Review of Bride of the Monster (1955) by Shane D — 29 Nov 2009

This is probably the closest Ed Wood ever came to making a decent movie. It still has some major flaws, but they just add to the charm of the whole thing. Lugosi and Wood were made for each other. They needed each other, and although neither of them actually got the results they wanted out of their movie partnership, they did find a kindred spirit in each other.

Wood and his gang of misfits were the original guerrilla filmmakers. The fact that the octopus in the movie was stolen from some studio more than makes up for the fact that it was totally inanimate. The acting, although definitely not top shelf, was still no worse than some other b-movies I've seen from that era.

The plot is pretty basic, but it works. All in all I'd say that from a technical stand point, this is probably Wood's best work, Glen Or Glenda is still my personal favorite, followed very closely by Plan 9.