How bad is It? It remains the worst-made film of all time.
Should you see it? Absolutely.
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| I don't recall this scene. Do I have to watch it again? |
Ed Wood wrote hundreds of stories for pulp magazines, any of which he was willing to make into a screenplay if convenient. He'd written one about a transvestite, a subject he had some interest in, as he sometimes dressed in women's clothing (he reportedly once told someone that he's worn women's underwear under his military uniform, but there's no way to prove that). When the world's first sex change operation happened in Denmark, Wood decided that the world needed a film about it immediately and adapted his unrelated story to fit - well, not "fit" exactly, but do; others made similar films, from "The Christine Jorgensen story" to Doris Wishman's much later "Let Me Die a Woman."
Bela Lugosi, seated in what looks like the world's worst tiki bar, filled with skulls and shrunken heads, narrates. He narrates stock footage: "All those cars. All going somewhere. All carrying people." Well, yeah. He narrates nonsense: "Dance to the music for which you were made!" He narrates more nonsense about dragons eating little boys. There's stock footage galore and in some prints, what looks like a bondage scene from an Irving Klaw film.
Wood himself plays Glen, who has to tell his wife he likes to cross-dress; they pick out a nice angora sweater for him. Another couple has to deal with the man's desire to become a woman. The conversations are circular and filled with non-sequiturs, when they deal with anything at all.
It's impossible to tell what Wood was trying to do with this film, but some of the laughs are truly shocking. My favorite happens when talking about sex reassignment surgery and they show footage of metal coming out of a furnace and getting lopped off! Nothing suggestive there!
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