Ed Wood, named the worst director ever, got an Oscar-winning biopic

Ed Wood was an American director who made cheap horror and crime films after World War II, and in 1980 a book named him the worst director of all time. In 1994 Tim Burton, the filmmaker behind Beetlejuice and Batman, made Ed Wood, a biopic (a film about a real person's life), and it won two Academy Awards. Wood did not live to see it. He died in 1978, at 54.

That turn is why his films are still watched. The "worst director" label began as a joke, and it made him a cult figure instead of a forgotten one. Relay has three films he directed, and the horror and crime pictures are below.

Who was Ed Wood?

Wood was born in 1924 in Poughkeepsie, New York. He joined the US Marine Corps in 1942, at 17, and was discharged in 1946. He directed Glen or Glenda in 1953, Jail Bait in 1954 and Bride of the Monster in 1955.

He is best known for Plan 9 from Outer Space, in which aliens raise the dead. It is covered in Relay's list of so bad it's good movies, films people love for their flaws.

How did "worst director" become a compliment?

In The Golden Turkey Awards, a 1980 book by the brothers Harry and Michael Medved, readers voted Plan 9 the worst film ever made, and the authors named Wood the worst director of all time. The book was a joke, and film writers say it put Wood and his film on the cultural map.

Burton's film took the opposite view. Accounts of the production say he was drawn to how Wood talked about his films as if he were making Citizen Kane. Martin Landau won Best Supporting Actor for playing Bela Lugosi, the actor best known as Dracula, and the film also won the Oscar for Best Makeup. It cost $18 million and took in $13.8 million, so it lost money. The reappraisal came from the work, not the box office.

Which Wood films are on Relay?

Bride of the Monster (1955)

Lugosi plays a mad scientist who experiments with atomic power to create a race of supermen. It was Lugosi's last substantial speaking role. Wood had a budget of $70,000, his biggest, and most of it came from Donald McCoy, a meat packer whose son Tony played the hero.

The octopus in the film is a rubber prop reportedly taken from the Republic Pictures prop department, where it had been used in Wake of the Red Witch, a 1948 John Wayne film. Its arm mechanisms were missing or broken, and accounts differ on whether Wood stole it or rented it.

Horror

Night of the Ghouls (1959)

Wood shot this in 1958, but he could not pay the film laboratory, so it sat in the lab for about 25 years. Wade Williams, a Kansas City Wood fan, paid the bills and released it on video in 1984, according to most accounts, though one source says later.

Criswell, a showman who presented himself as a psychic, plays himself and narrates. Kenne Duncan plays a fake spiritualist who raises the dead, and Tor Johnson, a Swedish-born wrestler turned actor, returns as the brute Lobo.

Horror

Jail Bait (1954)

This is a crime story with elements of film noir, which shows Wood outside horror. It cost $22,000 and runs 71 minutes. Steve Reeves, a bodybuilder who had won the Mr. America, Mr. World and Mr. Universe titles, made his film debut as a police lieutenant. He later played Hercules in Italian films.

The veteran actor Herbert Rawlinson died of lung cancer right after finishing his scenes, and this was his last released film.

Crime

What to watch first

Start with Bride of the Monster, the film with the biggest budget Wood ever had. Night of the Ghouls is the one with the strangest history, and Jail Bait is the one to see for Steve Reeves before he became Hercules.