| Year |
Film |
Role |
Notes |
| 1950 |
The Baron of Arizona |
Stunts |
A biopic about James Reavis starring Vincent Price as the conman who nearly stole the Arizona Territory. |
| 1951 |
The Sun Was Setting |
Director, Screenwriter |
Short TV film about a young woman coming to terms with her impending death. May never have aired. Stars Tom Keene, Phyllis Coates & Angela Stevens. |
| 1953 |
Glen or Glenda |
Director, Screenwriter, Actor - "Glen" |
This fictional documentary approach to transvestitism, also known as I Changed My Sex! or I Led Two Lives!, was semi-autobiographical in nature and many suggest that Wood filmed it as a plea for tolerance. The story revolves around the real world's first successful sex change operation. Movie producer George Weiss wanted to capitalize on the current buzz by making a freak-show type film about sex reassignment surgery. Ed Wood made a pitch, took the money, and, much to Weiss's horror, produced this compassionate film about transvestites. The film stars Wood himself (as Daniel Davis), Bela Lugosi, Dolores Fuller, Lyle Talbot and Timothy Farrell. |
| Son of the Renegade |
Co-Screenwriter |
Another Johnny Carpenter film, actually shot after The Lawless Rider. Ed is said to have helped with the plot. |
| Crossroad Avenger: The Adventures of the Tucson Kid |
Director, Screenwriter, Actor - "Cowboy" |
Pilot for an unproduced television series starring Tom Keene and featuring Lyle Talbot, Harvey B. Dunn, Tom Tyler and Ed himself. |
| Boots |
Director, Screenwriter |
Apparently, another attempt to launch Crossroad Avenger. |
| 1954 |
The Lawless Rider |
Associate Producer |
Johnny Carpenter film shot in 1953. Ed may have had a hand in the script. |
| Jail Bait |
Director, Screenwriter |
Sometimes referred to as The Hidden Face, a generally enjoyed Film Noir-style Wood classic in which a criminal has a face swap operation in order to avoid the cops. |
| 1955 |
Bride of the Monster |
Director, Co-Screenwriter |
Originally titled The Atomic Monster and then Bride of the Atom, this is probably Wood's most famous film after Plan 9. Lugosi plays a mad scientist bent on creating a race of atomic supermen that will allow him to take over the world. Johnson plays Professor Vornof's lumbering assistant, Lobo. The film contains a lot of (mostly inexplicable) stock footage and a wonderful rubber giant octopus (actually stolen by Wood and colleagues from storage at Republic Studios) in the finale. The leading lady in the film is played by Loretta King. Burton affectionately relates much of the story behind this movie in Ed Wood (along with those of Plan 9 and Glen or Glenda). |
| 1956 |
The Violent Years |
Screenwriter |
A neglected rich teenage girl and three of her friends go on a crime spree, which primarily consists of robbing gas stations and vandalizing classrooms. Worth seeing for the scene in which the girls come across two lovers in a car on the side of a country road. The girls tie up the woman in the car and lead the man in the car to a field at gunpoint, where at least one of the girls has sex with him. It was the most financially successful film of Ed's career. |
| 1957 |
The Astounding She-Monster |
Consultant |
Ed served as an unofficial "consultant" on this Ronald Ashcroft film, including giving advice on the use of stock footage. |
| Final Curtain |
Director, Screenwriter |
|
| The Night the Banshee Cried |
Director, Screenwriter |
|
| 1958 |
The Bride and the Beast |
Screenwriter |
Also known as Queen of the Gorillas, this film tells the story of a woman who becomes attracted to a great ape kept in her husband's cellar. When hypnotised, it is discovered that in a previous life, she was queen of the gorillas. |
| 1959 |
Plan 9 from Outer Space |
Director, Screenwriter |
This is Wood's most famous movie. For more information, see its individual entry. |
| Night of the Ghouls |
Director, Screenwriter |
This famous Ed Wood movie was filmed in 1959 but wasn't released until 1987 because Wood could not afford to pay the fee to process the negatives. The plot revolves around a confidence trickster, Dr. Acula, played by Kenne Duncan, who pretends to be able to contact the dead, and charges people large amounts of money to speak to their relatives. The movie is a sequel to Bride of the Monster, and stars Tor Johnson as Lobo, the same part he played in Bride. The ending has Acula inadvertently summoning a group of real ghosts, and being imprisoned for all eternity. This is one of the movies featuring a Criswell prologue. |
| early 1960s |
Trick Shooting with Kenne Duncan |
Director |
|
| 1961 |
The Sinister Urge |
Director, Screenwriter |
Crime picture about women going missing or turning up dead in a local park. Police suspect the involvement of the pornography industry and the Mob. |
| 1962 |
Married Too Young |
Co-Screenwriter |
|
| 1963 |
Shotgun Wedding |
Screenwriter |
|
| 1965 |
Orgy of the Dead |
Screenwriter, Production Manager |
Also known as Revenge of the Dead. This marked the definite transition of Wood's interests from horror to erotica. In the film, a writer and his girlfriend crash their car and find themselves in a cemetery where they're forced to watch the dead dance for a lord of the dead, played by Criswell. A bevy of dancing strippers outfitted in various motifs make up the bulk of this movie, though it also oddly features a werewolf and a mummy. A cult favourite since it is so strangely put together, so surreal in its plot and so blatantly low-budget. What many forget, however, is that Ed Wood did not direct this project, although he did write the screenplay. |
| 1967 |
For Love and Money |
Screenwriter |
|
| 1969 |
Operation Redlight |
Screenwriter |
|
| Gun Runners |
Screenwriter |
|
| One Million AC/DC |
Screenwriter |
|
| The Love Feast |
Director, Screenwriter, Actor - "Mr. Murphy" |
Also known as The Photographer, Pretty Models All In A Row. Soft-core pornographic movie with Ed in the lead (and comic relief). Stated by some sources to have been written and directed by Joseph F. Robertson, while others (including Robinson) state Ed filled those functions. |
| 1970 |
Mrs. Stone's Thing |
Actor - "Transvestite" |
Also known as The Sensuous Wife Ed's friend (and fellow veteran) Joseph F. Robertson made this film. |
| The Snow Bunnies |
Co-Screenwriter |
|
| Take it out in Trade |
Director, Screenwriter |
Wood's first completely pornographic picture. This picture mostly featured friends' ex-girlfriends and people from Ed Wood's neighborhood, most notably real-life sex worker, Nona Carver. Silent outtakes were uncovered and released by Something Weird Video in 1995. |
| Excited |
Director, Screenwriter |
Wood used the pseudonym of 'Akdov Telmig' (Vodka Gimlet). |
| The Venus Flytrap |
Screenwriter |
Japanese monster film starring James Craig as a scientist who creates sentient life from plants. Written by Ed in the 1950s, the film was released in America mistakenly under the name Revenge of Dr. X, a title that was meant to be tacked on to The Mad Doctor of Blood Island, but got on The Venus Flytrap, instead. |
| 1971 |
The Only House |
Director, Screenwriter |
Apparently a completely different adaptation of the novel of the same name. |
| Necromania |
Director, Screenwriter |
The screenplay to this Wood-directed movie is based on his own novel, The Only House. A married couple are having sexual problems and they decide to employ the assistance of a necromancer called Madame Helles. Helles' assistant Tanya takes care of them both physically before they meet the necromancer herself. It is ultra-cheap and was shot on 16 mm film for about $7,000. This movie was long thought lost; a copy of the softcore version surfaced in 1992 and the hardcore version was rediscovered by Wood fan Rudolph Grey in 2001. Ed is credited as "Don Miller" |
| 1972 |
The Class Reunion |
Co-Screenwriter |
|
| The Undergraduate |
Screenwriter |
Apparently an erotic spoof of The Graduate |
| The Cocktail Hostess |
Co-Screenwriter |
|
| Drop-out Wife |
Co-Screenwriter |
Also known as Pleasure Unlimited |
| 1974 |
Fugitive Girls |
Co-screenwriter, Actor - "Pops" and "Sheriff" |
There are at least three versions of this film. Fugitive Girls (also known as Five Loose Women) appears to be the complete film. Hot on the Trail contains more plot and less sex, while Women's Penitentiary VIII features more sex and less plot. |
| 1975 |
Sex Education Correspondence School |
Co-Director, Co-Screenwriter |
A collection of 8 mm sexual education movies |
| 1976 |
The Beach Bunnies |
Co-Screenwriter |
Also known as The Sun Bunnies |
| 1977 |
Hot Ice |
Assistant Director |
|
| 1985 |
Beach Blanket Bloodbath |
Screenwriter (posthumous) |
Near the end of his life, Ed was contacted by young filmmaker Fred Olen Ray and commissioned to write a script for a horror/comedy. The script was never completed and the film never made, but Ray shot a few minutes of the existing screenplay on the set of his film Star Slammer. The resulting footage was eventually released as an extra on a DVD release of The Bride and the Beast. |
| 1993 |
Hellborn |
Director, Actor - various (archive footage) |
Ed and actor Conrad Brooks planned a film called Hellborn and began shooting it in the mid-1950s. The film was never completed, but footage was used in Ed's films Night of the Ghouls and The Sinister Urge. The video release collected all footage still extant at that time. |
| Plan 69 From Outer Space |
based on screenplay |
A hardcore adult parody of Plan 9 From Outer Space. |
| 1994 |
Glen and Glenda |
Screenwriter (posthumous) |
A hardcore adult re-telling of Glen or Glenda. |
| 1995 |
Crossroads of Laredo |
Director, Screenwriter, Actor - "Cowboy" (posthumously completed) |
Originally shot in 1948 as Streets of Laredo, this was the first film Ed shot. He wrote, directed and appeared in it but the film was never completed in Ed's lifetime. Shot without a soundtrack, the final film was assembled with narration and songs written by Ed's ex-girlfriend Dolores Fuller. |
| 1997 |
I Awoke Early The Day I Died |
based on story (posthumous) |
Independent adaptation of Ed's last unproduced script. |
| 1998 |
I Woke Up Early The Day I Died |
Screenwriter (posthumous) |
This film, based on Ed's last unproduced script, stars Billy Zane and features performances from many established stars like Christina Ricci and John Ritter. |
| 2000 |
Devil Girls |
based on Ed's novel (posthumous) |
Independent production that adapts Ed's book of the same name. |
