Bride of the Monster (1955)

"He tampered in God's domain!", 6 October 2007

Dr. Varnoff (Bela Lugosi) is trying to build an army of atomic supermen. He uses a trained octopus to gather his test subjects. When the latest two men go missing, the newspapers are filled with stories of monsters. But the police have been through the swamp numerous times and have so far turned up nothing. Intrepid newspaperwoman Janet Lawton goes to investigate and quickly finds herself in Dr. Varnoff's clutches. Can her boyfriend, Lt. Dick Craig, save her before she becomes Dr. Varnoff's latest experiment?

Ever since he was awarded a Golden Turkey in the early 1980s as the Worst Director of All Time, it seems fashionable to lump all of Ed Wood's films together and dismiss them as garbage. Bride of the Monster is proof that all of Mr. Wood's work was not created equal. It's probably one of his best cinematic achievements. I'll go so far as to describe it as an entertaining little horror movie that can be fun once you get past its inherent limitations. By "limitations", I'm referring to things like the rubber octopus, flimsy sets, and bad acting (to give just three examples). But if you know that going in and don't let it bother you, you might find a worthwhile low-budget thriller. Bride of the Monster actually has a couple of things going for it. One is Bela Lugosi. This is Bela late in his career. Years of drug abuse have taken their toll. But he's able to pull himself together and give one last really nice performance. His speech about "going home" is one of the movie's highlights and should be a favorite of Lugosi's fans. The other positive I'll mention from Bride of the Monster is Ed Wood himself. Sure, he might have lacked the talent, skill, and expertise of more accomplished directors, but there's a real love of cinema in Ed Wood's movies. It's easy to tell he enjoyed what he was doing. And to me, that's worth something.

5/10