Bride of the Monster * (1955, Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy) – Classic Movie Review 5,286

Bela Lugosi stars in his last speaking role in a feature film as mad professor Dr Eric Vornoff in Edward D Wood Jr’s 1955 horror and sci-fi mash-up Bride of the Monster. 

This 1955 horror and sci-fi mixture, with many puzzling lines of dialogue and unbelievable moments, is another of Edward D Wood Jr’s hysterical, surreally awful home movies. He is the 1980 winner of the Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director of All Time.

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known as Bela Lugosi .

Bela Lugosi stars as mad professor Dr Eric Vornoff who, assisted by the brutish manservant Lobo (Tor Johnson), develops an atomic-ray machine that produces a gallery of superhuman grotesques before a giant prop-department octopus puts him out of our misery. Intrepid reporter Janet Lawton (Loretta King) sets off for the swampland to investigate where Vornoff lives and why people keep dying.

Alas poor Bela! How did he sink this low? Nevertheless, even sick and old as you cannot avoid seeing that he is, he still produces moments of spark.

Otherwise, Ed Wood and Alex Gordon’s terrible original story and screenplay are matched by some rotten acting and appalling film-making down to Wood’s best, most risible standards. However, Tor Johnson is a hulking asset as Lobo, and he appears again in Wood’s Night of the Ghouls. Lobo has a fetish for angora wool just like Wood had, as evidenced in Glen or Glenda (1953). Johnson also plays a henchman character called Lobo in The Unearthly (1957).

Of course, instead of scoffing, it is possible to look kindly on this last hurrah of Bela Lugosi, and smile benignly on the deluded efforts of Edward D Wood Jr. Both men keep their dignity, just about. One thing is certain: we will never see their like again, so better enjoy while we can. It’s easy, it’s in the public domain.

Also in the cast are Tony McCoy as Lieutenant Dick Craig, Harvey B Dunn as Captain Robbins, George Becwar as Professor Strowski, Paul Marco, Don Nagel, Ann Willner, Dolores Fuller (Wood’s then girlfriend), William ‘Billy’ Benedict and Bud Osborne.

It is also known as Bride of the Atom.

The story is similar to Lugosi’s earlier movie The Corpse Vanishes (1942).

It is another movie released by the ironically named Real Art.

The film is thought to have had Wood’s biggest budget – of $70,000.

Production started in 1954 but, because of financial problems, the film was not completed until 1955.

The film uses stock footage of a real octopus, and a mechanical fake rubber octopus in scenes where the monster interacts with the actors. Since the fake octopus prop fails to move, when characters are killed by the monster, they hold the prop tentacles around them and splash around in shallow water!

The biopic Ed Wood shows an allegedly true story of the film-makers stealing the mechanical octopus (used in the 1948 John Wayne film Wake of the Red Witch) from the Republic Studios backlot, while forgetting to steal the motor so the prop could move realistically. It’s a good story but we don’t know. Wood may have legitimately rented the octopus, along with some cars, for the film.

Tor Johnson and Bela Lugosi in Bride of the Monster (1955).

It was released on May 11, 1955 in a double bill with Macumba, a 1954 Brazilian-German adventure film.

It is followed by Ed Wood’s Night of the Ghouls (1959).

Lugosi subsequently played a silent part in The Black Sleep (1956), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) uses silent archive footage of Lugosi, and Lock Up Your Daughters (1959) recycles footage from his earlier films.

A 1956 drive-in ad with Bride of the Monster supporting The Beast with a Million Eyes.

The cast are Bela Lugosi as Dr Eric Vornoff, Tor Johnson as Lobo, Tony McCoy as Lt. Dick Craig, Loretta King as Janet Lawton, Harvey B Dunn as Captain Robbins, George Becwar as Professor Strowski, Paul Marco as Officer Kelton, Don Nagel as Martin, Bud Osborne as Mac, John Warren as Jake, Ann Wilner as Tillie, Dolores Fuller as Margie, William ‘Billy’ Benedict as Newsboy, and Ben Frommer as Drunk.

Bride of the Monster is directed by Ed Wood, runs 68 minutes, is made by Rolling M Productions, is released by Banner Pictures (US) and Exclusive Films (UK), is written by Alex Gordon and Ed Wood, is shot in black and white by Ted Allan and William C Thompson, is produced by Ed Wood, Donald McCoy, Samuel Z Arkoff, Lyman C Abbott and Don Nagel, and is scored by Frank Worth.

Wood was posthumously awarded a Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director of All Time in 1980, sparking new interest in him and his films. However, in 1980, the book The Golden Turkey Awards claims Dr Vornoff says that Lobo is ‘as harmless as a kitchen’, but Lugosi says the line correctly: ‘Don’t be afraid of Lobo; he’s as gentle as a kitten.’

Dolores Fuller acted in Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait and Bride of the Monster. After they broke up in 1955, she relocated to New York and had a hit career as a songwriter. Elvis Presley recorded songs written by her for his films.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,286

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Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978).