Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Greetings, my friend. To celebrate the Oscars coming up later this month, I have decided to pay tribute to one of Hollywood's most well known directors, a legend who's body of work has lasted over fifty years and garnered him all kinds of notariaty. I'm talking of course about Edward D. Wood, Junior - the mastermind behind such stunning classics like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda?. More specificly, in this case: Bride of the Monster!

We open deep in a swamp near an unnamed town. Two locals are lost in a torrent at night and forced to seek shelter in an a dark spooky house (complete with creepy music) on the shore of Marsh Lake, home of Doctor Varnoff (Bela Lugosi, in his last speaking screen roll), professional mad scientist. It seems that the good Doctor and his assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson in his first Ed Wood roll) are attempting to create a race of atomic powered super beings that will do Varnoff's bidding and help him take over the WORLD! BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH (cue thunder clap).

In his spare time, he also created a giant monster octopus, who lives at the bottom of the swamp. Unfortyunatly the Doctor's constant need for test subjects for his experiment - 12 in the last 3 months - have drawn the attention of the Police. In this case, the police force consists of Ruggedly Good Looking Dick Craig (Tony McCoy, who was also Associate producer on Bride of the Monster), Captain Tom Robbins (long time Wood bit actor Harvey B. Dunn) and Officer Kelton (Paul Marco ), in his first of three appearances in Ed's movies. Which then if you think about it, that means that Bride of the Monster, Plan 9 From Outer Space and Night of the Ghouls all take place in the same continuity. Ed's world would be a strange, scary place to live.

Anyway, Nosey Reporter and all around shrill harpy Janet Lawton (Loretta King, who's career pretty much begins and ends right here) goes out to the house to investigate. Needless to say, she promptly gets captured and hypnotized by Varnoff who ties her up with Properly Approved B-Movie Heroine Restraints.

Meanwhile, Professor Vladimir Strowski (George Becwar who did such charming B-movies like War of the Colossal Beast before croaking in 1969) has been seeking down the good Doctor. Apparently Varnoff was exiled from his unnamed home country some time ago for radical ideas far beyond mortal science. It seems however that there's been a change of policy back home and Strowski has been charged with bringing Varnoff back to Unspecifiedistan.

The Doctor wants nothing to do with it, of course and promptly feeds Strowski to his giant pet squid.

The cops show up, Lobo has a fetish for angora and saves Janet from getting a shot of the juice, Varnoff gets a taste of his own supercharged medicine and goes on a rampage before being crushed by a boulder and getting eaten by his own squid which explodes moments later when it was struck by lightning. And not just any old explosion, but an atomic blast (which much have sucked for everyone else who was standing not but 10 feet away when The Bomb went off).

Read that sentence again. The Giant Squid blows up with an atomic explosion after getting hit by lightning.

Cant say that Bride of the Monster is boring, at least.

In fact, I would go so far as to proclaim that Bride of the Monster is actually a GOOD movie, or at least as close to a good movie as an Ed Wood production can get. We're not talking Casablanca or Citizen Kane here, but Bride of the Monster is at least as good as the other Giant Monster Movies of the post-nuclear era, like Them or Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. In the hands of someone more skilled, with a bigger budget Bride of the Monster would actually be a really good film.

Oh sure, there are certain Ed Woodism that shines through - the stock footage octopus, the notably cheap sets and a rubber monster that just sits there while the actors flail the tentacles and ACT FOR THE CHEAP SEATS like there's no tomorrow. But somehow Bride comes together just enough to rise above it's own trappings.

For starters - amazingly, Ed's writing isn’t a convoluted knot of twisty turny logic like what we see on display in Plan 9 From Outer Space. The dialog is clear and makes sense and doesn’t suffer from too much padding. The muse must have been extra strong with Ed that day.

And then, there's the acting - usually the weakest point of Ed's production as he recruits whatever actors weren’t busy at the Community Theater at the time. This time, everyone (save for one) rises to the task of at least matching the contemporary thespians of the Giant Monster Movie genre. Bela is downright amazing in his last (speaking) roll, with the "I have no home" scene filled with actual, genuine emotion. Oh sure Bela can ham it up at times, but as a last hurrah, but his performance has a certain level of respectability to it.

While I cant defend Plan 9 as anything but an amateurish (but fun) train wreck, lumping Bride in with the "worst of" films is a damn shame. It's an enjoyable (if cheaply made) B-movie that Ed Wood should be proud of!

BEST LINE -
"One is always considered mad, if one discovers something that others cannot grasp!"

THE DVD -
A really nice looking full frame print, crisp and clean and free of splices and cuts. I'm not sure where Image got this print from, but they need to keep going there!

THE EXTRAS -
Like the other films in the series, we get a trailer and that's it.

I should point out that the Bride of the Monster is also part of the Ed Wood Collection, a set that not only includes this flick, but also the Woodian treasures Glen or Glenda?, Plan 9 From Outer Space (and the accompanying documentary), Jail Bait, Night of the Ghouls and a extra bonus documentary The Haunted World of Ed Wood. Essentially you get seven movies for 20 bucks - a much better deal than just this.

BOTTOM LINE -
Despite having been branded the worst director of all time, Ed Wood was in fact an absolute genius, and a brilliant film maker. While his vision and ambition often outpaced his talent and budget, sometimes - just sometimes - he'd hit the mark dead on. Bride of the Monster is that Sometimes.

-Other Ed Wood Reviews -
* GLEN OR GLENDA?
* JAIL BAIT
* BRIDE OF THE MONSTER
* PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
* NIGHT OF THE GHOULS
* THE SINISTER URGE
* THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EDWARD WOOD JR.
* THE ED WOOD COLLECTION
* ED WOOD



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12