Final Curtain

It's basically a radio drama with pictures. Duke Moore stumbles around a large empty theater while Dudley Manlove drones Ed Wood's dialogue on and on and on. When the Duke finally comes across a 'surprise' behind a door (Jeannie Stevens) it looks like dialogue might break out.............but, no. Duke closes the door and Manlove drones some more. Cinematographer William C. Thompson gives it a better look than it deserves. The music and sound FX aren't bad, but, again, those latter two elements would have worked just as well on radio. It's no surprise that even in an era with shows like Lights Out and Tales of the Unexpected, there were no takers for this talky nothing of a pilot. At least Wood got to recycle some of it for NIGHT OF THE GHOULS.

I've often wondered just why Duke Moore had to be dressed in a tuxedo during the first half of Night of the Ghouls. Now I know. Ed tried to sell this television pilot but got no takers. He couldn't let this valuable footage go to waste so he inserted it into NOTG even though it makes no sense in the movie, either, thus Duke having to match up with the stock footage. Wood must have learned film producing under Jules White. Final Curtain is an Ed Wood stream of conciousness, which means it's about twice as long as it should be. As a one reeler it might have been OK, but at 2 reels it's strictly for the Ed Wood completist that has to see everything.

An actor (James "Duke" Moore) roams around an empty theatre after dark (though in typical Wood fashion the sky seen through a ceiling window is light). He hears creepy sounds and sees eerie things, including a female mannequin dressed as a vampire (again in typical Wood fashion her limbs can be seen moving). Also know as "Portraits of Terror" this short film (running time 22 minutes) was thought lost until 2012 and was written, directed and produced by the legendary Edward D Wood Jr, aka Ed Wood Jr. It was intended as a pilot for a planned TV series which sadly never materialised. I liked the creepy music and the female vampire but other than that not much happens. Certainly essential viewing for Wood Jr fans, I think that this would have worked better as a segment in a horror anthology film.

"Final Curtain" is a pilot for a failed TV series from Ed Wood that was assumed lost. However, back in 2012, it was shown at a film festival and since then someone posted it to YouTube.

The film is not as horrible as some of Ed Wood's other productions...not that this is a glowing endorsement. But if you didn't know it was from Wood, you might think it was some art film!

The pilot is much like major portions of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" in that it obviously was shot without sound and to 'cleverly' get past this, there's some ultra-bizarro narration and weird edits. As I said, it seems much more like an art film than anything else....a very BAD art film. Most of it simply consist of a guy in a tux staring about an empty theater as nonsensical narration supposedly tells his increasingly distraught thoughts of terror.

While this is a bad film and it's obvious why the proposed series never was made, for laughs I suggest you show the film (without the opening credits that say it's from Ed Wood) to a pretentious friend. Tell them it's a lost Ingmar Bergman film he made for American TV...and watch them wax philosophical about this great pilot and how it would have changed TV for the better.

Overall, very bad but not nearly as bad as Wood could have done!

Go in understanding this is basically a story or radio play read while an actor reacts and searches through an empty theater. The fact that it was shot at a real, at the time, abandoned theater helps greatly as does Woods good choices of stock music to support the voice over and visuals.

For all that it is kind of creepy and moody--the crazed voice over somehow works with the purposefully twisty words. Wood keeps the visual pace pretty fast as well as far as the editing goes. The acting and voice over are pretty stagey but given the stage setting Wood gets away with this too---it has a legitimate camp value in the true meaning of the word.

Nice final shot too--by the way.

Some of what people love/hate Wood for is really the fact that he almost never had enough money to pull off a film that was slick enough to not have distracting--or at times-hilarious--low budget defects.

With this movie the fact that it's so limited in scope prevents total low budget lapses--for the most part.

If you like CARNIVAL OF SOULS and or DAUGHTER OF HORROR this has some of the effectiveness and mood of those--though this is a short not a feature.

If you like Wood--because you like him or like him because you think he sucks, let's face it you won't want to miss this and should not miss it.