Search - Bride of the Monster on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1955 DVD Release: 02/15/2000 Format: DVD - Black and White,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 9 mins Studio: Image Entertainment Members Wishing: 2 Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Sci-Fi Disaster Film, Creature Film See Also: Bride of the Monster

To most outside observers, Bride of the Monster probably seems like a ridiculously inept horror film, and in many ways it is just that. To connoisseurs of the work of director Edward D. Wood Jr., however, it is the biggest budgeted film in his entire output, made with the resources of a normal B-movie (as opposed to his usual totally emaciated finances) and the most easily accessible of his three horror films. Bela Lugosi, in his final complete performance, portrays Dr. Eric Vornoff, a renegade Eastern European scientist with a plan to create a race of atomic supermen, giants charged with radioactivity. The problem is that the hapless hunters and other passersby at Lake Marsh, where he has set up shop with his hulking, mute assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson), whom the pair waylay, keep dying when he straps them in and switches on his atomic ray machine (which is a not-at-all disguised photographic enlarger). A dozen victims later, reporter Janet Lawson (Loretta King) goes out to investigate the disappearances -- attributed to a monster -- and falls into Vornoff's hands, with her police detective fiance Dick Craig (Tony McCoy) hot on her trail, and a devious spy (George Becwar) from Vornoff's former nation also nosing his way around the swamp and the old house. Vornoff dresses Lawson in a wedding gown and plans to irradiate her but Lobo refuses to allow it, straps Vornoff into the machine, and turns him into a radioactive giant (and into stuntman Eddie Parker, totally unconvincing in his doubling for Lugosi). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Bela Lugosi - Dr. Eric Vornoff
Tor Johnson - Lobo
Tony McCoy - Lt. Dick Craig
Loretta King - Janet Lawton
Harvey B. Dunn - Capt. Robbins

Bride of the Monster is one of two feature films upon which, for many years, rested the reputation (such as it was) of director Edward D. Wood Jr. Along with Plan 9 from Outer Space, it was one of two Wood sci-fi films to come to television very early, around 1961, and thanks to the presence of Bela Lugosi, Bride of the Monster actually was seen and discussed by horror buffs. Indeed, along with Plan 9 from Outer Space and Night of the Ghouls, Bride of the Monster formed the first part of a trilogy that has delighted bad movie buffs for decades.
Bride of the Monster was the most accessible and conventional of Wood's three horror films. One of the very few of his productions that was financed at the level of a conventional B-picture, it looks "normal" in a way that Plan 9 and Night of the Ghouls do not. Or, at least, more normal than the others -- there are extras and bit players where there should be extras and bit players, and actual exteriors rather than threadbare studio sets darkened to imitate night scenes. What's more, with a script co-authored by Alex Gordon, the movie followed the conventions of mad scientist and old-style mystery pictures in ways that Wood's solo-scripted efforts didn't. Mixed within that framework, however, are also elements of the bizarre dialogue patterns and word usages, mismatched film footage, and continuity mistakes that make Wood's movies so engaging.
Police Lieutenant Craig (Tony McCoy) catches the case of the Lake Marsh murders and, with help from his reporter girlfriend (Loretta King), finds that exiled Eastern European scientist Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi) and his experiments with radiation are responsible. With a hulking monster of a servant (Tor Johnson) and a Soviet spy (George Becwar) working around the edges of the plot, Bride of the Monster has all of the necessary ingredients for the kind of unintended laughfest that one associates with Wood's movies. This was also Lugosi's final finished screen performance, however, and he does imbue his work, even at this late date, with a surprising degree of dignity.
The DVD is looks better than the earlier Lumivision laserdisc edition or any other presentation of the movie in the last 40 years. Not only is it a very clean transfer, with great care given to the contrast and depth in every shot, but the source has to be the cleanest print in existence. The audio is also extremely sharp, so much so that one can readily discern that, contrary to the misinformation put forth in various books, Lugosi's character never says of the huge, hulking Lobo, "He is as gentle as a kitchen." The result is the best edition of Bride of the Monster in living memory for most of us. Of course, that only enhances the deficiencies in the filmmaking, but in the context of enjoying Wood's movies, that's a virtue. The DVD is divided into a dozen chapters with no special annotation, which is a shame. The menu opens automatically on start-up and is very easy to navigate, and the only bonus material is a very entertaining trailer. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide