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Film: Bride of the Monster
Year: 1955
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr
Writer: Edward D. Wood Jr. and Alex Gordon
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson and Tony McCoy
Review:
This was a film that I originally learned about through the Horror Show Guide Encyclopedia. I watched it when working through the letter B and didn’t fully appreciate it. It is now interesting to revisit this one after watching Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. The making of this film was featured in that with the issues they went through. This popped up again as a Voyage through the FiVes rewatch.
Synopsis: a mad doctor attempts to create atomic supermen.
We start this with two guys being outside and they get caught in the rain. This duo is Mac (Bud Osborne) and Jake (John Warren). It has been raining for some time so they’re looking for shelter. They find it in a nearby house that is supposed to be abandoned. Someone is home though, Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi). He tries to send them away, but due to the weather, they’re refusing. That is until Dr. Vornoff’s assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson) appears. They flee thinking he is the monster of the marsh that is causing disappearances in this area.
We then shift our focus to inside of the house. Despite how large and angry Lobo is, he’s not the monster. Dr. Vornoff messes with switches and he watches through a window where an octopus appears. It is released from its container. It then attacks the two men we saw fleeing. One is able to get off a shot from his gun before being pulled under the water.
This then cuts to the local police station. There’s a bumbling officer behind the desk of Kelton (Paul Marco). A paperboy comes in, played by William ‘Billy’ Benedict. The boy is sent away and the officer takes the papers to his superior. He’s knocked down a peg by his boss, Capt. Robbins (Harvey B. Dunn), when he learns that the boy was right that the captain wanted him to bring the papers in directly.
It is here that another officer enters the office. He is Lt. Dick Craig (Tony McCoy). Capt. Robbins shows him the gun that was found out in the marshes, but no bodies. They discuss what could have happened and the existence of a monster. Regardless, there are a high number of disappearances in the area that cannot go unnoticed. Dick is engaged to marry a newspaper woman named Janet Lawton (Loretta King). She wants to know why the police are covering up what is happening. They convince her that she’s reading into things and giving possible explanations. She isn’t satisfied though and starts her own investigation.
It is here that a Prof. Strowski (George Becwar) shows up, trying to discredit the possibility of a monster. He was hired at Loch Ness. Dick agrees to take him out to the area. What he doesn’t know is that Janet is also going out there. Everyone converges on Dr. Vornoff’s home. He isn’t who he seems to be, along with another character. What the mad doctor’s true plan is something much more sinister as the synopsis said.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this film isn’t as bad as people are making it out to be. Did director/co-writer Ed Wood Jr. cut corners? Sure. He didn’t have a large budget to work with and got things to work the best way that he knew how. The dialogue is a bit stiff at times and the story is simple. It fits the era though. There is more that could have helped make that work better by going a farther, but after this rewatch, this is average. Let me go into why.
Now that I’ve set that up, I like the idea here. We have strange disappearances happening in this marsh. The police haven’t been able to figure out why and that is because the monster has a tank that it goes into each morning. Dr. Vornoff is hiding it. It is a bit convenient that they didn’t realize this doctor is living out here. He’d be the prime suspect if they were truly searching the area. I do think he could get away with it for a stretch if no bodies are found. It makes me wonder how people know they went missing here. There are minor plot holes that need filled and simple enough changes would fix it.
Then going along with this, there does seem to be two different stories that are meshed together. The disappearances are what bring the police, this professor and the reporter to search the area. There is then this octopus monster that is responsible for those. We know that as the audience. What doesn’t make sense is Dr. Vornoff and his true experiment. We see more of this after Janet is taken. Prof. Strowski is mixed up in it as well. This part just feels like an add-on without fully being thought out as well.
I think I’ll then take this over to discuss the acting performances. These aren’t as bad as you’d expect. Lugosi is giving it his all. He just doesn’t have a lot to work with. Johnson isn’t great here, but from my understanding, he was a professional wrestler that Wood became friends with. Due to his size, he makes for a good henchman. He’s just not giving much outside of that. McCoy and King are fine as the true heroes here. More fleshing out of the characters would help, but their performances were fine. Other than that, the rest of the cast were amateur but fit what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. This is where it is hit or miss for me. I love this old dark house angle as well as the mad scientist. The only problem there is that it’s been done as early as the 1920s. The house that was used was good. The isolation of where it is located as well. The interiors look cheap, but there’s still charm there. Now having seen Ed Wood, you’d think the stuff with the octopus would look worse. Stock footage of a live one is edited in here. I think there are other nature shots of animals in marshes as well. That was seamless enough. Seeing the octopus that effect though isn’t great, but with how quickly they cut away. It was better than I remembered. Then the last bit is that the soundtrack was fine without standing out.
In conclusion, this is a low budget film. Wood and his team didn’t set out to make a bad movie. They tried to do the best they could with what they had to work with. They weren’t the most talented unfortunately. We have good elements like a mad scientist operating in an isolated, old dark house. What they do just doesn’t necessarily stand out in these subgenres. The acting is fine with an amateur feel. The biggest issues are just with the writing for me. There are plot holes and characters need to be fleshed out just a bit more to work. I still enjoy this enough, even though it’s not great. If you want to see how shlock should be done, I’d recommend this for sure.
My Rating: 5 out of 10