Contrary to popular belief, the detective who points his gun at himself several times did it deliberately. The actor wanted to see if Edward D. Wood Jr. would notice. He didn't.
The film played for years in relative obscurity on late-night television until 1980, when critic Michael Medved dubbed it the worst film ever made. Almost instantly, a cult classic was created.
Bela Lugosi appears in footage shot just before his death, but with no script in mind. Edward D. Wood Jr. wrote the script to accommodate all the footage shot in a cemetery and outside Tor Johnson's house in the new production. Lugosi was doubled by Tom Mason, Wood's wife's chiropractor, who was significantly taller than Lugosi, and played the part with a cape covering his face.