Vashirdfel
Simply A Masterpiece
Unlimitedia
Sick Product of a Sick System
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
adonis98-743-186503
Rumours abound about what may go on at a creepy mansion just out of town. The house is owned by Dr. Eric Vornoff who is conducting experiments to turn people into super-beings through the use of atomic power. Reporter Janet Lawton decides to look into what is going there and its possible connection to men that have disappeared in the area. Bride of the Monster is another ridiculous Ed Wood film that hardly makes any sense both in terms of story but also in terms of it's title as a whole plus the whole octopus thing was annoying admit it. (0/10)
hrkepler
Bela Lugosi gives magnificently hammy performance as a mad scientist Eric Vornoff whose only intention is to create an 'atomic super beast'. This was the last time horror master played charismatic villain and it was Lugosi's last speaking role in general. This Ed Wood directed science-fiction horror piece is by the numbers genre film with Cold War paranoia theme of the 1950's. Except this one has Wood's inept directing, editing and ingenious use of stock footage. Overall 'Bride of the Monster' is above usual Wood's camp, as again the screenplay was written together with Alex Gordon who probably had much more knowledge about structuring the screenplay. Most of the cast did the best they could with such tedious lines, so one can say 'Bride of the Monster' is probably best acted Ed Wood film, well, at least not so woodenly acted. The film uses almost every genre clichés from that era, and it does it with such a proud appearance like every idea and plot device had been genially original. The pathetically unmovable octopus has become one of the greatest golds of unintentional comedy when actors roll themselves over the rubber puppet while screaming.Some people claim that Ed Wood was behind his times, but no one cannot say that his movies doesn't have that certain charm and feeling of filmmaker's warm heart to it. Wood was untalented, but he was determined to create these wonderfully awful movies with aplomb and artistry that only disillusioned madman certain in his own talents can produce.
mark.waltz
When Bela Lugosi pulls out his whip and begins to pummel the much larger Tor Johnson, you've got to laugh because of the difference in their size. Bela Lugosi by this time was in his 70's, way beyond frail, yet he is not at all afraid of slapping the model for one of the most popular Halloween masks ever. Even less than a decade after his last major Hollywood release ("Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"), Lugosi looked completely like a different person. His teaming with Ed Wood (or Edward D. Wood Jr. as the Orson Welles wanna-bee billed himself) dominated his later years, and with the exception of an "Old Mother Reilly" film and a wretched film with a team who were a pale imitation of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, his movie work was all gotten through who is today called "the worst director ever". This movie is basically a recap of everything Lugosi had done at Monogram or PRC in the 1940's. It is especially close to the highly melodramatic Universal serial "The Phantom Creeps", and if made on a much lower budget than that chapter play is still a lot more entertaining, mainly because as camp and for historical purposes, it plays better today. That is because the documenting of the filming of this with Tim Burton's wonderful "Ed Wood" (which won Martin Landau a well deserved Oscar as Lugosi) shows the big dreams of the director (Johnny Depp in a sweet, childlike performance) making what he considered to be a masterpiece yet the rest of the world considered to be crap.Yes, this is crap, but sometimes that is what makes the garden grow. The laughs are abundant here, and "Ed Wood" is no help in decreasing those laughs with the filming this cult favorite, whether it is Lugosi battling with the unmoving octopus or Lillian King (who financed the movie) encountering Dolores Fuller, Wood's previous leading lady, in one scene hysterically recreated. Of course, Lugosi does his best to give a moving performance, and in the scene where he's confronted by an old colleague, the threat is there to break your heart. Lugosi always believed that even with the lamest dialogue, you had to feel it in your heart to make it work, and somehow, he is almost right. Yet, a mad scientist in 1939 utilizing exploding mechanical spiders or a steel monster to do his bidding, or having a giant bat killing his enemies is the same as a 70-something year old man who briefly gains the strength of a 30 year old. You can't take stuff like this seriously, but you can find a lot of fun in enjoying it for being delightfully bad and the stuff that Hollywood legends are made of.
TheLittleSongbird
Ed Wood Jnr has often been cited as the worst director of all time, and his films(Plan 9 From Outer Space especially) also get a similar reputation. I personally think that the distinction is unfair, there are certainly better directors than Wood and better made, written and acted films/movies out there of course, but- unlike something like anything Friedberg and Seltzer- Wood's films are entertaining and kind of like guilty pleasures. Great movies no they're not, but when someone says that they are among the worst of all time I'll respectfully disagree on that one. Bride of the Monster does have things wrong, the sets are wobbly, the special effects especially the octopus are fake, the story does drag at times and Loretta King displays no kind of acting talent whatsoever. (Paul Murco's small role is also rather embarrassing) Even with these, Bride of the Monster is still one of Ed Wood Jnr's better movies. Wood is never going to be up there with the greatest directors, but not the worst either, at least he directed with heart. Lugosi's fight with the octopus is absolutely hilarious and has to be seen with be believed, easily one of the memorable scenes of any of Ed Wood's movies. The dialogue has some very funny moments(of what I can remember only the final line really made me groan), but the I have no home monologue is really quite poignant. The ending is senseless indeed but a lot of fun, and while the story does drag at times and also a little senseless, I didn't ever feel my intelligence being insulted to unbearable degree(unlike the SyFy/Asylum movies). The acting is not amazing, but King was the only one really that came across as really, really bad. Tony McCoy is handsome and does manage to give some of his lines credibility and Harvey B.Dunn is very amusing. Tor Johnson is somewhat stiff but looks the part of a monster figure and he does provide some of the movie's most entertaining scenes. But it is really Bela Lugosi's movie, in his final role he gives a commanding and heartfelt performance, succeeding also in giving moments of banality some genuine meaning. Overall, not great but better than I expected it to be. 6/10 Bethany Cox
