Film #137 - Night of the Fools (2004)
Viewed May 17, 2006
Word of the passing of Paul Marco, noted member of Ed Wood’s stock company, came through on the 17th, so I felt I shoudl watch something Ed-related. The only thing I had that I hadn’t actually watched yet was Night of the Fools, a fan-made film that portrays Ed putting together Plan 9 From Outer Space (1954). At a diner one night, Ed, Bela Lugosi, Vamira, Criswell and Tor Johnson discuss their lives and Ed’s hoped-for blockbuster.
Unfortunately, writer/director Ace Fronton does little to either emulate the feel of Ed’s films or to illuminate the people involved in the making of Ed’s films. Fronton certainly knows the details of Ed’s life and career (or knows where to go to find them), as characters make numerous references to specific projects or incidents in their lives that are not generally known. But none of it seems natural. It’s as if Fronton is just trying to hit certain points to prove he knows the material.
The actors are genrally dreadful. Dash Titan as Ed seems to have some ability inside him somewhere, but his performance does nothing to try and capture even a remote connection to the actual person. The rest of the cast is even worse, camping it up through lousy dialogue and preposterious characterizations. Worst is Tim Timkoko as Bela. Now, I wasn’t expecting anything on the level of Martin Landau’s Academy Award-winning performance in Ed Wood (1994), but this was the lousiest portrayal of a real person I have ever endured.
The only way I can recommend Night of the Fools is if you are as big an Ed fan as I am and need to see everything that comes out that is even remotely related to him. Otherwise, its only value is as a warning against how badly things can go wrong in low-budget independant cinema.