silver screen Patrolman Kelton (Paul Marco). Regular like Tor Johnson playing a monster full of scars and Valda Hansen playing the white ghost with her funny finger moves.
with the opening credits and the name of this character, trying to rob poor people that try to reach to their dead relatives. Mixed with that a weird cop story of an inspector (Johnny Carpenter), too swell to be a policeman, the lieutenant (Duke Moore), and one of the most laughable cop I've ever watched on the silver screen Patrolman Kelton (Paul Marco). Regular like Tor Johnson playing a monster full of scars and Valda Hansen playing the white ghost with her funny finger moves.
While the plot is sketchy at most and plays with elements of Wood's fascinations: cops, Horror movie themes, and a dose of American mainstream movies. However, despite the bad story and the lesser than average acting, in fact Criswell who appears as himself on the screen is clearly reading his lines, the actors are left to themselves and I suspect lots of ad libbing or instant writing of the script, which sometimes isn't a bad thing.
With all that said, Wood is wrongly perceived as the worst director of all time. But let's take the facts and forget about the cult of mediocrity that comes with his films, Wood made films with almost no money in what we can call a hurry. He almost never made a second shot. For him the first shot was the best and let's face it, in life, we only have one shot. Sometimes it's whimsical and other times it's magic. The use of ad libbing in American films has been given to John Cassavetes and his masterful use of the learnings of the French New Wave and his auteurist vision. He is the grand father of Independent American Films. When you look at Wood, it is almost impossible to not make a comparison with Cassavetes, Wood was working like an Independent film director. He was less talented than Cassavetes but let's face it his heritage is considerable and despite having the label worst film ever or worst director his films are still watched today.
Wood also represents the Do it Yourself attitude of Punk Rockers of the 1960's recording their self taught music on home recorders.He was an autodidact and he managed to make it in this difficult business.
Nonetheless, Night of the Ghouls is a delight for any Wood fan out there and I don't like reviews that says you have to see it to understand but here it is quite true, Night of the Ghouls is so bad and cheesy that even if I described every scene in detail it wouldn't be as right as to watch the entire thing. The most obvious critical comment I would bring to the table of this review is how the story goes everywhere and nowhere. There are so many elements of no importance that are highlighted and such bold screenwriting that the term camp is too toned down.
This is the second time a Blogathon led me visit a Ed Wood film and I must admit having great joy at gazing those movies and even more pleasure writing about them. Wood's films are like the memories of old Horror films that we've seen on TV and that leaves a weird feeling of familiarity and dreamlike state. Even with low standards and a real sense of amateurism Ed Wood remains a mysterious and interesting phenomenon.
