Since I'm always interested in how Hungarians and Hungarian- Americans are thought of, stereotyped, and portrayed in the media, including Hollywood films, I decided to watch the film "Ed Wood" a second time.
The film is based on the true life story of a independent producer, the only one in his time who was writing, directing, and producing films other than Orson Wells, named Ed Wood. Always looking for creative ways to finance films that were B movies - horror - science fiction - he often employed people who were not actors but who had some money to invest. Many of the early fans of his movies were kids who attended matinees.
A possible exception to that rule of hiring unknowns and the talentless might be Bela Lugosi, known for portraying the menacing Hungarian capable of scaring you to death if not outright murder, a stereotype that stems from the mythologies of Count Dracula, installed in his castle in Transylvania.
In Ed's case he was a Bela Lugosi fan as a kid, met him in Hollywood when he was near 70 and near broke, as well as rumored to have been a drug addict for many years, a "washed up" actor. Ed was able to give Bela some employment as well as become a friend to the end, and so the actor achieved a brief revival of fame.
Ed himself is portrayed, by Johnny Depp, as endlessly optimistic and inventive, as well as a cross dresser who loves women and befriended and hired many eccentric characters included transsexuals. He may have never become well regarded or famous, but the wife who married him stayed with Ed 20 years to his death, early, of alcohol.
To give it a Film Noir effect, this film is in black and white, which is extremely effective.
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