Bride of the Monster (1955) is a ‘big budget’ movie from “legendary” director Ed Wood. Wood is considered one, if not, the worst director ever, though he can not compete with Coleman Francis and his trilogy of the worst movies ever (The Beast of Yucca Flats, The Skydivers & Red Zone Cuba). Wood’s movies are at least laughably bad but Francis defined “this movie sucks”.
Wood would often show up on set wearing his wife’s clothing and even showed up in a bridal gown. Before “Bride of the Monster” Wood wrote, directed and starred in “Glen or Glenda” (1953) about a transvestite murder investigation. Also in the film was Bela Lugosi, who’s fame was playing Dracula among other horror movies of the time. Lugosi is the star of “Bride of the Monster” as well. Both movies are considered some of the worst movies ever along with another Ed Wood “masterpiece” “Plan 9 From Outer Space”. Lugosi is in that one as well.
To his credit, Wood befriended Lugosi when he fell on hard times and in declining health to give him work.
Let's Try to Figure Out What this Movie is About
Two hunters in the woods, let’s call them George and Junior, get caught in a bad storm and try to seek shelter in what is rumored to be a haunted mansion. Greeted by a mad scientist Dr. Varnoff (Bela Lugosi) who tells them to go away. They refuse and Lugosi’s assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson), a mutant created by him scares one off and captures the other. One becomes part of the experiments, the other is devoured by a mutant nuclear fueled octopus that’s part of the experiments. The police decide to investigate the missing hunters, employ a foreign scientist to figure out Varnoff’s motives. A snoopy Lois Lane type reporter (Loretta King) decides to investigate on her own and gets captured by Varnoff and Lobo to be turned into a mate, bride, mutant for either Lobo or the octopus. Who knows, but Lobo falls in love with her. The dedicated police Lieutenant (Tony McCoy) and their Keystone Cops squad go to rescue her as a random nuclear storm erupts.
How To Make A Debacle With Really Trying
Lugosi was already a faded star in poor health and as much as he tries it shows. He describes his assistant Lobo as “harmless as a kitchen” which was just him blowing his lines. Stand ins for Lugosi, who were not even close to looking like him, did the minimal physical action for him. He’s Bela Lugosi so you got cut him some slack. Tor Johnson was know as the “Super Swedish Angel” in professional wrestling before becoming a legendary “B-movie” monster movie actor. He shaved off his flowing blonde hair to look more menacing and was limited to lines like “Time for go to bed”. Ironically, his last film was Coleman Francis’s “The Beast of Yucca Flats”. He’s always comically menacing. Wood was rumored to have stole the mechanical octopus from Republic Pictures but forgot to take the motor. The actors had to take the arms and wrap them around them and splash around for the action scenes. Stock footage was used for the nuclear storms.
The movie is a masterpiece of BAD “B” monster horror movies. There is one thing Ed Wood can say for himself. ‘Thank God I’m not Coleman Francis”. As awful as they are, people still watch Wood’s movies. Francis’s should just be burned.
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