A
while ago, I took a look at a collection of vintage 8mm XXX adult film loops
directed by the legendary Ed Wood, which had been unearthed and issued on DVD
by New York filmmaker Keith Crocker and his Cinefear Video company (click HERE
to read the original blog post). As mind-bending a find as that collection was,
especially for both Wood fans and early porn historians, it was clearly just an
appetizer for the second volume, which Cinefear have just issued on disc under
the title of Ed’s Wood Volume II.
Filmed
between 1973 and 1975, these grainy and grotty short porn loops represent some
of the final completed works of Ed Wood, who would die of alcoholism and heart
failure in 1978. The fact that you are watching loops directed by the man who
gave us Glen or Glenda (1953) and Plan Nine from Outer Space (1956), and
whose life and career took place on a fascinating edge of fringe cultures, automatically
makes shorts a lot more interesting than the majority of the thousands
upon thousands of other similar loops that were produced at the same time. And
with a young John (“Johnny Wadd”) Holmes being the featured performer in many
of the loops on this latest collection (in fact the only recognizable name amongst a procession of anonymous
hippie chicks and hairy male genitalia), the imagination once again gets fired
up by thoughts of Wood and Wadd meeting at this intersection while traveling
through their own unique cinema netherworlds.
Though it is not one of the loops that features Holmes, Morning Walk is the most interesting title on this 90-minute compilation, its depiction of forceful coercion giving it a much rougher edge than the others. I have to say I breathed a sigh of relief when the big dog walking around at the beginning is safely shut away in another room before the action begins! This loop in particular seems reflective of Ed Wood’s handiwork, especially thematically with its premise (a young girl on her morning walk invites a strange man and his girlfriend into her house after seemingly knowing them for all of five seconds, and is then shocked and outraged when the couple make a pass at her!). Other titles on this collection include Park Lovers, Big John Parts 1 & 2, the strange 15” Commercial (in which Holmes has sex with a lady atop her broken TV set), Wives at Play, Camper Pick-Up and Garter Girl.
Perfectly complementing this collection of loops (which were originally filmed silent and had minimal subtitles added to accompany the hot action) is the choice of music laid over them, a wholly suitable and enjoyable mix of cheesy lounge music, funky bass guitar and pulsating disco (the music on Park Lovers sounds like it could have been lifted from Meco’s Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk LP!). There is also a smooth pop love ballad and a couple of pieces of muzak that sound like they would have made excellent background music to a television commercial for a swinging airline company.
Ed’s Wood Volume II (along
with all other manner of weird and wonderfully demented cinema, and not just of
the XXX variety) is available from
the Cinefear website at Cinefear Video Vintage Adult Titles. Along with Something Weird Video, Cinefear are an
important independent company that are doing an amazing job at rescuing and
preserving titles that might otherwise be lost
permanently, and offering them up to appreciative outré film lovers like
myself. They deserve our support.
