Monday, 7 September 2009

We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives...




Greetings friends!




As well as having a passion for bad records I lust after bad movies too, in particular the works of Edward D Wood Junior, the actor, writer, producer and director of such cult classics as Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait, Bride of the Monster and - of course - the bad movie to beat 'em all, Plan 9 From Outer Space.



Wood's insane career has been documented elsewhere (and filmed, none to shabbily, with Johnny Depp in the title role), but if you need a recap try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_D._Wood,_Jr.



Ed, like many great directors including his idol Orson Welles, often drew on the same pool of talent for his films. One of his enduring stars was the TV psychic Criswell, famous for his wildly inaccurate predictions. Jeron Criswell King, to give him his full name, found cinematic infamy in Wood's movies, including Plan 9 and Orgy of the Dead. He was a flamboyant figure, with spit curled hair, a portentious speaking style and a wardrobe seemingly borrowed from Liberace. Wood employed the barking mad Criswell primarily because he owned his own coffin, in which he claimed to sleep and which often found its way into Wood's works.



He may be remembered as a failed psychic, but apparently he occasionally got it right: some sources claim that Criswell's most famous prediction was made onthe Jack Parr Program in March 1963, when he predicted that then-President John F Kennedy would not run for reelection in 1964 because something would happen to him in November 1963.



But we love him for something else. The Amazing Criswell passed from this life in 1982, yet some 13 years later his only 45 single was released, the dreadful ditty that is Someone Walked Over My Grave.


And here it is. Enjoy!



6 comments:

  1. Truly rotten in every conceivable fashion!

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  2. I know! Isn't it delicious? Criswell was something else, a true eccentric. Something we're sadly missing these days of bland media slebs

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  3. I could only wish that the vinyl surface noise was even more pronounced as to render it even less discernable.

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  4. Knowing that you are a writer, I must apologize for my typo, make that "discernible"!

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  5. Greetings ... Who said he didn't predict his own death ?... Truly deathlicious ...

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  6. Youtube link - featuring a pink pressing of the single:

    http://youtu.be/vamAsUv_sX0

    ReplyDelete

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