I WOKE UP EARLY THE DAY I DIED (United States)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: An escaped mental patient loses the loot from a robbery and goes on a search for it. This is basically a silent film. It often borrows its style from Chaplin and other comics, plus adding some manic style of its own. Do not expect to see much Ed Wood here. Rating: 3 (0 to 10), high -1 (-4 to +4)
- Hollywood really is the place where dreams come true. Clearly with the renewed popularity of Ed Wood somebody wanted to have a new Ed Wood film to cash in with. Supposedly this is a lost script from Ed Wood. There is little about I WOKE UP EARLY THE DAY I DIED to remind one of Ed Wood's style (or lack thereof). If this unfilmed Wood script really exists not much of it seems to have made it to the screen. - A lot of familiar people in small roles. Billy Zane is the star, going from a huge-budget film called TITANIC to a very low-budget film. He is actually better as a comic actor than a serious one. - Some scenes could be out of an Ed Wood film so either parts really are by Wood or are made to be in his style. But there are not enough of those. - No dialog except on pieces of stock footage. The claim was that this was the first time that was done. Actually it wasn't. - Tippi Hedren, John Ritter, and Bud Cort in small roles. - A lot of slapstick. (Anyone remember Wood even putting intentional humor in a film? His films usually took themselves very seriously.) - Hip and occasionally funny but unlikely to be authentic. Not funny enough to deserve a good rating.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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