Tear Jerker / Ed Wood

• Bela Lugosi's latter Hollywood years were truly heartbreaking, and Martin Landau definitely plays up to the material.
  • The real Manly Tears moment is the "I turned down Frankenstein" speech.
  • Ed watching the last footage of Bela that will ever exist with a look that expresses joy at capturing his idol on camera and disappointment that he'll never truly know how much people cared about him.
• A smaller one is in the interview scene when Ed enthusiastically tells the executive he has Bela Lugosi lined up, only for the exec to sneer about Lugosi being washed up. You see the heartbreak on Ed's face as he realizes how much Hollywood has discarded its star.
• Bela's near-suicide attempt, followed by his admission into rehab and detox. The entire sequence is both a Tear Jerker and Mood Whiplash, since it's so surprisingly disturbing.
  • And it's not even the first time Ed wanders into Bela's home to find him in some kind of state. Earlier in the film, Ed finds a drugged-out Bela on the floor, surrounded by pets, his face just the very picture of lost hope.
    Bela: Eddie, I'm so broke..... I don't know what I'm gonna do.
  • What's even sadder about the suicide attempt scene is that when Ed asks Bela what he wants, he replies "goulash." Being from Hungary, Bela probably grew up eating goulash and considered it a comfort food. It may have even represented a desire to go back to the simplicity of his childhood.
    • Fortunately, in Real Life, Dolores Fuller pampered him and was able to make genuine goulash for him.
  • What's even sadder is when he goes to the mental asylum to get cleaned up, he goes from intimidating the nurse just by his mere presence to a broken, suffering old man who's not ashamed of crying to show how helpless he is.
    Nurse: Oh my goodness, you gave me the willies! You look like that Dracula guy.
    Bela: My name is Bela Lugosi, I wish to commit myself.
    Nurse: For what reason?
    Bela: I [have] been a drug addict for twenty years. I need help!!
• A Deleted Scene on the DVD has Ed meet Tor Johnson's family. Tor's wife is cold, but firm with Ed and tells him to his face, "My husband is not a monster," given Ed's casting him in "Bride of the Monster" for his size and power.
  • Ed lying to Bela that he is cleared to leave rehab, when in reality he can't afford his friend's treatment anymore.
• Ed getting the call about Bela's death.
  (Ed finishes reading a sci-fi story to Kathy and the phone rings)
  Ed: Wood Productions. (face goes from a smile to deep sadness)
• Bela's funeral is genuinely sad, especially that final shot of him lying in his coffin in his classic Dracula suit and cape.
• Ed's "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
  • To clarify, despite his unwavering commitment to making movies and pursuing his dreams, the real Ed Wood never made any kind of genuine impression on the moviegoing public in his lifetime and died a penniless alcoholic. It was only until two years after his death that he started to gain the notoriety of being the "World's Worst Director" which, despite being a form of immortality in and of itself that it's entirely likely he wouldn't have been totally dismissive of, is still an ignominious "honor" that was undoubtedly a far cry from what he strived for.

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