Bride of the Monster (1955)

Director:

Edward D. Wood Jr.

Writers:

Edward D. Wood Jr. (original story and screenplay) and
Alex Gordon (original story and screenplay)

Release Date:

February 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Screen's Master of the WEIRD in his NEWEST and MOST DARING SHOCKER!

Plot:

Dr. Varnoff captures twelve men for his experiment: to turn them into supermen using atomic energy....

Plot Keywords:

Atomic Energy | MST3K | Lieutenant | Mutant | Mad Scientist

Cast

Bela Lugosi	...	Dr. Eric Vornoff
Tor Johnson	...	Lobo
Tony McCoy	...	Lt. Dick Craig
Loretta King	...	Janet Lawton
Harvey B. Dunn	...	Capt. Tom Robbins
George Becwar	...	Prof. Vladimir Strowski
Don Nagel	...	Det. Marty Martin (as Don Nagle)
Bud Osborne	...	Lafe 'Mac' McCrea
John Warren	...	Jake Sloane
Ann Wilner	...	Tillie
Dolores Fuller	...	Margie
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	Newsboy (as William Benedict)
Ben Frommer	...	Drunk
Paul Marco	...	Officer Kelton

Also Known As:

Bride of the Atom
Monster of the Marshes (USA) (working title)
The Atomic Monster (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:T | USA:Approved | Netherlands:12 (2007) (DVD) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Italy:T | UK:PG (DVD rating) (2005) | UK:X (original rating) | Finland:K-18 (2004)

Filming Locations:

Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Rolling M. Productions

Trivia:

The prop octopus was stolen from Republic Studios and was constructed for the John Wayne film Wake of the Red Witch (1948). The motor which controlled the octopus' tentacles was not stolen with it, as is obvious to the casual viewer. Additionally, one of the tentacles was torn off in the process of stealing it out of the property room.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Craig is sinking in quicksand he shoots eight shots from his six-shot revolver.

Quotes:

Prof. Strowski: Now I am here, sent to bring you home.
Dr. Eric Vornoff: Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, Living like an animal! The jungle is my home. But I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sleazemania Strikes Back (1985) (V)

Bela's last real movie role and he made it count

***SPOILERS*** Strange things have been happening around the Old Willow's place where a number of people have disappeared with the local police baffled about what happened to them. Janet Lawton, Loretta King, a local reporter has been writing stories about the disappearances and blaming them on what she calls "The Monster of Lake Marsh" which is getting people in the area very apprehensive and scared and making the police look helpless.

It turns out very early in the movie we're shown that a Dr. Eric Vornoff, Bela Lugosi, with the help of his hulking assistant Lobo, Tor Johnson, have been kidnapping people in the woods around Lake Marsh and using them in experiments. The trouble is that Dr. Vornoff's experiments haven't been working out like he planned them to with those who he's experimenting on ending up dead.

One afternoon at the local police station a prof. Strowski,George Becwar, shows up claiming that he's an expert on undiscovered monsters and thinks that whoever solve the mystery about the "Monster of Lake Marsh". Telling police Captain Robbins, Harvey B. Dunn, and his second in command Lt. Dick Craig, Tony McCoy, to meet him the next morning and go out in the Lake Marsh area looking for the monster Strowski for some mysterious reason never shows up!

Strowski instead checks out the Old Willow's Place where he comes face to face with Dr. Vornoff. It turns out that both Dr. Vornoff and prof. Strowski worked in, for some strange reason the country is never mentioned in the movie, the Soviet Union Back in the USSR Dr. Vornoff came up with a plan to create beings out of atomic energy that would be indestructible and use them to conquer the world for the USSR. The Soviet Government feeling that Dr.Vornoff was mad and ran him out of the country. Now it seems that they realized that Dr.Vornoff was on to something big and they want him back so they sent Strowski to the USA to fetch him and bring him "home".

Dr. Vornoff feeling insulted and condescended too instead tells Strowski to get lost that his plans for an army of atomic supermen is for his own purposes not for any country much less the Soviet Union who threw him out and stripped him of all his honors and accomplishments. It's then when Strowski pulls out a gun and tells Vornoff that his government ordered him to bring him back. Lobo sneaks up on Strowski and grabs him from behind then throws him into a water tank where he's killed by a giant octopus.

Meanwhile Janet, who's Lt. Craig's girlfriend is also snooping around the Old Willow's place looking to break the big story about the monster. Being attacked by a python Lobo comes to Janet's rescue and takes her back to Dr. Vornoff. Dr. Vornoff sees in Janet a new subject for him to try out his atomic experiments with but is interrupted when Lt. Craig, who went out looking for Strowski at the Old Willow's Place, bursts in before Dr. Vornoff can do his dirty work. Lt. Craig like it was with Strowski is grabbed from behind by Lobo who subdues him.

With Lt. Craig chained to the wall Dr. Vornoff goes on with his experiments on Janet. Lobo who has taken a liking to Janet then attacks Vornoff and stops him from pulling the switch. Strapping Vornoff to the operating table Lobo turns the juice on him but unlike the other times when the experiment failed and the persons died this time it worked! Vornoff turns into an atomic superman and clobbers Lobo and takes off with Janet in the woods with the whole police force hot on his heels.

Vornoff after being forced to releases Janet, after Lt. Craig rolled a bolder on him, falls into a pound where he's attacked by the octopus that killed Strowski. While Vornoff and the the octopus are engaged in a life and death struggle their hit by a lighting bolt! With what seems like the whole movie set goes up in a nuclear explosion with Captain Robbins, who was in charge of the police , ends the film by saying what has now become folk lore in movie history: "He Tampered in God's Domain".

"Bride of the Monster" was Bela Lugosi's last staring role and Bela gave it all that he had with the Mad Scientist bit which has to rank right up there with the best films that he made over his long movie career including "Dracula" and "Son of Frankenstein" as well as "Ninotchka". Bela's "I Have'a no Home" speech that he gave to prof. Strowski was as good as anything that you would hear in an Academy Award winning film or top flight Shakesperaean production.

Tor Johnson was also very effective as Lobo, even though he never uttered a word in the movie, by showing pain and affection for Janet who he tried to save from Dr. Vornoff's evil clutches and both Tony McCoy and Loretta King did have chemistry in the scenes that they were in together. George Becwar was more then adequate as the cagey and obsessed prof. Strowski trying to get Dr. Vornoff back home, to the USSR, to help in their nuclear research.

You can say that the movie was awful only because director Ed Wood didn't have the money to make it more extravagant. Ed had to relay on cheap sets and props and in some places in the film add in stock footage. Yet I wounder how many top directors in the film business today or in 1955 when "Bride of the Monster" was made would have done better then Wood did with what he had. People should think of that before they put Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster" down.