People are voting emotionally.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I had heard of Ed Wood from people in the past so I never looked for any of his movies.If people talk about him, he must suck.Boy was I ever right.I didn't search for this movie and didn't know it was a Wood movie until the opening credits.This movie takes place in a world where everyone has thirty foot high ceilings and a liquor stand/bar type thing.Everyone wears a suit, even when they are out committing crimes.They even put their tie back on before they leave jail when they get bailed out.The main character is a guy named Don Gregor and that's funny to me because I know a girl named Dawn Gregor.The only good thing in the movie happens rather early.We are treated to a great performance by a man in blackface.It has absolutely nothing to do with the story either.None of the characters where there watching him.It was blackface just for the fun of it.So Don's dad is a plastic surgeon who carries a house call bag with him.Because that makes sense.Anyway, Don and a friend decide to rob a theater late at night and of course the door is unlocked.His friend says the guard will know the combination to the safe.The only guard in the history of the world who would have the safe combination.And the guard does know it.Don kills the guard and you immediately hear police sirens.Then they get chased by the cops at a blistering twenty miles an hour and have no trouble eluding them.Even though no one saw who shot the guard, the radio news announces that Don did it.So Don goes to his dad's office in the middle of the night and dad and his secretary are there!Then the cops show up and they know everything.It was literally dark through the entire movie and everyone in the world was wide awake.Did I mention that there was lame flamenco guitar and piano in the background through the entire movie?As if that wasn't bad enough, the ending was even worse.And why does the DVD cover have a man with a bandaged face in a jail cell?That never even happened.Never see this.

The next movie in my Ed Wood box that I did not see was Jail Bait, one of the smaller treasures and not so well known films of his since he was more known for bad movies which is sad. Jail Bait, I wasn't sure what to expect, but honestly I was wondering if it was about underage sexual acts since I know Ed Wood ended up directing porn, I didn't know if he had a thing with weird sexual stuff. I mean the last film that I saw of his was Glen or Glenda where he had a man practically raping a woman, who knows how far he would go? Turns out the title is a complete opposite of what you would expect. Instead we actually have a very decent story, surprisingly you would think that Ed Wood should have been a writer for the Twilight Zone. This story would remind you of that, this was the kind of creepy story that could have even been Tales from the Crypt material. The villain getting what was coming to him after committing such a gruesome act, justice being so sweet and poetic. Ed Wood proves that he was meant for film with this piece.Don Gregor, the son of a plastic surgeon, is jailed by the police for carrying an unlicensed handgun. Inspector Johns and Lt. Lawrence suspect he is an associate of gangster Vic Brady. Don's sister Marilyn bails her brother out of jail. Dr. Gregor is aware of his son's secret life, but believes Don is a good person and that everything will "straighten itself out nicely." Brady plans to rob a theater. Don is reluctant to become involved but is bullied into participating by Brady. During the robbery, Don kills a night watchman and Brady wounds the theater's bookkeeper. The two crooks get away with the theater's payroll. but Brady senses Don is having second thoughts about his involvement. Fearing Don will turn himself in to the police, Brady kills him and stuffs his body into a closet. In order to elude the police, Brady decides to undergo plastic surgery. He contacts Dr. Gregor, telling him he is holding his son hostage until plastic surgery is completed. Dr. Gregor begins the surgery in Brady's apartment, but discovers his son's corpse in the closet. He controls himself, and completes the surgery. Two weeks later, Brady's bandages are removed, and, to the everyone's horror and amazement, you will have to watch the film to find out what happens next.While the acting isn't anything spectacular, it's actually better than the usual Ed Wood films. See, most of Ed Wood films I'm expecting something really bad, but Jail Bait took me by surprise with the writing and actors. Because he just couldn't afford the good actors or sets, but he did something special with this film. I loved the ending and makes me wonder if this was one of the first twist endings to happen on film. You know that the villain can't get away with this murder and you don't want him too, but I have to admit it had me on my toes because I couldn't predict what the doctor would do to him when he asks for the plastic surgery. It's a great story and I feel awful that Ed Wood didn't get more credit for this film vs. his "so bad it's good" movies. Jail Bait went to show that he did have a talent and passion for noir film and I wish that he could have given us more. However, Jail Bait is a small treasure that I would recommend for anyone who loves film, given the proper chance, this is a good movie.6/10

This movie is a riot. I believe it is actually worse than Ed Wood's more famous classic "Plan 9 From Outer Space". This story is every bit as dumb as Plan 9 and the dialog is even worse - in fact it's a howl. I swear Ed Wood must have written this whole script in a day and never once looked back a second time at a line he had written. There are some really illogical parts to the plot here. 1. Why would the son of a famed plastic surgeon resort to being a stickup man when his wealthy father could give him anything he wanted in the whole world, easy as pie? 2. When the young man and his 'hardened criminal' pal are stealing the movie theater payroll (!) they get the night watchman to open the safe. Why on EARTH would a night watchman have the combination to the safe he is supposed to be guarding? What possible business could a night watchman have, opening a safe full of money he is guarding? It's ridiculous, but just another example of the depth of thought that went into this storyline. (When the young man and his criminal friend rob the theater, they relieve the night watchman of his holstered gun - and when they take it out, it looks like a little kid's tiny toy cap pistol, dwarfed against the holster. Hilarious.)3. At the end of the story the plastic surgeon grafts the face of his dead son onto the 'hardened criminal' so he will be arrested for murder. Other than that idiocy, amazingly the 'criminal' now has the height and build of the dead son! And everyone KNOWS that the face has been transplanted but no matter, that is the face of the guy who shot the watchman so the person who now HAS the face is the murderer! Ed Wood whipped these bizarre plot twists out left and right and seemed to think they were reasonable.4. The police detective asks the woman who works at the theater two or three times, is she SURE she saw Don Gregor actually shoot the night watchman, and she insists yes, she did. But she ran out of the room at least five seconds before the watchman was shot. There's no way she saw it happen!5. The watchman at the theater was a retired police officer who got 'bored' after he quit working so he took the job as the watchman. Yeah, that's a way to add some excitement to your life. Baby sit an empty building and a safe. Oh, and when he gets killed, even though he's just a night watchman now, it doesn't matter - the guys who killed him are COP killers.The musical background is also weird. The whole soundtrack consists of someone rapidly strumming a Flamenco guitar and someone playing random-yet-dramatic notes on a piano, no matter what is going on. The sets are stunningly cheap but the hardened criminal's girlfriend defends him to another woman by saying "Look around, does this stuff look cheap to you?" and the criminal himself points out how he has surrounded her with "all this luxury". The place looks just a cut or two above Ralph Kramden's apartment - totally cheap and spartan. Some luxury! And if I'm not mistaken, the tiny bungalow where the famous plastic surgeon lives is the same house Bela Lugosi walked out of in Plan 9, distraught over the death of his wife and "never to return." It's a pretty rinky-dink place for a famed plastic surgeon to live.Some great dialog lines from the movie: Marilyn Gregor: "You haven't failed, Dad!" Dr. Gregor: "Words, my daughter! Just words! The proof is in the FACT!"At the beginning of the payroll heist, with the watchman standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF the locked safe.... Watchman: "What safe? What combination?"Giving the police information of what she saw when the watchman was shot... Theater employee: "I'm afraid I wasn't very brave. I fainted early in the game."Sipping the drink his daughter made him.... Dr. Gregor: "Ahh. That's a good drink for a parched throat."Describing his phone call with the police... Dr. Gregor: "We had a long telephone conversation this afternoon, earlier in the day."Hoodlum Vic Brady bickering with his girlfriend: Brady: "He wants to give himself up!" Girlfriend "What?!" Brady: "What do I have to do, repeat myself all night? I said -" Girlfriend: "Yeah, yeah, I heard you. I heard you the first time." Brady: "Well then stop jibbering! I gotta think." Girlfriend: "What are you gonna do about it?" Brady: "Shut up!... Whaddya think it is I want to think about?"What else needs be said? It's a scream!

This is Ed Wood's film noir. The jail bait of the title is a gun. Go figure. But this is a Wood film after all and these kinds of anomalies just happen. It is, after all, a movie populated by people living in houses with curtains for doors.The story is about a young guy who ends up in bad company and winds up killing a security guard in a heist. The police pursue him but he is killed by his evil partner. This bad dude subsequently forces the dead guy's father – a plastic surgeon – into giving him a new face, and hence different identity.Many of the cast from Wood's earlier Glen or Glenda return here. And like that movie the acting and dialogue is reassuringly atrocious. When Dolores Fuller and Theodora Thurman engage in a conversation towards the end of the film it's a bad acting master class; at moments like this Wood's movies create their own hyper-reality of the absurd, where almost anything ridiculous seems possible. The ending is a case in point. It's truly and utterly ridiculous. The doctor knows that his son is dead, so gives the bad guy his son's face. This is so that he will get arrested by the cops for the murder his son committed. But what makes the scene so insanely stupid is that everyone, including the cops, knows that the guy has had plastic surgery, therefore, his face is false! This kind of illogical plot-line is par for the course in the weird world of Ed Wood.Another notable aspect of Jail Bait is the soundtrack. Imagine a 50's crime thriller set to the music for a spaghetti western and you will be in the right ball park. The persistent strumming guitar is used everywhere irrespective of what is happening on screen. Another thing that seems to be used everywhere is the small brass plated picture that seems to adorn almost every room in the movie. A drinking game could be based around the appearances of this picture. It's hilariously omnipresent.Jail Bait is full of the kind of things that make Ed Wood movies fun. It might not be as enjoyable as the full of nonsense camp classic Plan 9 From Outer Space but it's still quite hilarious. Rotten production values and negligible talent behind and in front of the camera it may be but it's myriad of failures all add up to something entertaining. This is just what usually happens with Wood films for some reason. Go figure.