"Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams?"
- Orson Welles in Ed Wood (1994)
In honor of the announcement of the re-make of Ed Wood’s cinematic magnum opus, Plan 9 From Outer Space, I thought that I’d take another look at Tim Burton’s biopic of the late director. This has been one of my favorite movies for a long time and while strictly a horror movie, I believe it fits nicely on our site.
Ed Wood is the story of… Ed Wood. The film starts on a rainy night where Ed, a writer and director for stage plays, arrives a little late for his latest play’s premiere. The turnout is… not so good. Later, the play’s reviews are lukewarm at best, outside of a remark regarding how realistic the uniforms looked. We see Ed at a day job delivering plants around the movie studio lot. At one delivery spot he overhears some women discussing an announcement of a movie about Christene Jorgenson, a man who had a sex change operation. Mr. Wood then decides he himself is the most uniquely skilled to direct the film. Why? Ed’s a cross-dresser. Not gay, merely more comfortable wearing women’s clothing.
His interview with the producer at screen classics turns out rather poorly to put it politely, but on his way back home, he meets Bela Lugosi who’s trying out coffins to see how they fit:
"This one’s too constrictive!" the famous actor roars, "I can hardly fold my arms!"
This coincidental encounter starts out rocky, but when Ed proves able to give Lugosi a ride home it sparks a friendship that manages to put the unemployed former Hollywood icon back into the movies while launching Ed’s own film career.
The first time I saw this movie it blew me away. This was one of the first biographical films I’d ever seen that I genuinely enjoyed. The acting is all well done from Johnny Depp starring as Ed Wood to Geoffery Jones as pseudo-psychic Criswell to George "The Animal" Steele portraying pro wrestler-turned-actor Tor Johnson to Martin Landau’s Academy Award-winning portrayal of legendary Bela Lugosi. Lugosi is my all time favorite Dracula actor and it was fascinating seeing this almost final chapter of his life. Another part I liked was the glimpses behind the scenes of Ed Wood’s movie-making. He was most likely an originator of the guerilla style of filmmaking, filming at locations without permits. A similar director who came along later is Larry Cohen, the man who brought us such cult horror classics as The Stuff, The killer baby trilogy: It’s Alive and Q – The Winged Serpent, all of which are upcoming reviews right here on Happy Horror!
I give this movie a 5 out of 5 and welcome it into our archives with open arms. If anyone’s interested in how they made really-low-budget films before the days of straight to video (or indeed, before video at all!), then this is an excellent choice.
So, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
This one’s a little (read a LOT) late, but once I found out that he’d passed away, I knew I had to write a memorial. Bob Papenbrook was a voice actor (VA) whose voice you’d probably recognize, even if you didn’t actually know his name. He passed away on March 17, 2006 at the age of 50. He voiced, or acted, in 143 TV shows, movies and video games, though he was better known as a VA. I’d like to share some of my favorite memories of his work.
The first show that I remember his voice from was Power Rangers. He was the voice of Rito Revolto, Rita Repulsa’s brother. His character appeared at the beginning of the third season, bringing belated wedding gifts to Rita and "Ed" (as he constantly referred to Lord Zedd). His character was prominent throughout the season and in the finale of the season, he and Goldar snuck into the Command Center to plant the bomb which destroyed it, paving the way for the new Power Chamber in the Zeo season.
Over the years of the series he voiced several of the different Monsters-of-the-Day until Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, where he once again stepped into the spotlight as Deviot. In this role, the character lived up to his name as a devious, conniving backstabber who looked out for his own interests above others. He was obsessed with gaining power over the villains and to that end, entering the cocoon that Scorpius had created for his daughter, Trakeena. In the end, Deviot and Trakeena merged into an insane being that looked like Trakeena, but had elements of Deviot in her, as well. Mr. Papenbrook did an excellent job with Deviot’s voice.
"No one gets by here! Absolutely no one! Come on! This bridge belongs to me and the toll for passage is death!"
Also in 2005, he leant his voice to the character Parsec in the game Radiata Stories. Again letting his comedic talents show, Parsec was a character who appeared a couple of times during Jack’s quest, always with a lit match in his teeth. When Jack demands that Parsec pay him for helping him, Parsec gives him a stack of bills… with Parsec’s own face on them! Sadly, Parsec’s fate doesn’t see him to the end of the game.
The last role I want to bring up is a more sinister one, the voice of Copperfield in Ties that Bind, the second Suffering game. Here, he played the role of a ghostly slave hunter whose dogs were reborn as the Maulers that you fight periodically in the game. Throughout the game, he appears, making choice comments about the past and your plight. In the end, you have a possibility of fighting him, depending on your actions during the game.
I hope that you enjoyed this retrospective on a great voice actor. His son, Bryce, has followed in his footsteps, as well. While not as prolific as his father yet, he has been in a handful of shows, and had the starring role in Radiata Stories as Jack Russell. Well, this is about all from my side of the computer. I apologize for the drought of new articles coming out, I’ve just hit a little bit of a slump, but I have some things planned for the coming weeks. So, take care of yourself! Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
We bring you sad news, this morning. Actor/comedian Harvey Korman has passed away, due to medical complications, at the age of 81.
You may have known Mr. Korman through his work in comedies such as Blazing Saddles, The Carol Burnette Show and The Pink Panther. Audiences enjoyed his work for decades so he will surely be missed.
Harvey Korman also contributed to the horror genre in his own way, particularly horror comedy. From episodes of The Munsters to Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Mr. Korman always brought his own style to the table.
I realize this is neither horror nor tokusatsu-oriented, but I wanted to mention it. I was saddened today to find out that one of my favorite wrestlers passed away recently. John Tenta, a man known more commonly in the United States as Earthquake, Golga, Avalanche or Shark, lost his long-time battle with stomach cancer. He was a great man, and will definitely be missed.
Looking back, I can vaguely remember when he was first introduced on the shows. He was brought in as back-up for Dino Bravo and was known, at first, as "The Canadian Earthquake". Of course, being partners with Dino Bravo didn’t help at that year’s Royal Rumble. When he was in the ring, almost everyone in the ring, good guy or bad, teamed up to get him tossed out. Dino rushed to his rescue, but he accidentally added the momentum to eliminate Quake from the match. That’s not all, though, there was more to come for Earthquake…
As he continued in the WWE, he had a big feud with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, which led to the "squashing" of Damien (Jake’s pet snake) and Earthquake’s giving away Quakeburgers on the next Prime Time Wrestling. Antics like that led to him winning the Most Hated Wrestler award in 1990. He went on to have a major feud with Hulk Hogan, as well, even turning Hogan’s best friend Tugboat against him to become Typhoon. Earthquake and Typhoon went on to form the team known as the Natural Disasters. Shortly after this, they became good guys.
Shortly after THAT, they left for WCW. I didn’t see much, if any, of his WCW tenure. I know that, because of the WWF owning the rights to the Earthquake name, he went by Avalanche there and then later, the Shark, when he joined the Dungeon of Doom. After that, he returned to the WWF as a good guy again, facing Yokozuna in a sumo match. He left the WWF shortly after that and years later he returned under the name Golga as a member of the Oddities group. I had fun watching him as Golga, it looked like all the members of the Oddities group had fun with their gimmicks. The last time I saw him in action was at Wrestlemania X-7, in the gimmick battle royale, which was one of my favorite events in a long time.
In addition to his wrestling career, he also was good friends with Randy Baer, aka RD Reynolds of the website WrestleCrap, even writing the foreword for RD’s first book. He also ran a wrestling school in Florida, where he lived until his passing. My biggest regret is that I never sent a get-well message of my own to him over the WrestleCrap forum, where he was a frequent poster. I wish now that I had overcome my shyness and at least sent him a message.
A while back we re-ran an article from 2006 (which you can find by clicking: THIS LINK) where I reflected upon the life and career of the venerated sentai actress Machiko Soga who had recently passed away. In that article I had linked to a YouTube video that featured her singing, but that link no longer lead to a valid video. So, I went on the prowl and managed to scare up a new one that I’d like to share with you all.
