Crossroads of Laredo

Crossroads of Laredo (1995)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Wood's first film, running just 20-minutes, has him playing a young cowboy who loses his best girl to the bad guy who eventually marries her. A year later the woman has turned into a slave so the good cowboy tries to get her back. Wood originally directed this film in the late 40's or early 50's but no one bought it and for decades it was considered lost until the original producer found a print and then restored it. The audio track is still missing so a narrator pretty much tells us what's going on but this is the biggest problem. The narration is very annoying and I think it would have been better had they just released the film silent. As to be expected, the film is pretty poor from start to finish with wooden acting, bad directing and some horrible camera-work, which looks worse than some of the films I've seen from the 1890's. There are some usual Wood moments including a woman carrying her baby, which is clearly just a bunch of rags and another scene involving a funeral where it's obvious the coffin is just a paper box. Wood's ex and future Elvis songwriter, Dolorus Fuller, does the music score and wrote two songs, which would be performed by Elvis, Jr.

I'm not entirely sure why Brett Thompson, C.J. Thomas, and Dolores Fuller thought this movie was worth "restoring", but I suppose if I had access to some Ed Wood memorabilia, I'd try to cash in, too.

It is perhaps typical of Ed Wood that he was absurdly proud of this jumped-up silent home movie, which he apparently intended to be shown on television (between 1953 and 1956, he actually listed this {misspelled} in his credits under "television features"). The mind simply boggles at the idea that the television industry, even in its infancy, would be interested in this.

The silly narration added by the "restorers" is sometimes useful to cover what Wood probably would have told us with terrible dubbed-in dialogue; more often it involves Cliffie Stone saying things like, "Two of the men bring a door to use as a stretcher," as we watch two men bring a door to use as a stretcher. The music, written by Fuller and sung by an Elvis impersonator, is just awful--as I suppose befits an Ed Wood film.

CROSSROADS OF LAREDO is mostly just boring. Plotwise, it's a Western melodrama, unimpressive even by the standards of the worst of the "Bs." The characterization is (as usual in a Wood film) both ham-handed and insufficient. The cinematography would have been impressive in the Griffith era, but looks ridiculously outdated for a film shot in 1948.

The movie does, however, contain a few genuine Edwoodian touches for the connoisseur:

The female lead's baby is played by a bundle of rags; apparently Wood couldn't afford a plastic doll.

The hero's girl dumps him, takes up with the villain, and marries him, all in less than two minutes.

Wood spends fully three minutes of his limited time on a moving, elegiac funeral scene...for the villain.

The cardboard coffin Wood came up with for the funeral scene is about four feet long and a foot wide. There's only room for four pallbearers.

All in all, this is a film that only needs to be seen by those interested in the life and career of Ed Wood (it's on the HAUNTED WORLD OF EDWARD D. WOOD, JR. DVD, which is a good buy, so you won't get ripped off).

12/17/04: Update posted 12/27/03 on the Message Board:

I didn't realize when I wrote my review that the HAUNTED WORLD (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0113270/) DVD contains a commentary track for this film. I found it quite amusing that people actually involved with the "restoration" were confused at the end about which character was the hero and which the villain.

I suspect the culprit is that stupid funeral scene. After all, who would spend three minutes of a twenty-minute film lamenting the demise of a thieving, murdering skunk?

Eddie Wood, that's who.

It only seems long. This production has heart, dragging melodrama and Mr. Wood's usual lack of money for anything but the barest essentials. Lovingly finished as much as possible by widow and others, it benefits mightily from a narration track provided by a gifted Western actor whose name escapes me. Belongs on a double bill with any B Western that you might desire to make look good by comparison. People interested in the work and personality of Ed Wood will find it interesting, though most people won't. It's moral tone is sort of loud, especially toward the end. It may confuse but shouldn't harm children.

Dreadful short started in 1947 and left unfinished until 1995 when it was restored (God knows why), given narration and a music score and two songs (written by Wood's ex Dolores Fuller). The story has a cowboy (Ed Wood Jr. himself) being shot down in cold blood by Tex (Dan Nagel) for his money. Lem (Duke Moore) sees it from a distance. With the stolen money Tex marries Barbara (Ruth McCabe). Then it jumps to a year later. Barbara is treated like dirt by Tex. Lem secretly loves her (sigh)...but what can he do? It plays out in a very obvious way.

Deservedly obscure short. The direction is bad (no shock there), the acting is terrible and the narration is stupid. The music score and two songs are actually pretty good...way too good for dreck like this. Even at 23 minutes this is a sleep-inducing mess. Unless you're an Ed Wood completest you can safely skip this one.