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.

Final Curtain (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This short film was originally meant as the pilot episode for a TV series that never got off the ground but the interesting thing is that this was actually made before The Twilight Zone and it's perhaps the best thing Edward D. Wood, Jr. did in his career. The setting is an abandoned theater where an actor (Duke Moore) begins to walk around and feels that he's not alone. This film was lost for several decades until a print recently turned up and until then the only thing really known about it was that rumor had it Bela Lugosi, who was meant to play the actor, died while reading the screenplay. I think it's safe to say that this is the best thing Wood ever did on a technical level. There's no question this has a very low budget but I thought Wood actually did a good job at building up some nice atmosphere. He also did a very good job with the editing as he's trying to do a psychological horror film and one clearly influenced by the work of Edgar Allan Poe. I think this is a major discovery for fans of the director simply because it shows him doing a horror film and in a way that isn't seen in his other works. I'd add that the dialogue isn't nearly what you'd expect from Wood as it's actually decent! There are some major problems with the film though. For starters, at 22-minutes it's a tad bit too long for its own good as around the ten-minute mark you start asking yourself what the point is. You also keep wondering why the actor is walking around as it's never made clear as to why he doesn't just leave. I also didn't care for the narration by Dudley Manlove as at times it's way too over-the-top. With that said, overall this is a fairly impressive film by Wood's standards and something his fans will want to check out.

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.

This could have been something if someone like the great Boris Karloff would have narrated it. But, unfortunately we get Dudley (Plan 9 from Outer Space) Manlove, and that is a little bit over the top. In fact annoying would be a better term. It's a good thing I'm an Ed Wood fan, or I couldn't bear the short 20 minute running time.

Don't get me wrong, this isnt a good movie, but it IS one of the better Wood vehicles.

Maybe because it's so short. You gotta wonder how toasted Wood was when he wrote these films. It must have cost a few hundred to make it. It's pretty much nothing but a guy standing back stage and a voice over of him explaining his silly thoughts.