Review of Bride of the Monster (1955) by Bryan G — 22 Oct 2009

I know that Edward D Wood Jr. isn't one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, but he has become one of my personal favorites. Tim Burton's classic Ed Wood bio-pic was what introduced me to this infamous director, and Bride of the Monster has been a film I've been dying to see since it was largely featured in Burton's film. So I decided why not finally get around to doing so for this year's 31 Days of Halloween?

The plot to Bride of the Monster is rather hard to follow, so I'm not going to spend too much time trying to summarize it in my review. All I know is that there is an evil scientist, Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi), who is experimenting with nuclear power trying to create an army of "atomic supermen which will conquer the world!" The rest of the film involves a newspaper reporter doing a story on the strange happenings in the area where Vornoff is located, and a group of police investigating the same happenings.

Two reasons why I like this film are its stars Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson. Even though the material is terrible, I think Lugosi does a pretty good job in the role of Vornoff. I've read that he had severe health and mental deterioration at this point in his life, but he still commands the screen like a pro. Johnson isn't given much to do in the role of Lobo, other than capture people, tie them up and be whipped by Vornoff whenever he disobeys a command. But Johnson is a great cult icon, and this is one of his more memorable performances.

Much like any Edward D. Wood Jr. film, Bride of the Monster is plagued by many problems. The dialogue is still terrible, but there are a few moments of humor that garnered a laugh from me. And people in the film tend to do things that are hard to understand, like the group of hunters who go hunting in the middle of the night. And the special effects are awful. There is a poorly seemed together bit of stock footage of an octopus swimming that gets tied in with a giant rubber replica of an octopus attacking people. The replica doesn't seem to work though, so actors seem to just throw themselves into it and wrap the thing's arms around themselves. Guess that is one thing the Ed Wood movie was actually factual about.

Bride of the Monster ends with what could be considered a wrestling match of sorts. Just another odd step for this bizarre little film to have taken. I know that Edward D. Wood Jr. probably isn't favored by many people, but I can't help but enjoy the sort of schlock that he has made during his career. Bride of the Monster pales in comparison to the awesome terribleness that is Plan 9 from Outer Space, but it is still a lot of fun to watch.