Bride of the Monster

Plot synopsis:
We open in the woods after dark during an intense storm and see the old Willows property out on Lake Marsh, roll credits. Wandering around out in this foul weather are Mac (Bud Osborne) and Jake (John Warren). A bolt of lightning strikes a tree bough and it falls off. They decide to make for the Willows place as a refuge from the storm. They think it is deserted. They knock on the door when they see signs it may not be vacant. Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi) answers the door and refuses them entry. When it appears that Mac and Jake may use their guns, Lobo (Tor Johnson) appears and the two think Tor is the "Monster of Lake Marsh" and quickly depart. Vornoff returns to his lab via the entrance behind the fireplace. He slips into his lab coat and proceeds with an electrical experiment. He peers into a window and a large octopus appears. Mac and Jake have made it to the lake shore. Mac falls into the lake and is attacked by the octopus. Jakes returns to help his friend. He tries to pull him out, but failing that, he uses his rifle to put a couple of bullets into the thing. Lobo appears and grabs Jake. He takes him back to the house and prepares him for one of Vornoff's experiments. When Jake wakes he's in the lab, strapped to a gurney with some electrical device on his head. Lobo moves some equipment over him. Vornoff explains to Jake that Lobo is mute. He can hear his pleas for help, but he cannot speak. Vornoff fires up his equipment while Jake struggles. Vornoff tells him, "you will be soon as big as a giant...with the strength of twenty men...or like all the others, dead!" Jake screams and dies in an instant. Vornoff examines him, but only confirms his worst fear."Monster Strikes Again!" screams the Daily Chronicle headline, and the Daily Globe shouts "Monster Takes Two!" At the police station, officer Kelton (Paul Marco) is questioning a drunk (Ben Frommer). The drunk is being very uncooperative. Two police offers drag him downstairs for booking. During the confusion, the newsboy (William Benedict) arrives and tries to go into the Captain's office with his newpapers, but is stopped by Kelton. Kelton starts to read one of the papers, but hears Captain Robbins entering his office from the hallway. Captain Robbins (Harvey B. Dunn) is sitting at his desk petting a bird. He tells Kelton to send Lt. Craig in to see him. Robbins peruses the newspaper headlines. While waiting for Craig to arrive he gives his bird a drink of water. Lt. Dick Craig (Tony McCoy) arrives, sits down and they discuss the Lake Marsh disappearances, twelve in the last three months. They examine the recovered remains of Jake and Mac, a gun and coat. Janet Lawton (Loretta King) bursts into Robbins' office with Kelton making a valiant effort to deep her out, but failing. We learn that Janet and Dick are engaged. They discuss her newspaper story. When she gets no new information, she tells them she intends to drive out to Lake Marsh and do a little of her own investigating. She drives back to the newspaper office.Janet makes her way to the file room and talks to Tilly (Ann Wilner) about the old Willows place out on Lake Marsh. She finds what she is looking for in the files. On her way out she bumps into Margie (Dolores Fuller) who warns her that the boss is looking for her. The police called the papers owner and told them they want a stop to the monster stories because of public panic. Janet gets back in her car and heads for home.Captain Robbins is meeting with Professor Strowski (George Becwar). Lt. Craig enters Robbins' office and is introduced to the professor. Strowski offers his assistance in the investigation. After he departs, Robbins warns Craig that Strowski should be watched. Janet departs for Lake Marsh as the weather starts to change. In a rainstorm near the Willows place, she blows a tire and crashes her car. Dazed, she exits her car and notices a snake in a nearby tree and faints. Lobo arrives at the scene of the accident, and picks her up and takes her back to the house. Janet is asleep on a couch and wakes to the sight of Vornoff. Vornoff hypnotizes her into a dream state. Martin (Don Nagel) and Lt. Craig are driving in their police car and stop. They decide to take the road to the Willows house. Strowski was supposed to meet Craig at 10:00 a.m., but failed to show for the appointment. They drive a short distance and stop when Lt. Craig spots Janet's car, but no trace of her. They head back to a coffee shop to see if she stopped there. Strowski arrives on the same road just after Craig and Martin leave. He starts walking through the woods. Martin and Craig arrive at the Café and call police headquarters. Craig is told to find Strowski. Janet is not at home or at work, and no one has seen her.Back at the Willows place, Vornoff and Lobo are coming into the lab with Janet's breakfast. When Janet sees Lobo she recoils in fear. Vornoff tells her, "don't be afraid of Lobo, he's as gentle as a kitten." Lobo is dismissed, but lingers to stare at Janet. When he fails to comply, Vornoff whips him. Vornoff returns to talk to Janet. He introduces himself, and tells her she had an automobile accident. She concludes she is at the old Willows place based on her research. Strowski finds the house and approaches while Vornoff hypnotizes Janet. He then directs Lobo "to take the girl to my quarters." Strowski enters the house quietly, looks around then enters the living room. He places his briefcase on the mantle and is greeted by Vornoff. Strowski is there to convince Vornoff to return to their country to continue his research. Vornoff, having been exiled twenty years earlier, is in no mood to return or to share his research--the creation of a master race. When Vornoff informs Strowski he has no intention of returning, Strowski pulls a gun and tells him that their government ordered his return. Lobo easily disarms Strowski and takes him down to the lab and throws him to the octopus.Martin and Craig, driving along the road to the Willows place, discover the abandoned rental car Strowski was driving. Martin and Craig split up, Craig walking to the Willows place. He takes the same path Strowski took earlier and falls into some quicksand. He shoots at some alligators and manages to escape the quicksand.Captain Robbins goes to the newspaper office to talk to Tillie. She was the last person known to have spoken to Janet. She informs him that Janet came in around 2:00 p.m. and left about 3:30 p.m. She was researching the file on the sale of the old Willows place. Robbins calls police headquarters and asks for all information on Dr. Eric Vornoff.At the lab, Vornoff summons Janet, now dressed in a wedding gown (!?) He directs her over to the examining table. Outside Lt. Craig enters the house, looks around, then enters the living room and finds Strowskis hat. Vornoff commands Lobo to strap her to the table. When he hesitates, Vornoff whips him. Back in the living room, Craig discovers Strowski's glasses and the file Strowski was carrying on Vornoff. When he places the folder down on the fireplace mantle, it activates the doorway to the lab. He pulls his gun, and makes his way to the lab. Vornoff orders Lobo to get the equipment ready. Lobo has developed a strong attraction to Janet and does not want her harmed. Vornoff continues preparation to turn Janet into the "Bride of the Atom". Lt. Craig enters the lab and orders Vornoff to release her. Lobo quietly enters behind Craig and knocks him out.Robbins, Kelton and two police officers meet Martin on the road to the Willows place. They walk to the house. Vornoff has Craig chained to the lab wall and tells him Janet is the subject of his research. Vornoff switches on the equipment, and Lobo realizing Janet will be Vornoff's next victim, turns on his master and attacks. Vornoff shoots him with Craig's service revolver, but the bullets have little effect. Vornoff is knocked to the floor. Lobo releases Janet from the table. As Janet is trying to release Craig's shackles, Lobo carries Vornoff to the table and straps him down. Lobo fires up the equipment and Craig, now loose, tries to intervene. But the stronger Lobo easily knocks him out. Lobo returns to the equipment and Vornoff ends up the subject of his own experiment--successful this time.Robbins and Martin enter the house, look around, enter the living room, and find the same clues as Craig. Vornoff, now an atomic superman, attacks Lobo who falls against some electrical equipment and is electrocuted. It starts a fire. Vornoff now mutated, grabs Janet and leaves the lab. Craig awakens and follows the pair out of the burning building. Robbins and Martin see the smoke, and also escape the building. Kelton sees Vornoff some distance away carrying Janet, with Lt. Craig in hot pursuit. The house is now fully engulfed in flames. Vornoff puts Janet down to make his escape easier. The police fire at him, but the bullets have no effect. Lt. Craig rolls a boulder onto him, which knocks Vornoff into the lake where he is attacked by his own atomic mutation, the octopus. Craig returns to Janet, who is ok and still wearing her wedding dress. Vornoff and his octopus are struck by a bolt of lightning which results in an atomic explosion. We close with Captain Robbins, joining Janet and Lt. Craig. Robbins opines, "he tampered in God's domain."

Tags: cult

Review:
You can see the movie the way Ed Wood intended it.The lighting is competent; the camera work is competent.But what elevates BOTM to film nirvana is Bela Lugosi's performance as Dr. Eric Vornoff (sp?).
If you look past the cheesy octopus (no worse than the hysterical devil bat), the cheap sets and the lame acting (better than Scared to Death!), if you suspend a little disbelief and realize this movie was made for a song -- then actually it is pretty darned good.
Sure, it's cheap, the acting is horrible, the sets wobble if sneezed upon and the special effects consist of stock footage and a rubber octopus, but "Bride of the Monster" is much, MUCH better than "Plan 9 From Outer Space." Mad scientist Vornoff (a sickly Bela Lugosi) has apparently set up shop in the Florida Everglades, kidnapping anyone unwise enough to wander too close to his house (and his pet octopus) and conducting sinister experiments upon them.
In "Bride of the Monster," Edward Wood shows himself to be a typically competent director doing a typical low-rent horror film.
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.
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".
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.
The worst thing that could happen while watching this stuff is that you get bored but with Wood, and especially this film, boredom isn't a possibility since there's countless insane moments happening throughout the 69-minute running time.
The film moves by very quickly and while I do enjoy the movie because it's bad, I will go out on the limb and say Lugosi gives his best performance in his later day roles..
only the cheap bad films are really funny, because the filmmakers wanted to make their films so desperately, they way-over-reached beyond their abilities and available resources.boring films are just, well, boring - if you don't leave quickly enough, you fall asleep.tasteless films actually have their defenders; but the fact remains that they are masturbatory aids for very sick people.ed wood made bad films of every description - tasteless soft-core porn; slow-as-mud ghost-movies; and some of the funniest bottom -of-the-bucket cheap movies ever made.although the most famous of these is 'plan 9 from outer space', i should warn the reader that 'plan 9' gets awfully slow way too often to be tolerable for more than one viewing.but for 'bride of the monster', the editing leaps forward and nearly becomes professional.
'bride' is the best paced and most compact of the ed wood films, despite the fact that more happens in it than in any other wood film.because of this better pacing, the faults in the usual wood show of lack of any skill or talent whatsoever are given a real chance to shine forth as accidental jokes, unintended innuendos, gaffes, goofs, and gobs of gooey rubber stuff, like the least scary octopus in Hollywood history that Bela Lugosi wrestles with just before he vaporizes into a nuclear explosion, while being watched by the heroes standing only a few feet away - one of the least damaging nuclear blasts in history, fiction or fact.and the dialog - the speech from Bela Lugosi, over-acting as only a true monster could, about having no home but the 'living hell' of an American swamp only a few miles outside of los angeles, is a truly magnificent bit of nonsense poetry that only a true ego-maniacal paranoid schizophrenic could have written - bravo ed wood.but what really makes this film, as with all ed wood films that one might find entertaining in any way, is the earnestness with which wood makes this film.
and this heroism shows forth in 'bride of the monster' more than in any other film.this is a movie, dammit - no matter how unintentionally funny or just plain bad - it deserves respect as the nearest thing to the holy grail a film-maker like wood could get..
Bride of the Monster does have things wrong, the sets are wobbly, the special effects especially the octopus are fake, the story does drag at times and Loretta King displays no kind of acting talent whatsoever.
Okay, I will start off by saying that this is an Ed Wood, Jr. film, so of course it's going to have cheap sets, grade z actors (except for the wonderful Bela Lugosi) and ridiculous dialog.
With that being said, this little horror movie is actually better than it should be.Bela Lugosi plays the mad doctor Dr. Vornoff who has been banished from his home country because of his bizarre experiments using atomic energy.
Let's just say the menacing Lobo is a few french fries short of a Happy Meal.Dr. Vornoff is hiding out in an abandoned old house in the woods complete with the mad scientist laboratory and a pond outside complete with a giant rubber octopus.The movie would be a total mess except for Bela Lugosi.
Making it all the funnier is that his actors are so clueless to his incompetence, or so captivated by his imagination, that they deliver a stupefyingly earnest performance.The plot of Bride Of The Monster is as ridiculous as anything else to have been written by Ed Wood, but in a sort of charming way, it works.
The documentary Flying Saucers Over Hollywood explains in some segments that Wood's best-known work, Plan 9 From Outer Space, is widely watched because in addition to the reputation it has as a completely insane film, it also has a smattering of legitimately effective scenes or shots.
Scenes like Bela Lugosi's "I have no home" speech, or Loretta King's quick chat with the file clerk, demonstrate a knack for composition and spacing that would have served Wood quite well if he had been able to reign in his apparent belief in shooting everything in one take, even if that take shows the set wobbling.
Another quote about Plan 9 that definitely applies here is that no matter what time you watch Bride Of The Monster at, it always feels as if you are sitting in front of your television at four in the morning.Lugosi plays a mad scientist named Eric Vornoff, who is attempting to create a super-strength zombie through the use of a table, some straps, a powerful lamp, and some kind of electric play-toy.
Contrary to the impression given by Tim Burton's biopic, Tony McCoy is not that bad an actor, although you will not be surprised to learn he only ever acted in one film and a TV episode after Bride Of The Monster.
The second monster is played by the one and only Tor Johnson, as a character called Lobo who is the sidekick of Bela Lugosi's Dr. Eric Vornoff.
In general, the acting is not as bad as is typical for a Wood film; although Dolores Fuller is, as usual, gloriously rubbish in her small role as the secretary – her short conversation with Loretta King is truly a non-acting master-class.It goes without saying that Bride of the Monster is not a film for everyone.
BRIDE OF THE MONSTER features a dilapidated old house, wherein abides Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi), and his hideous henchman, Lobo (Tor Johnson- PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS), who lumbers around barefoot, mouth wide open, like a carp awaiting a meal.
Both written and directed by Wood "Bride of the Monster" presents us with poor, ill, elderly Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist who plans to create an army of atomic super-humans based upon his somewhat successful zombie-like prototype (Tor Johnson) so he can rule the world.
Lugosi especially as he mumbles his ridiculously tedious dialogue, Johnson comes off less frightening than what was obviously intended, everyone else float around somewhere between overly over the top and too low-key to be even remotely worthy of mentioning.Far from being ironically enjoyable this movie is nothing more than an awfully depressing experience mixed with extremely tiny bits and pieces where there's a swift glimpse of whatever bizarre vision Wood originally had.
Bride of the Monster might be Wood's best film.We have the great Bela Lugosi as Dr. Eric Vornoff - a mad scientist out to create atomic creatures...
and he echos his hand gesture from White Zombie (a nod in that direction).We also have Tor Johnson as Lobo - Lobo is very much like Johnson's character's from Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961).Bride of the Monster really is worth watching if you are into the classic sci-fi horror and like a good B Horror film.7/10.
The house is owned by Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi) who is conducting experiments to turn people into super-beings through the use of atomic power.With Tor Johnson as Lobo and directed by the eccentric Ed Wood, this film is a pure winner if you like B-movie cheese.
That isn't to say it's particularly good  the acting ranges from amateurish to hammy, the sets wobble, the monster doesn't work (which means its 'victims' have to grab hold of its tentacles and thrash them around a bit), continuity is non-existent, editing looks as if its been spliced using a pair of blunt scissors and a pot of evo-stik, and the story makes no sense at all  but it's no worse than many other cheap monster flicks from the same era.Bela Lugosi, raddled by his addictions and close to death, looks old and ill here, but still manages to give a fairly sprightly performance, while Tor Johnson had the kind of looks that were made for horror films.
Bela Lugosi plays Eric Vornoff, an exiled doctor who conducts atomic experiments at his decrepit swampland mansion, aided by the hulking Lobo (Tor Johnson).
Living like an animal!"One of screen icon Bela Lugosis' final completed roles is as the mad scientist Dr. Eric Vornoff, in this, one of the notorious efforts for schlock creator Edward D.
Some silly dialog and a comatose killer octopus tend to brand this another goofy Ed Wood film, but it's really not as awful as some other stuff he did; it almost manages a cohesive story line.Bela Lagosi, playing a mad doctor with a vendetta and a pet octopus, is conducting experiments to create an army of invincible monsters.
Wood regular Tor Johnson is a giant mutant flunky for Dr. Bela that makes growling noises.Legends abound about the octopus used in the film.
An attractive reporter, sensing a story (hey, who wouldn't?) goes to investigate and discovers Lobo (Tor Johnson, Super Swedish Angel!) and Dr. Eric Vornoff (the already mentioned Bela Lugosi) inside the laboratory inside the house (complete with paper stone walls that shake when hit!) Dr. Vornoff has a nasty plan of turning people into atomic supermen, and has created a rubber octopus on the side, which leads to the most memorable scene in the movie when Lugosi (or his double) is chased by the police into the water and is attacked by the lifeless creature.
Bride Of The Monster was Bela Lugosi's last completed film and was done for that legendary director of bad movies, Ed Wood, Jr. At least Lugosi didn't live to see Plan Nine From Outer Space, he was spared that humiliation.Once again Bela is a mad scientist who has a scheme to create a race of atomic supermen and he's got a great old prototype in Tor Johnson formerly the Swedish Angel of pro wrestling fame.
The purpose of these odd experiments seems to be the creation of an "atomic" man, through which Bella can rule the world...but his subjects keep dying off, and eventually intrepid reporter Loretta King goes stomping out to Bella's house to see just what's up--and pretty soon she too is writhing on the table with that metal salad bowl thing on her head.THE BRIDE OF THE MONSTER doesn't really have the sublime ineptitude that makes PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE so much fun, but it has more than enough unintentional hilarity to keep you tuned in.
At least, not as bad as some of Wood's other movies, which goes without saying that he's not undeserved of the title of "Worst Director of All Time." His main body of work seen by people are of a kind that is of a by-gone era, of the B science fiction movie where effects were menial and acting was taken by actors who probably didn't even bother with classes (take Tor Johnson as best example of that).
But even at its best, which is saying a bit much, Bride of the Monster is a sci-fi flick that has some decent craftsmanship going, a cooky Bela Lugosi performance, and of course Tor Johnson as Lobo.It's hard actually to even describe the story, as sometimes the dialog meanders a bit into what's really going on.
And some of the looks on the faces (oh those close-ups of Lugosi's eyes) and body language especially by Johnson are too campy to miss, plus that 'octopus' which ranges from stock footage to, uh, not working.But if there is anything going for Bride of the Monster, it's that it's actually a sort of good-bad movie, where the ineptitude is almost charming in its stilted, under-budgeted way, and that main speech that was quoted in Ed Wood "Home, I have no home" is actually quite cool in its B-movie sort of way.
While not the worst movie Ed Wood made, it certainly ranks as a rotten B movie by anyone else's standards, and consists of bad actors mouthing bad dialogue in front of cardboard sets.The film is saved by top man Bela Lugosi, whose gravitas and screen magnetism mean the rest of the cast and plot just revolve around him like a mini solar system.
It's hard to tell whether Lugosi is playing his role straight or making fun of it--he's that bad, but Miss King is even worse.Complete with less than frightening special effects, it doesn't rank high on the fright meter.Summing up: Recommended only for Ed Wood fans who are curious enough to want to see all his works..
The actual films begins excellently, with two lost people being killed by a octopus in the Florida swamplands (more hilarious than a dozen comedy's) but rather slows down in the middle stretch, but keeps you entertained with offices that never change over a five day period and one office that has not one thing move over twenty-four hours, some great no-performances from Tony McCoy (the producers son), Tor Johnson (an ex-wrestle) and poor old Béla Lugosi, the original Count Dracula who, sadly, had become a drug addict and had sunk so low to appear in Ed Wood's movies.
Ulmer and his no budget masterpieces 'Detour' (1945) and 'The Man From Planet X' (1951), as well as 'Beyond the Time Barrier' (1960), which was filmed in a shopping mall years before 'Logan's Run' (1976) was.Finally, we can say that the movie is enjoyable for its Ed Wood oddness and the on screen presence of Bela Lugosi, who carries the film despite looking too thin and age ravaged.
Before watching "Bride of the Monster", one should know that it's an Ed Wood movie and thus pretty silly.
So no monsters get married, but we do have Bela Legosi in his declining years as a sad little mad scientist, with Tor Johnson as his assistant Lobo, whom he commands around, and occasionally whips unconvincingly.The plot is devoid of any value, and the "special" effects are just as bad as "Plan 9."  The octopus is especially good, along with the evil atomic-powered character who wears platform shoes to give the appearance of additional height.So incredibly bad you have to laugh.
But if you like Ed Wood or goofy movies, I definitely would recommend this one, it's not as silly as some of his other films but you'll get a great kick out of people "wrestling" with the octopus.
He also comes across as the perfect Mad scientist.Although the sets are poorly made, it certainly gives off a very eerie setting.Despite having no lines Tor Johnson delivers a wonderful portrayal as the "Atomic-Superman" Lobo."Bride of The Monster" is definetely one of Wood's signature films, and is definetely worth a watch..
Bela Lugosi (Dr. Eric Vornoff), Tor Johnson (Lobo), Tony McCoy (Lieutenant Dick Craig), Loretta King (Janet Lawton), Harvey Dunn (Captain Robbins), George Becwar (Professor Strowski), Paul Marco (Keiton), Don Nagel (Martin), Bud Osborne (Mac), John Warren (Jake), Ann Wilner (Tillic), Ben Frommer (drunk), William Benedict (newsboy), Delores Fuller (Margie), Ed Parker, Conrad Brooks.Director: EDWARD D.
This was the first movie I've ever seen of his and I had a fun time laughing at the sheer loopiness of it all.Wood's idol, Bela Lugosi, plays an exiled Soviet scientist called Dr. Eric Vornoff, hiding out in an ramshackle house in the middle of a swamp.
Ed Wood really made terrible movies ( like the incredibly boring Glen or Glenda ) but Bride of the Monster really isn't that bad.