Cinéclub Podcast #18 is a conversation with Will Sloan. You may know Will from his own podcasts: The Important Cinema Club which he co-hosts with Justin Decloux and Michael and Us, which he does with Luke Savage, which is a broader politics and culture podcast.

In this episode, though, we’re focusing on Will’s new book, a study of the notorious Ed Wood, which is called Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood, USA. If you’re not familiar at all with Ed Wood, it’s probably best to first acknowledge that he is mostly famous for being a bad director and known particular for Plan 9 from Outer Space which is a common contender for worst film ever made. However he also has a cult following of admirers and even his own Hollywood biopic, directed by Tim Burton in 1994.

Will’s book makes the case for Wood as an auteur, a filmmaker with a strong and distinctive creative voice despite, or in some cases maybe because of, the limited resources with which he worked and his limited ability to follow the accepted conventions of Hollywood film. Will writes the following to summarise a typical Ed Wood film: it is “ a pastiche of narrative/stylistic elements from other films; attempts to tell a story at a scale far beyond what its production value can accoomondate; features a case comprised of noth veteran former stars and unknown, awkward newcomers; and attempts natrualisim, but misses the mark, achieving instead an uncanny or dreamlike ambience.”

Will and I discussed the personal nature of Wood’s debut, Glen or Glenda; the otherworldly, dreamlike quality of Jail Bait, his attempt at a film noir; the distinctive authorial voice in The Beauty and the Beast, every bit an Ed Wood film despite being directed by somebody else; the uncanny, atmospheric nature of Plan 9 from Outer Space, the self-awareness of The Sinister Urge, the invented happy ending of Tim Burton’s affectionate biopic, and the unexpectedly fun and upbeat feel of his late-period sexploitation film Take It Out in Trade, and much more.

Chapters

* Glen or Glenda (1953) - 00:07:46

* Jail Bait (1954) - 00:15:07

* The Bride and the Beast (Adrian Weiss, 1958) - 00:19:33

* Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957) - 00:24:10

* The Sinister Urge (1970) - 00:27:26

* Later career: sexploitation, pornography, novels - 00:31:39

* Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994) - 00:35:12

* Take It Out in Trade (1970) - 00:40:20

You can also find this episode on…

* Spotify

* Apple Podcasts

Shownotes

* Will Sloan’s book, Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood, USA at OR Books

* Will’s excellent Substack

* The Important Cinema Club podcast

* Michael and Us podcast

* I’m linking to Spotify, but of course, the podcasts are available on all the platforms you’d expect

* Andrew Sarris’ Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962

* Embarassingly I say this essay is from 1960 in the podcast. The correct year of writing is in the very title of the essay…

* Buy the Cinéclub fanzine

* 52 pages w/ articles on cinematic representations of the German urban guerilla group The Red Army Faction, Claude Chabrol’s 1962 film The Third Lover’ and some pieces on punks in cinema. DIY and sold on a not-for-profit basis at a cost that just covers the cost of printing: £3.50 plus postage.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cineclub.substack.com