Film #132 - Night of the Ghouls (1959)
Night of the Ghouls is classic Ed Wood. In fact, it suffers from more classic Ed problems than just about any other film. It’s got the usual wacky dialogue, questionable acting by Ed’s usual bunch and Ed’s poor camera skills. It even has that old Ed standby; recycled footage. (In this case, footage shot for the unmade Hellborn that he later used again in The Sinister Urge.) But Night of the Ghouls stands out among the rest because Ed couldn’t even get this one released during his lifetime.
You see, Ed had this lab bill that he needed to pay in order to get the master print of the film, but he had no money to pay it. So the print sat at the lab for some thirty years until it was finally retrieved by film buyer Wade Williams and released. (Although he apparently changed the name. It was originally known as Revenge of the Dead.) It’s non-release is probably one of the reasons Ed felt okay with using the old footage seen here in Sinister Urge. (He also took the opening intro by Criswell and used it almost word for word as the intro for Orgy of the Dead. ) What we ultimately got is a film more than worthy of its place in the Wood canon.
While the classic Ed trilogy focuses on Bela Lugosi and consists of Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space, there is also the “Kelton Trilogy”, based on the films featuring Kelton the Cop played by Paul Marco. Bride, Plan 9 and Ghouls all link through Kelton and one line where he mentions “mad doctors” and “space people”. Sure, every other cop we see is different (even when played by the same actors), but Kelton remains, providing the glue for the “series”.
In this one, the police are investigating strange happenings out at the “old house by Willow’s lake”, which is implied to be the same house, rebuilt, that was known as the “old Willow’s place” in Bride of the Monster. A new tenant has moved in, Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan) and monsters and ghosts have been seen in the vacinity. Captain Robbins (Johnny Carpenter) sends his chief “supernatural” investigator Lt. Daniel Bradford (Duke Moore), who takes Kelton along. They find that Acula is running a reincarnation scam along with his girlfriend, Sheila (Valda Hansen) and the mute Lobo (Tor Johnson), who survived his apparent death in Bride, although horribly disfigured. But dabbling with the supernatural is more than Acula has counted on and the dead themselves will settle the score.
I’ve spoken enough on the things I love about Ed Wood movies and all of them are here. But there are some touches of beyond the norm ingenuity that must be mentioned. For one, the way Ed shoehorned in that Hellborn footage is sheer genius. During the opening monologue, Criswell asks the question: what is the biggest problem for modern law enforcement? Is it juvenile delinquency? (Cue Hellborn footage.) No, he ultimately tells us. It’s the occult. (Cue rest of movie.) Fantastic.
Second, there’s the issue of Lt. Bradford. You see, Ed wanted to use a lot of spooky footage that he had shot for The Final Curtain, except that film featured Duke Moore as an actor portraying Dracula in a stage play. In that footage, he is dressed for the show in a full tuxedo (and is, unusually, clean shaven). So, in order to fit in with the old footage, he got Moore to shave again (no big deal) and then explained that Lt. Bradford was called in while on his way to the opera. (See? He’s dressed in a tux because he was going to the opera. Perfectly reasonable, huh?)
The film gets flack for the lousy “effects” that Acula uses to con his marks, but I don’t think that’s fair. It’s clearly shown that Bradford thinks they are lousy and unconvincing, so either Ed made them look extra bad on purpose or at least saw they issue and addressed it. Either way, I think the poor quality fits the film, rather than detracts from it.
Night of the Ghouls is a movie that even people sho consider themselves Ed fans haven’t seen. It doesn’t have the visibility of his Lugosi films, nor the titillation factor that has helped push Orgy of the Dead and his other softcore work into the public eye. But fans should definitely see this one as it is the last of Ed’s classic era horror/thriller films (his bread and butter). It also fits so well with the first two films in the “Kelton Trilogy” that anyone who enjoys them should have no fear catching this one. It’s an Ed classic through and through.