?????HUH?????

[alandhopewell]

     This is stuck in the middle of Ed Wood's flick JAIL BAIT, for no reason I can fathom....

Cotton Watts - Ed Wood - JailBait better than Plan 9 from Outer Space

[Javakoala]

I want his shoes! His suit...not so much.

[Chainsawmidget]

The fact that it's Ed Wood is probably all the explanation you need. 

[Javakoala]

You know, people can rag on Ed Wood's movies, but the camera work, lighting and framing were all rather well done. Nice clear images. Unfortunately, everything else was pretty inept.

It's like wrapping a turd. It doesn't matter how nice the box, the ribbon, and the presentation; it's still a turd.

I still love his movies, stinky though they may be.

[VenomX73]

I enjoyed the dance... pretty smooth - wouldn't you say so?

[BluEyeDevil]

The sad part is that modern rap "artists" are pretty much doing the same thing.

[tracy]

A musical interlude....Ed Wood insanity to break up....well,the rest of the insanity. I love Ed Wood!

[Raffine]

You know, people can rag on Ed Wood's movies, but the camera work, lighting and framing were all rather well done. Nice clear images. Unfortunately, everything else was pretty inept.

Most of Wood's movies had veteran cinematographer William C. Thompson at the camera.

Thompson had been working since the early days of the silents and had a pretty respectable career. I assume he had fallen on hard times by the time the Wood films came around.

All in all, he took pretty nice pictures of Wood's turds. 

[Chainsawmidget]

Say what you will about the guy in blackface, he's got a nice suit and he dances a hell of a lot better than I ever could. 

[alandhopewell]

     Don't get me wrong....I'm a major Woodfan, and I'm not offended by the blackface-it just seems a strange thing to put there.

[MrMari]

Sorry, I can't find one thing redeemable about a white guy in black face.

[Javakoala]

After a little bit of research, the minstrel show clip is originally from a Ron Ormond film called Yes Sir Mr Bones from 1951. It's a fair bet that Wood used it for padding to hit a required running time, plus it saved him time and money and effort by avoiding rewrites and shooting additional footage.

Given Wood's nature, he either thought adding it would have been funny ("This will blow their minds.") or he just thought the story needed a hint of levity to breakup the "drama".

Further research indicates that some prints of Jail Bait had a striptease scene instead of the minstrel act, so maybe it was done to make it marketable to television. Let's see, blackface vs. stripTEASE...yeah, not really a lesser of the two evils when it comes to TV.

Welcome to the wacky world of Ed Wood.

[Chainsawmidget]

A bit more research tells me that Cotton Watts was actually a (somewhat) well know Black face performer, perhaps the very last, as he continued to do his act into the early 60s.

[alandhopewell]

A bit more research tells me that Cotton Watts was actually a (somewhat) well know Black face performer, perhaps the very last, as he continued to do his act into the early 60s.

     This ad dates from 1967....

[Chainsawmidget]

Okay, late sixties.  Best I could find was early.