Final Curtain (2012) User Reviews

Pretty good Wood

[HEFILM · 5/10 · 26 August 2016]

Go in understanding this is basically a story or radio play read while an actor reacts and searches through an empty theater. The fact that it was shot at a real, at the time, abandoned theater helps greatly as does Woods good choices of stock music to support the voice over and visuals.

For all that it is kind of creepy and moody--the crazed voice over somehow works with the purposefully twisty words. Wood keeps the visual pace pretty fast as well as far as the editing goes. The acting and voice over are pretty stagey but given the stage setting Wood gets away with this too---it has a legitimate camp value in the true meaning of the word.

Nice final shot too--by the way.

Some of what people love/hate Wood for is really the fact that he almost never had enough money to pull off a film that was slick enough to not have distracting--or at times-hilarious--low budget defects.

With this movie the fact that it's so limited in scope prevents total low budget lapses--for the most part.

If you like CARNIVAL OF SOULS and or DAUGHTER OF HORROR this has some of the effectiveness and mood of those--though this is a short not a feature.

If you like Wood--because you like him or like him because you think he sucks, let's face it you won't want to miss this and should not miss it.

One of the Better Wood Movies

[arfdawg-1 · 4/10 · 13 March 2020]

Don't get me wrong, this isnt a good movie, but it IS one of the better Wood vehicles.

Maybe because it's so short. You gotta wonder how toasted Wood was when he wrote these films. It must have cost a few hundred to make it. It's pretty much nothing but a guy standing back stage and a voice over of him explaining his silly thoughts.

If Edgar Allan Poe Was Awful

[AllNewSux · 4/10 · 4 July 2016]

An actor wanders around a darkened, empty theater and over reacts to things...there's the whole movie for you. Now you don't have to waste 20 minutes. Okay it's not quite THAT boring and I know Ed Wood fanatics are going to want to see it. After all, my fanaticism is what brought me to watch this TV pilot. The lead actor is not exactly terrible, but he has nothing to work with! The narration by Dudley Manlove is just atrocious, but some viewers may find that charming. The few scares that are present are on par with a Scooby Doo episode, but I believe Wood put a little horror twist on the ending which I did enjoy. The twist I refer to is alluded to in the prologue - "Even the Devil rejects them. Doomed to haunt the Earth throughout the endless reaches of time". Even I gotta admit, that's pretty damn cool. It would have been nice to see what would have come from an Ed Wood anthology horror series, but as a TV exec I probably would have passed on this pilot as well.

Technically Probably the Best Thing Wood Did

[Michael_Elliott · 21 June 2012]

Final Curtain (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This short film was originally meant as the pilot episode for a TV series that never got off the ground but the interesting thing is that this was actually made before The Twilight Zone and it's perhaps the best thing Edward D. Wood, Jr. did in his career. The setting is an abandoned theater where an actor (Duke Moore) begins to walk around and feels that he's not alone. This film was lost for several decades until a print recently turned up and until then the only thing really known about it was that rumor had it Bela Lugosi, who was meant to play the actor, died while reading the screenplay. I think it's safe to say that this is the best thing Wood ever did on a technical level. There's no question this has a very low budget but I thought Wood actually did a good job at building up some nice atmosphere. He also did a very good job with the editing as he's trying to do a psychological horror film and one clearly influenced by the work of Edgar Allan Poe. I think this is a major discovery for fans of the director simply because it shows him doing a horror film and in a way that isn't seen in his other works. I'd add that the dialogue isn't nearly what you'd expect from Wood as it's actually decent! There are some major problems with the film though. For starters, at 22-minutes it's a tad bit too long for its own good as around the ten-minute mark you start asking yourself what the point is. You also keep wondering why the actor is walking around as it's never made clear as to why he doesn't just leave. I also didn't care for the narration by Dudley Manlove as at times it's way too over-the-top. With that said, overall this is a fairly impressive film by Wood's standards and something his fans will want to check out.

If only Dudley would shut up!

[microx96002 · 3/10 · 25 July 2020]

This could have been something if someone like the great Boris Karloff would have narrated it. But, unfortunately we get Dudley (Plan 9 from Outer Space) Manlove, and that is a little bit over the top. In fact annoying would be a better term. It's a good thing I'm an Ed Wood fan, or I couldn't bear the short 20 minute running time.

Too bad the network execs weren't completely insane...otherwise this MIGHT have been a TV series.

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 20 October 2021]

"Final Curtain" is a pilot for a failed TV series from Ed Wood that was assumed lost. However, back in 2012, it was shown at a film festival and since then someone posted it to YouTube.

The film is not as horrible as some of Ed Wood's other productions...not that this is a glowing endorsement. But if you didn't know it was from Wood, you might think it was some art film!

The pilot is much like major portions of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" in that it obviously was shot without sound and to 'cleverly' get past this, there's some ultra-bizarro narration and weird edits. As I said, it seems much more like an art film than anything else....a very BAD art film. Most of it simply consist of a guy in a tux staring about an empty theater as nonsensical narration supposedly tells his increasingly distraught thoughts of terror.

While this is a bad film and it's obvious why the proposed series never was made, for laughs I suggest you show the film (without the opening credits that say it's from Ed Wood) to a pretentious friend. Tell them it's a lost Ingmar Bergman film he made for American TV...and watch them wax philosophical about this great pilot and how it would have changed TV for the better.

Overall, very bad but not nearly as bad as Wood could have done!

The narration ruins it

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 10 March 2017]

FINAL CURTAIN was an unreleased pilot episode for a TV series that never was. It's chiefly of interest today for the participation of none other than Edward D. Wood, Jr. as writer and director. It says something that this low budget cheapie, which has barely any incident in the narrative, is one of the best-directed productions he ever made.

The programme itself really isn't up to much and you're almost glad that nothing came of it. Duke Moore plays an old actor alone at night in a theatre who becomes convinced that he's being haunted by a vampire. The setting is rather creepy and Wood's direction isn't too bad either, but the whole thing is spoilt by the over the top narration courtesy of Dudley Manlove. Manlove is no Criswell, and his over-excited commentary robs this film of its best intentions.

Unsold Pilot That Didn't go to Waste

[heyfellows · 2/10 · 12 January 2020]

I've often wondered just why Duke Moore had to be dressed in a tuxedo during the first half of Night of the Ghouls. Now I know. Ed tried to sell this television pilot but got no takers. He couldn't let this valuable footage go to waste so he inserted it into NOTG even though it makes no sense in the movie, either, thus Duke having to match up with the stock footage. Wood must have learned film producing under Jules White. Final Curtain is an Ed Wood stream of conciousness, which means it's about twice as long as it should be. As a one reeler it might have been OK, but at 2 reels it's strictly for the Ed Wood completist that has to see everything.

Ed Wood TV

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 22 April 2022]

Narrated by Dudley Manlove (Eros from Plan 9 from Outer Space) and intended for TV, Final Curtain would have been an episode of Portraits of Terror. If it seems familiar, well, that's because some of the footage would be in Night of the Ghouls.

That said, a complete version of the episode was long thought lost until a copy was found by Jason Insalaco, great-nephew of one of Ed Wood's returning players Paul Marco.

Duke Moore (Lt. Harper from Plan 9) is the actor - in a role intended for Bela Lugosi wandering a theater, stalked by a vampire (Jeannie Stevens, whose only other role was in Night of the Ghouls, but that doesn't really count because it's just repurposed footage from this short).

Wood would recycle dialogue from this in his book Orgy of the Dead. Sadly, the world would never see a weekly series from Ed and we're all the worse for it.

I watched this...

[songod-95003 · 6/10 · 13 March 2020]

...strictly because Bela Lugosi died while reading the script! I imagine had he not he'd have played The Actor and considering his final screen appearance would be Wood's epic-ally appalling "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (he was dead before that film was ever made but Wood had stock footage of him he inserted just to use his name!), this would have been a better "final curtain".

While slow even for 20 minutes, the mood created by the cinematographer and Wood is exceptionally better than anything I have seen by Wood.

I agree with many reviews here who say the narration was over the top and took away some of that mood. Nonetheless, an enjoyable short for fans of Wood and Lugosi. A great "what if?" had Bela lived.

Ed Wood's suspense pilot

[gortx · 24 August 2020]

It's basically a radio drama with pictures. Duke Moore stumbles around a large empty theater while Dudley Manlove drones Ed Wood's dialogue on and on and on. When the Duke finally comes across a 'surprise' behind a door (Jeannie Stevens) it looks like dialogue might break out.............but, no. Duke closes the door and Manlove drones some more. Cinematographer William C. Thompson gives it a better look than it deserves. The music and sound FX aren't bad, but, again, those latter two elements would have worked just as well on radio. It's no surprise that even in an era with shows like Lights Out and Tales of the Unexpected, there were no takers for this talky nothing of a pilot. At least Wood got to recycle some of it for NIGHT OF THE GHOULS.