Glen or Glenda

Starring:Henry Bederski, Conrad Brooks, Charles Crafts, Captain DeZita, Timothy Farrell, Dolores Fuller, Tommy' Haynes, Bela Lugosi, Helen Miles (II), Shirley Speril, Lyle Talbot, Harry Thomas, William C. Thompson, Mr. Walter, George Weiss, Evelyn Wood
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Is Ed Wood the worst director who ever lived? His films are campy, clumsy, and hysterically inept, but their enthusiasm and good humor overcome incoherent scripts and wooden performances with heart, soul, and an infectious sense of fun. The jaw-dropping "documentary" Glen or Glenda? is a bizarre confessional starring Wood himself as a misunderstood transvestite and Bela Lugosi as a smirking godlike narrator. "Pull ze string!" shouts Lugosi as Wood reveals his angora fetish and love of women's underwear to the world. Lugosi returns as a mad scientist revenging himself on the world ("Home? I have no home!") in Bride of the Monster, a howler of a horror picture. Tor Johnson, the hulking Swedish wrestler turned B-movie icon, made his first Wood appearance as the lumbering beast Lobo (he almost knocks over the set in one scene!) tamed by the touch of angora. Finally there's Wood's "masterpiece," the clumsy, nearly incoherent, and ridiculously cheap Plan 9 from Outer Space. A tall, skinny, blond chiropractor subs for short, raven-haired Bela Lugosi (who died after a few days of shooting), cardboard gravestones wobble as the actors walk by, and night and day randomly come and go within the same scene. --Sean Axmaker
Description
He loved women so much, he dared to dress like one! Ed Wood strikes again. The true story of a man whose lust for women drove him to be as close to a woman as he could by trying to become one. The first film based on the strange tastes of legendary filmmaker Ed Wood, Jr., and a sordid plea for acceptance in the world of bondage and the sexually confused, decades before "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and TV's "Ellen." "Glen or Glenda?" stars famous horror icon Bela Lugosi as the "puppet master" and Ed himself in the role of Glen/Glenda. It also marks the screen debut of Wood's main squeeze at the time, Dolores Fuller, who went on to become one of Elvis's star songwriters. An important film document about the early career of a man years ahead of his time. Wildly entertaining!

The Ed Wood Box (Glen or Glenda / Jail Bait / Bride of the Monster / Plan 9 from Outer Space / Night of the Ghouls / The Haunted World of Ed Wood)
Average customer rating:

IN A NUTSHELL! GREAT SET! LONG LIVE BELA AND ED!

Ed Wood \ Only for the Collector

Ed Wood: "He Tampered In God's Domain!"

"15 Frightful Horror Films ... Bela Lugosi ... Passport Video"

Ed Wood: the man and his mission!

The Ed Wood Box (Glen or Glenda / Jail Bait / Bride of the Monster / Plan 9 from Outer Space / Night of the Ghouls / The Haunted World of Ed Wood)
Starring: Edward J. Wood
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002W4TNA
Release Date: 2004-10-12

Description

Weird! Wild! Wood! The most legendary B-movie director of all time, Edward D. Wood, Jr. assaulted audiences worldwide with a string of bizarre, no-budget fusions of horror, science fiction, noir and comedy. Now his oddball legacy is finally collected in one indispensable box set! Feast your eyes on his first feature, the madcap Glen or Glenda? in which Eddie himself portrays a transvestite struggling with his addiction to angora while Bela Lugosi offers inscrutable narration. Blackmail, outlaws on the run, and plastic surgery collide in the surreal crime drama Jail Bait, featuring a young Steve Reeves (Hercules), while Bela returns to create the Bride of the Monster in a heady collision of atomic experiments, a rampaging octopus and clumsy assistant Lobo (played by wrestler Tor Johnson). Wood's indisputable disasterpiece, Plan 9 from Outer Space, offers pie-plate flying saucers, incompetent alien leaders, all-seeing psychic Criswell, goth favorite Vampira and a post-mortem appearance by Lugosi himself in his last film role. Then Lobo and a phony spiritualist usher in a Night of the Ghouls at a spooky marsh filled with shuffling undead and wailing ghosts. Finally, learn all about the man himself with The Haunted World of Ed Wood, a comprehensive disc packed with interviews, film clips, TV rarities and much more! It's enough to make you scream!

Customer Reviews:

IN A NUTSHELL! GREAT SET! LONG LIVE BELA AND ED!.......2007-05-03

"This is an excellent box set and you get all of Ed Wood's films. The king of cheapy creepy's for sure. A must have for any cheese lover!" The box set features "Plan 9 From Outer Space" "An Ed Wood Classic! The film features Bela Lugosi in his final role, but for those of us who love Bela it's nice to see him go out wearing his Dracula's cape. Bela died before the film was finished and Wood's dentist?(who is at least a foot taller than Bela,keeping his face covered by the dracula cape in every scene)had to step in to complete the scenes." The whole box set is a gas!

Ed Wood \ Only for the Collector.......2007-01-09

Ed Wood was the worst film producer of all time. His film, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" has been given the title of "Worst Film Ever Made." Ed was a transvestite so he worn angora sweaters and other women's clothes, and you see this in some of the films.
Although many classic films have been reworked and are in pristine condition, what you see is what you get here. They were a hoot and terrible to begin with. There is in the box a DVD on Dolores Fuller and others of Wood's gang gathering for an Ed Wood Showing. How they all ended up being and looking like is so interesting. Dolores lived with Ed and finally got enough of him and moved on. She became a song writer and wrote some of Elvis' lesser known songs. And she still looks good!
I just loved this collection and got a laugh out of all of it. This is a collection only for those interested in early film making, and as part of film history.

Ed Wood: "He Tampered In God's Domain!".......2006-10-28

Edward D. Wood Jr. was born in 1924 in Poughkeepsie, New York; spent his youth torn between comic books, pulp fiction, and movie matinees; and after a World War II stint in the Marines landed in Hollywood with an itch to wear women's clothing, drink to excess, and make movies. The result was a series of remarkably atrocious low-budget movies of the "so bad its good" variety, and this inexpensive box set offers not only the best know titles but unexpected bonuses as well.

Filmed in 1953, GLEN OR GLENDA is Ed Wood's ode to the joys and tragedies of cross dressing, featuring Wood himself as the conflicted hero and Delores Fuller as the girlfriend who keeps wondering why her angora sweaters are stretched out of shape. The 1954 JAIL BAIT is a riff on teenagers gone bad and is often described as the best made of Wood's films--but the term "best made" is extremely comparative, to say the least. The 1955 BRIDE OF THE MONSTER is the only Wood film that actually made back its cost; featuring a desperate Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, a rubber octopus, and a laboratory helmet that looks suspiciously like a collander, it is easily a Wood fan favorite. The 1959 NIGHT OF THE GHOULS is a kinda-sorta sequel, featuring Tor Johnson once again in a remarkably silly story of fraudulent spiritualists who bite off more ghosts than they can chew.

The most celebrated title, of course, is the 1959 PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, infamous as the film built around about five minutes of film Wood took of Bela Lugosi shortly before Lugosi's death. Fans have attempted to catalogue every error in the film, but it is inexhaustible: no matter how many goofs, mistakes, and disasters you notice, you always see one or two more with every viewing. Day turns to night and then to day--all in the same scene. Cars unexpectedly change year and model from cut to cut. Flying saucers cast shadows in outer space. The list is endless.

NIGHT OF THE GHOULS was never actually released during Wood's life time: he couldn't afford to pay the lab fees for a print of the film, and since the film was never issued the transfer is unexpectedly good. This is not the case with the other titles, all of which were pretty battered by the time video and DVD technology arrived on the scene--but this actually part of their charm. And the set includes an unexpected dollop of bonus material.

The big bonus here is THE HAUNTED WORLD OF ED WOOD JR, a 1996 documentary that intercuts various bits of Wood movies with archeival footage of Wood and his circle and interviews with those who knew him, including his leading ladies Delores Fuller, Mona McKinnon, Loretta King, and Vampira (aka Maila Syrjaniemi.) Perhaps the most interesting subject is Bela Lugosi Jr., who is extremely forthright in his opinion of Ed Wood as a cheapjack opportunist who hitched his wagon to a fading and desperate, not out of genuine affection for Bela Lugosi Sr. but to further his own ends. Coming in a close second in bonus material is SAUCERS OVER HOLLYWOOD: THE PLAN 9 COMPANION, which draws from many of the same sources as HAUNTED but which focuses on this specific film.

While it is true that the set does not include every scrap of Ed Wood material available--for a tenth rate director-writer-actor he was remarkably prolific, racking up fifty credits on such films as THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST and ORGY OF THE DEAD--it will hit the spot for all but the most diehard fan. Ed Wood will never appeal to a wide audience, but if you have the warped sense of humor required to appreciate his films, you'll find this set indispensible.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

"15 Frightful Horror Films ... Bela Lugosi ... Passport Video".......2006-10-15

Passport Video presents "The Bela Lugosi Box - 15 Frightful Films" (1942) --- (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Béla Lugosi was the stage name of actor Béla Ferenc Dezs Blaskó (October 20, 1882 - August 16, 1956) --- Lugosi was born in Lugos, Hungary, at the time part of Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), the youngest of four children of a baker --- best known for his portrayal of "Dracula" in the American Broadway stage production, and subsequent film, of Bram Stoker's classic vampire story.

Late in his life, he again received star billing in movies when filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr., a fan of Lugosi, found him living in obscurity and near-poverty and offered him roles in his films, such as "GLEN OR GLENDA?" (1953) (in which his role made no more sense than the rest of the movie) and as a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist in "BRIDE OF THE MONSTER" (1955), during post-production of the latter, Lugosi entered treatment for his addiction, and the premier of the film was ostensibly intended to help pay for his treatment expenses. The extras on an early DVD release of "PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE" (1959) include an impromptu interview with Lugosi upon his exit from the treatment center, which provide some rare personal insights into the man --- this was one of Lugosi's most infamous roles was released after he was dead. Ed Wood (Director) features footage of Lugosi interspersed with a double --- Wood had taken a few minutes of silent footage of Lugosi, in his Dracula cape, for a planned vampire picture but was unable to find financing for the project --- Wood later conceived of Plan 9, Wood wrote the script to incorporate the Lugosi footage and hired his wife's chiropractor to double for Lugosi in additional shots --- notice however the "double" is thinner than Lugosi, and covers the lower half of his face with his cape in every shot --- Leonard Maltin (Famous Film Critic) was quoted - "Lugosi died during production, and it shows."

Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956 while lying in bed in his Los Angeles home. He was 73 --- Bela Lugosi was buried wearing one of the many capes from the Dracula stageplay, as per the request of his son and fifth wife, in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California --- Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his famous cloak; Bela Lugosi, Jr. has confirmed on numerous occasions that he and his mother, Lillian, arrived at their decision independently.

BIOS:
1. Bela Lugosi (aka: Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó)
Date of birth: 20 October 1882 - Lugos, Austria-Hungary. [now Lugoj, Romania]
Date of death: 16 August 1956 - Los Angeles, California
2. Edward D. Wood Jr. (Director, Writer and Producer)
Date of birth: 10 October 1924 - Poughkeepsie, New York
Date of death: 10 December 1978 - North Hollywood, California

This collection of "The Bela Lugosi Box - 15 Frightful Films" (1942) --- still has the magic that we remember from those bygone years --- but as long as we have the labels and networks who play and show these wonderful films of yesteryear, they will never be forgotten ... Plus the half-hour tribute "100 Years of Horror: Bela Lugosi", hosted by Christopher Lee --- and a great job by Passport Video for this release --- looking forward to more of the same from the '20s and '50s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or Passport Video, stay tuned once again for more remarkable films from the vaults of classic television and Hollywood during the Golden Era of Entertaiment.

Total Time: 1034 mins on DVD ~ Passport Video #5260 ~ (9/05/2006)

Ed Wood: the man and his mission!.......2006-09-18

Ed Wood? Yup, he's a genius... well sort of. I strongly agree with another reviewer who indicated that a film would need to lack any entertainment value at all to be labeled the worst film of all time. As far as this notion goes, Ed Wood didn't make bad films because every one of the five he made in the 1950's are loads of fun and laughs. 'Glen or Glenda' and 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' are likely my favorites. His first feature, about transvestism, is so inept and so incredibly strange, that one simply watches mesmerized at the audacity and enigmatic spirit Wood demonstrated as a filmmaker in the early 1950's. What can be said about 'Plan 9 from Outer Space,' except that every serious film buff and film maker should make this film priority viewing. The other three films directed by Ed Wood and featured in this box set are all worthy of attention because they're nearly as campy, inept, and hilarious as the other two I mentioned above. On the back of the case to 'Jail Bait,' the film description indicates that Ed Wood, here, made his first legitimate film. If the film is legitimate simply because it is less inept and hilarious than his other films, I do think this statement is quite misleading. Ed Wood never made a film that would receive any serious consideration for legitimacy from the mainstream and the critical masses. Ed Wood, now more than ever before, remains in a class all his own. Ed Wood's films are stamped with his trademark zeal, good humor, and distorted logic, and remain the work of a filmmaker who may have lacked talent, but was never lacking in purpose. The Ed Wood box set is a perfect way to enjoy Ed Wood's films for the first or twentieth time. This set is a great buy, but don't neglect to check out Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood,' in my opinion, one of the greatest film biographies ever made.

Average customer rating:

Pull the string!
SIZE 18 FROM OUTER SPACE (*A Haiku Review)
Bad, But I Recommend It
"15 Frightful Horror Films ... Bela Lugosi ... Passport Video"
cult classic??

Glen or Glenda
Starring: Henry Bederski , Conrad Brooks , Charles Crafts , Captain DeZita , and Timothy Farrell
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00003XAMS
Release Date: 2000-02-15

Amazon.com

Is Ed Wood the worst director who ever lived? His films are campy, clumsy, and hysterically inept, but their enthusiasm and good humor overcome incoherent scripts and wooden performances with heart, soul, and an infectious sense of fun. The jaw-dropping "documentary" Glen or Glenda? is a bizarre confessional starring Wood himself as a misunderstood transvestite and Bela Lugosi as a smirking godlike narrator. "Pull ze string!" shouts Lugosi as Wood reveals his angora fetish and love of women's underwear to the world. Lugosi returns as a mad scientist revenging himself on the world ("Home? I have no home!") in Bride of the Monster, a howler of a horror picture. Tor Johnson, the hulking Swedish wrestler turned B-movie icon, made his first Wood appearance as the lumbering beast Lobo (he almost knocks over the set in one scene!) tamed by the touch of angora. Finally there's Wood's "masterpiece," the clumsy, nearly incoherent, and ridiculously cheap Plan 9 from Outer Space. A tall, skinny, blond chiropractor subs for short, raven-haired Bela Lugosi (who died after a few days of shooting), cardboard gravestones wobble as the actors walk by, and night and day randomly come and go within the same scene. --Sean Axmaker

Description

He loved women so much, he dared to dress like one! Ed Wood strikes again. The true story of a man whose lust for women drove him to be as close to a woman as he could by trying to become one. The first film based on the strange tastes of legendary filmmaker Ed Wood, Jr., and a sordid plea for acceptance in the world of bondage and the sexually confused, decades before "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and TV's "Ellen." "Glen or Glenda?" stars famous horror icon Bela Lugosi as the "puppet master" and Ed himself in the role of Glen/Glenda. It also marks the screen debut of Wood's main squeeze at the time, Dolores Fuller, who went on to become one of Elvis's star songwriters. An important film document about the early career of a man years ahead of his time. Wildly entertaining!

Customer Reviews:

Pull the string!.......2007-06-11

"Write what you know," goes the adage.

Applying that sage admonition to heart, noir B-cinema savant Ed Wood concocted his sole masterpiece, a crossdressing confession / fantasy that remains, half a century later, the supremest TS call-to-arms.

Employing a disciplined narrative not discerned in his freakier (and more notoriously renowned) fare, Wood kicks off with high transtragic drama, then aims his ideological agenda sharply at God and mankind, then proceeds to dramatize the anguish - and humanity - of the TS experience. "Mistakes are made [in nature]" and technology (SRS) can correct this particular one, Wood first states - then muses that surgery would not be necessary if society would simply loosen up. Very modern!

The ensuing "dream sequence" - a pseudoballet of opium poetry spiced up with crowdpleasing sex kicks - leads to the film's denouement, and what a hotter it is! To Wood's credit, the theatrical tension is so sublime that anticipating the payoff is neigh impossible. (Actually, two very different endings were filmed.)

Crude, cheap, didactic - sure - but right on, and uncannily beautiful, too.

SIZE 18 FROM OUTER SPACE (*A Haiku Review).......2007-05-08

Ed's pink angora
IN GLORIOUS BLACK AND WHITE.
"Oooh, that's scary, kids!"

~ Stephen or Stephanie T. McCarthy
<"As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
~ Proverbs 26:11>

Bad, But I Recommend It.......2007-01-17

This is a painful yet highly effective introduction to the world of incredibly bad movies. The best tape out of these three is something that will make you say, "Is this a movie?? It can't be. No movie can be this bad. This must be something else."

But no, these are real movies. It's just that you don't hear much about their theatrical release history, which makes sense, because they're so bad.

Let's start with oldest of these three movies, Glen or Glenda. This is a movie that attempts to grab your attention with the first-ever sex change operation (which was a current event at that time) before it segways into a movie about transvestites. Why a transvestite movie? Because Ed Wood, the man responsible for the movie, was a transvestite himself. He wanted people to understand why he was the way he was. The movie does accomplish Wood's desire in a way, but it's so bad that going any more than halfway through the final print is darn near impossible. The story just stops in the middle and random music and footage arise to combine in such a wrecthed manner that the audience is hypnotized to instantly press the nearest "off" button they can find. So only half of what Ed Wood wanted to show actually comes across.

Fortunately, Ed's films do get better. Bride of the Monster can actually be viewed all the way through, but just barely. Not much happens in it. I think it's supposed to be one of those movies that shows us how taking science too far is ultimately destructive. Also, it seems to put a lot of emphasis on the unsurpassed danger of lying on top of a completely immobile fake octopus.

Plan 9 From Outer Space can actually be watched more than once. That doesn't mean it's good, but it's actually not PAINFUL painful like the others. It's just mildly painful. It takes the destructive science theme from Bride of the Monster and brings it a step further, saying man will destroy the universe by finding a way to explode rays of light. The "Plan 9" of the title is actually an attempt by outer space aliens to stop man before this explosive carnage happens. But all that doesn't seem to grab your attention when Ed won't even bother doing a second take after a man nearly falls over trying to pick up a freaking newspaper.

I highly recommend this as a supplement to Tim Burton's 1994 biography of Ed Wood. Why? Because you actually get to see the REAL footage that Johnny Depp acts out in the Burton movie. So this set of tapes is very educational, but gosh, the movies are ever so bad.

"15 Frightful Horror Films ... Bela Lugosi ... Passport Video".......2006-10-15

cult classic??.......2006-07-21

not the best film ever made and probably only bought and viewed by fans of ed,still quite a brave subject to explore on celluloid and ed obviously had his heart in this flick;not must see material but a curiosity none the less,good transfer as well!

My son The Vampire / Glen Or Glenda? (Double Feature) (Digitally Remastered)

Average customer rating:

Old Mother Riley meets Dracula

My son The Vampire / Glen Or Glenda? (Double Feature) (Digitally Remastered)

Manufacturer: DigitalDisc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

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Plan 9 from Outer Space

ASIN: B000AAUKI2

Product Description

MY SON THE VAMPIRE:Bela Lugosi as The Vampire -- Arthur Lucan as Mother Riley. The last of the Mother riley Film Series(1937-1952)an immensely popular British Comedy that features the slapstick antics of Arthus Lucan as an Irish scullery maid who gets herself into all sorts of tough spots....GLEN OR GLENDA?: This movie expolres the idea of transvestism, sexual identity and sex changes.

Customer Reviews:

Old Mother Riley meets Dracula.......2007-02-04

This is really a poor quality print of My SON THE VAMPIRE (the american version of Old Mother Riley meets The Vampire) The opening reel is so chopped up you cannot make heads or tails out of the opening theme song and credits. But beggers cannot be choosers. This is the only way to get this rare film and the Video quality is about as good as its going to get for a poor print. So it is worth getting if you wish to see this film.

Average customer rating:

Jail Bait/Glen & Glenda
Starring: Jail Bait , and Glen Or Glenda
Manufacturer: Krb Music
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002J9Z4G
Release Date: 2006-10-24

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