hrkepler Bela Lugosi gives magnificently hammy performance as a mad scientist Eric Vornoff whose only intention is to create an 'atomic super beast'. This was the last time horror master played charismatic villain and it was Lugosi's last speaking role in general. This Ed Wood directed science-fiction horror piece is by the numbers genre film with Cold War paranoia theme of the 1950's. Except this one has Wood's inept directing, editing and ingenious use of stock footage. Overall 'Bride of the Monster' is above usual Wood's camp, as again the screenplay was written together with Alex Gordon who probably had much more knowledge about structuring the screenplay. Most of the cast did the best they could with such tedious lines, so one can say 'Bride of the Monster' is probably best acted Ed Wood film, well, at least not so woodenly acted. The film uses almost every genre clichés from that era, and it does it with such a proud appearance like every idea and plot device had been genially original. The pathetically unmovable octopus has become one of the greatest golds of unintentional comedy when actors roll themselves over the rubber puppet while screaming.Some people claim that Ed Wood was behind his times, but no one cannot say that his movies doesn't have that certain charm and feeling of filmmaker's warm heart to it. Wood was untalented, but he was determined to create these wonderfully awful movies with aplomb and artistry that only disillusioned madman certain in his own talents can produce.

gizmomogwai A film whose making was immortalized in Tim Burton's comedy Ed Wood (1994), Bride of the Monster is actually much worse than Burton makes it out to be. Watching the (fictionalized) film, it looked better than Glen or Glenda or Plan 9, particularly with the way Martin Landau delivered his lines with such force and really did make that octopus look alive. He gave real Bela Lugosi a run for his money. In this film, that octopus is obviously fake and incapable of movement. When someone lands on it and it's just dead, the only thing you can think of is how cheap this film must be. An attempt is also made to splice together footage of a living octopus and an actor being dragged into the water, but Wood did not make them mesh. Later, Lugosi becomes a monster himself, but you can hardly realize it because he looks simply the same.Beyond the failure of the special effects, Bride of the Monster is characterized by the same awful dialogue and acting seen in Wood's other work. Even Lugosi is lacking in the acting department- and how waving his hand puts people to sleep, I do not know. So sad his career ended with films like this. The story is an attempt at science fiction that is totally devoid of science or substance. Any enjoyment people take in this film is strictly ironic- meaning, "so bad it's good." But I think it's debatable if it can even be considered that.

mark.waltz When Bela Lugosi pulls out his whip and begins to pummel the much larger Tor Johnson, you've got to laugh because of the difference in their size. Bela Lugosi by this time was in his 70's, way beyond frail, yet he is not at all afraid of slapping the model for one of the most popular Halloween masks ever. Even less than a decade after his last major Hollywood release ("Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"), Lugosi looked completely like a different person. His teaming with Ed Wood (or Edward D. Wood Jr. as the Orson Welles wanna-bee billed himself) dominated his later years, and with the exception of an "Old Mother Reilly" film and a wretched film with a team who were a pale imitation of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, his movie work was all gotten through who is today called "the worst director ever". This movie is basically a recap of everything Lugosi had done at Monogram or PRC in the 1940's. It is especially close to the highly melodramatic Universal serial "The Phantom Creeps", and if made on a much lower budget than that chapter play is still a lot more entertaining, mainly because as camp and for historical purposes, it plays better today. That is because the documenting of the filming of this with Tim Burton's wonderful "Ed Wood" (which won Martin Landau a well deserved Oscar as Lugosi) shows the big dreams of the director (Johnny Depp in a sweet, childlike performance) making what he considered to be a masterpiece yet the rest of the world considered to be crap.Yes, this is crap, but sometimes that is what makes the garden grow. The laughs are abundant here, and "Ed Wood" is no help in decreasing those laughs with the filming this cult favorite, whether it is Lugosi battling with the unmoving octopus or Lillian King (who financed the movie) encountering Dolores Fuller, Wood's previous leading lady, in one scene hysterically recreated. Of course, Lugosi does his best to give a moving performance, and in the scene where he's confronted by an old colleague, the threat is there to break your heart. Lugosi always believed that even with the lamest dialogue, you had to feel it in your heart to make it work, and somehow, he is almost right. Yet, a mad scientist in 1939 utilizing exploding mechanical spiders or a steel monster to do his bidding, or having a giant bat killing his enemies is the same as a 70-something year old man who briefly gains the strength of a 30 year old. You can't take stuff like this seriously, but you can find a lot of fun in enjoying it for being delightfully bad and the stuff that Hollywood legends are made of.

bkoganbing Bride Of The Monster was Bela Lugosi's last completed film and was done for that legendary director of bad movies, Ed Wood, Jr. At least Lugosi didn't live to see Plan Nine From Outer Space, he was spared that humiliation.Once again Bela is a mad scientist who has a scheme to create a race of atomic supermen and he's got a great old prototype in Tor Johnson formerly the Swedish Angel of pro wrestling fame. In fact Tor's nocturnal wanderings have given rise to a monster legend in and around Lugosi's secluded digs in the woods. That and the pet giant octopus he keeps around for no discernible reason other than to dispose of unwanted guests.Bela has all kinds of people on his trail, the cops, a Lois Lane type reporter who is girlfriend to one of the cops and another scientist from Lugosi's home country who wants to bring him back so he can do his work there. Bela however is a believer that a prophet has no honor in his home country and disposes of that unwanted guest via the octopus.The octopus and Ed Wood's inability to use it somewhat realistically are the main reasons that this Ed Wood classic is remembered today. I just read a very thorough biography of Lugosi and the rubber octopus was the one John Wayne struggled with in Wake Of The Red Witch. It was the property of Republic Pictures. But Republic was slowly going out of business so Wood got the thing from Herbert J. Yates somehow, he rented it, Yates sold it to him in a fire sale, or he just gave it to him there not being a big market for giant rubber octopuses. Now that thing would bring thousands of dollars in an on line auction if it still exists. Even with a missing tentacle, broken off during the shooting of Bride Of The Monster.Not much else to recommend it, cheesy sets, acting on the junior high school level, and a man with no eye for special effects directing this epic. Still worth a few laughs though.