Orgy of the Dead
Tags: cult

Plot synopsis:
The film opens to two muscle-bound men dressed in loincloths approaching a crypt. They open the doors, revealing a coffin. They remove the lid and exit the crypt, then the inhabitant of the coffin (Criswell) sits up to deliver an opening narration. This narration mostly matches the prologue of Night of the Ghouls (1959), with one minor variation and an additional line. The phrase "world between the living and the dead" of the original is changed to "void between...". There is also a new line at the end: "A night with the ghouls, the ghouls reborn, from the innermost depths of the world!" The opening credits feature the image of "an immobile young woman clad in gold". The image was probably inspired by a memorable scene of Goldfinger (1964).
Following the credits, the camera shifts to a lone Chevrolet Corvair driving down a California desert road. Its passengers Bob (William Bates) and Shirley (Pat Barrington) are arguing over the decision to use this night to search for a cemetery. Bob is a horror writer who hopes that the scene of a cemetery at night will bring him inspiration. The conversation ends when Bob accidentally drives the car off the road and over a cliff.
The next scene opens to a nocturnal image of a fog-shrouded cemetery. The lonely figure of the Emperor (Criswell) walks towards a marble altar, sits, and then summons his "Princess of the Night", the Black Ghoul (Fawn Silver), who appears and bows before him. The Emperor warns that if the night's entertainment fails to please him, he will banish the souls of the entertainers to eternal damnation, indicating that he is an all-powerful demonic being.
As the full moon appears, the Black Ghoul summons the first dancer of the night, a Native American woman (Bunny Glaser). The Black Ghoul explains that this woman loved flames, and that both she and her lovers died in flames. The woman dances and strips before the flames of the cemetery. The Black Ghoul then introduces the second dancer of the night, a street walker in life. While the woman dances, Bob and Shirley make their way to the cemetery and start observing the dance from a distance. Shirley suspects that they are observing a college initiation, though Bob seriously doubts her theory.
The Emperor himself summons the third dancer, a woman who worshiped gold above else. The Golden Girl (Pat Barrington) dances in her turn, and the Emperor instructs his loin-clothed servants to reward her with gold. The supposed reward is soon revealed to be a punishment, as the servants place her in a cauldron with liquid gold. What emerges from the cauldron is a golden statue of the living woman who entered. The servants transport the immobile statue to a nearby crypt.
At this point, a werewolf (John Andrews) and mummy (Louis Ojena) appear and seize the intruding young couple. They are brought before the Emperor who decides to postpone deciding their fate. The intruders are tied up, side by side, and allowed to continue watching the dances. The Black Ghoul next introduces the fourth dancer, a "Cat Woman" (Texas Starr). She is depicted as a woman dressed in a leopard costume, which exposes her chest area. As she dances, a servant follows her around and thrashes her with a bullwhip. Offering a sadomasochistic show for the spectators.
The Emperor next calls for a Slave Girl (Nadejda Dobrev) to be whipped for his amusement. The slave wears a tunic and is chained to a wall. Following her torture session, the Slave Girl breaks free and becomes the fifth dancer of the night. Later, the Black Ghoul exhibits a fascination with Shirley and scratches a mark on her. She draws a knife and seems about to kill Shirley, when the Emperor decides it is not yet time for the intruders to properly join them. The female ghoul reluctantly obeys.
The Emperor is puzzled when a human skull appears instead of the next dancer. The Black Ghoul explains it is the symbol of the sixth dancer, who loved bullfighting and matadors. She used to dance over their demise, and now it's time to dance over her own. The dancer of apparent Spanish/Mexican heritage (Stephanie Jones) appears to perform. The Emperor and Ghoul briefly discuss the past of the dancer, who came to them on the Day of the Dead. The seventh dancer appears dressed in Polynesian garments. The Black Ghoul describes her as a worshiper of snakes, smoke, and flames. A rattlesnake is depicted along with her dance. The camera shifts to the mummy and the werewolf. The mummy voices his dislike of snakes and recalls the death of Cleopatra. He informs his companion that ancient Egypt had many snakes and they were the stuff of nightmares.
The Emperor next expresses his boredom and demands "unusual" entertainment, while the Black Ghoul notes that the night is almost over. She reminds her superior that they will be gone at the first sight of the morning sun. They proceed to argue over the fate of Shirley. The argument ends with the introduction of the eighth dancer (Barbara Nordin), a woman who murdered her husband on their wedding night. She dances with the skeleton of her spouse. The argument over Shirley then resumes, as the Ghoul claims her for her own. The Emperor feels the need to assert his own authority over the Black Ghoul.
The ninth dancer (Dene Starnes) was a zombie in life and remains zombie-like in death. The tenth and final dancer (Rene De Beau) is introduced as one who died for feathers, fur, and fluff. She starts her dance in clothing matching this style. When the final dance ends, the Emperor finally offers Shirley to the Ghoul. The Ghoul briefly dances herself as she prepares to claim her prize. But dawn arrives and with it sunlight. The Emperor and all his undead are reduced to bones. The final scene has Bob and Shirley waking up at the scene of the accident, surrounded by paramedics, suggesting it was all a dream. Criswell appears in his coffin to offer parting words to the audience.

Review: How can this old low-budget stuff end up looking better than many a modern film?Sure, this movie is slow, tedious, repetitious and ultimately pointless.
Somehow, nobody seems to really understand that they are making a bad movie -- the secret of the charm of the Ed Wood universe.I have not only the new DVD, but also the full (including dialogue) soundtrack CD which I have listened to many times.
I admit to a strange, childish pleasure to be typing away at work while listening to dialogue like, "A pussy cat was born to be whupped!"Would-be indie filmmakers should take inspiration from this film, as it is proof that no matter how bad the dreck put to film may be, it can see distribution and perhaps even a profit.
Wood, Jr. prepare or better yet, brace yourself, yet again.While Ed did not direct this spook-fest, he did write the screenplay (so to speak) based on a novel which he also penned for general release, primarily at fine bookstores which also carried magazines like 'Dude', 'Rogue', 'Nugget' and 'Gent.' For 'ORGY OF THE DEAD' is not so much a horror movie but a beyond the grave burlesque show featuring a bevy of beauties summoned by that master seer himself, Criswell.
The opening scene takes place in broad daylight with a 1965 Corvair convertible taking in some mountainous curves until the next turn when, in true Ed Wood time management fashion, it suddenly becomes night and then day again along the same mountain pass.
Actually, Pat Barringer's 'talents' were displayed to best advantage in Russ Meyer's classic 'MONDO TOPLESS.' Go, Pat, Go!This brings us to the real reason to view 'ORGY OF THE DEAD.' In spite of Criswell's rants from his coffin about "Monsters to be pitied, Monsters to be despised," the real show is provided by the likes of 'Texas Starr', 'Bunny Glaser','Rene de Beau' and more grind house marquee starlets.
Now here are a few tips if you happen to stumble upon this "movie" and decide to watch it:-Ignore the script (there isn't one anyway)-Ignore the acting (the actors say things like "I'm afraid!
Almost a great gem of bad cinema, if it weren't for all the awkward nudie-dance segments (skeleton and streetwalker girls were the best), which has to sound at least somewhat contradictive to those of you who haven't seen it.
See, those ten dances make up about 80% of the movie, leaving precious little time for the absurd plot, dreadful dialogue (and delivery), and choice moments like the guy playing the Wolfman exposing his neck under his mask while howling.
They come across the cemetery that has a Ghoul leader observing dead topless women dance for his pleasure.
In fact, I had to fast forward through most of this movie because more than half of it was sedated women, possibly out patients, swaying to and fro while my buddy Criswell watched and clapped.
The main point of this movie is to show about 10, attractive, topless women doing individual exotic dances.
Basically, the whole movie is a strip show, featuring a variety of resurrected 'ghoul' women doing the bump and the grind.Although I am a flaming heterosexual, I must admit that halfway through this film, I was thoroughly tired of looking at women's mammary glands.
They tie their two victims to stakes and they're forced (as we are) to watch a bevy of topless women individually introduced to do all sorts of long and ultimately boring solo dances.
Before watching this movie, I thought I knew a thing or two about bad movies (being an MST3K fan), but this is by far the worst movie I have ever seen.
There is a pattern in this movie that becomes painfully obvious (dancing girl scenes), so it becomes very tempting to fast forward through bits.
For crying out loud, it's a movie called "Orgy of the Dead" written by Ed Wood!!
This one definitely belongs into the category 'So bad they're good' - the curious little 'story' about a young couple finding themselves at a graveyard at night and unwillingly witnessing the 'shocking' activities of the undead dead is nothing but a pretext for a fanciful striptease show; half-naked 'dead' girls dancing and being punished by the sadistic 'Emperor' for the bad things they did in life - one of Ed Wood strange fantasies, it seems...But we must admit that the producers chose some very well-shaped young women for their acts, almost fit for the Moulin Rouge; so the dances alone are worth watching for lusty gentleman, and not only.
And above all, the bizarreness of the whole 'plot' - that, at the time of the film's making, went about just as far as it could without being stamped a porn movie - makes it kind of unique: the creepy settings with tombstones and fog, the 'wardens' with their whips, the delight with which the 'Emperor' follows and explains the 'punishments'; all this gives an almost nostalgic note for today's viewers to this colorful (in every sense of the word, no doubt) nonsense.Ideal for voyeurs, and for horror fans with a BIG sense of humor!.
While it is quite terrible, with next to no production values (and it could very well have been made by Ed Wood, who "wrote" it; in fact, I'd classify it as an Ed Wood movie), A.C. Stephen's "Orgy of the Dead" is often at least extremely entertaining; that is, it's entertaining to those who enjoy pure schlock when they see it.
If nothing else, this movie offers non stop schlock, ranging from actors who cannot act (but who spout inanely quotable lines, nevertheless), strippers who can't dance, and effects which are anything but special.
A young couple crashes their car only to end up in a cemetery full of half naked strippers being watched over by "The Ruler of Darkness" and his foxy looking assistant "Ghoulita".
I love Ed Wood movies, I have a healthy collection of Franco flicks, but this is so far beneath any concept of the word 'good' or even 'decent' that I feel pain in referring to it as 'cinema', which (sorry to say to any one that liked this unadulterated piece of trash) it isn't.A young couple experiences car trouble and are taken captive by a group of monsters and are forced to watch semi-attractive girls sporting K-mart quality costumes prance around topless.
When Ed Wood writes a film that he DOESN'T direct, this is what happens - pointless drivel with some nicely shaped "dancing" girls.
Ed Wood's classic bad movies like 'Glen Or Glenda', 'Plan Nine From Outer Space' and 'Bride Of The Monster' are great fun, and still entertain after multiple viewings.
It's simply a tedious bore.A courting couple crash their car near a cemetery where the Devil (Wood regular Criswell) and his Goth girl side-kick are holding a topless dancing competition.
Maybe the problem is that Ed Wood's name is attached to it, so a bunch of asexual geeks that watch MST3K came to this movie expecting "horror".
(I know Rob Zombie would like this movie because he always had naked women from this era playing on the screen behind the band during White Zombie shows.
This movie didn't even required a real story in it, since it all it features are a bunch of girls dancing half naked at a cemetery, for Criswell and his princess of darkness, who looks like a Vampira knockoff.Really, that is all this movie is.
I don't know how many dancing acts there are in this movie but it felt like at least a dozen.
The first and other one was of course Ed Wood's classic "Plan 9 from Outer Space", which was a way better movie compared to this one.
All you get to see, is a bunch of "not-so-good-looking" female strippers, who perform in front of Criswell, the Cemetery Ghoul Master, or something like that....
A must-see for any fans of Edward D Wood Jr, this....remarkable...softcore striptease movie reaches new heights of what I like to call 'ultra-boredom'.I don't believe it's impossible to have a plot in a porn film...mainly because it isn't...but Orgy Of The Dead managed to fall between both stools.
Criswell is DA MAN in this movie, proving with his 'performance' that you don't need to smoke wicked pot to act completely stoned.
The film's not very long, maybe 70 minutes tops, but seems to make the 15-hour-plus Paris Alexanderplatz look fast-paced.This movie is bad bad bad, but as the final collaboration between Ed and the world's most inaccurate TV psychic (Cris, of course), this is unmissable.
As many other people have noticed, Cris and his busty assistant bear an odd resemblance to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky...a good deal of humour can be gained from taking the duo's on screen comments out of context in a "Bill and Lew" way.One final note - "Monica" is by far the sexiest woman in the movie, and yet is the only one that doesn't take any of her clothes off.
In a film where you can see the wrist watches of actors in mummy/warewolf costumes, and  where the stings to the skeleton dances that dances with some topless chick, there needs to be something said.
Before I saw this movie I used to joke that Ed Wood wrote it, but he knew it was going to be so bad that even he refused to direct it.
I mean please, one girl after another dancing around topless to burlesque music does not a movie make.And the repetition!
The film has about twenty minutes of actual plot developments and about sixty minutes of the topless girls dancing.
If you say that Plan 9 is the worst movie ever made, you have never seen Orgy Of the Dead.
After  a while, watching these bored, topless women dancing around for criswell's pleasure actually became embarrassing to watch!
Speaking of embarassing total disasters, we have "Orgy of the Dead", a film that dares to make you watch 90 minutes of odious stripping - and nothing else.
:=8P  Sporting some of the worst acting the MooCow has ever seen, TONS of dull, stupid dancers, and two bumbling, brain-dead wanna-be monsters, AND the loquacious Criswell, this Ed Wood-written schlockfest is must viewing for all devotees of Le Bad Cinema.
If this campy chorus line of boring bimbo jiggle wasn't enough, we have the always-overdone Criswell, who acts as if he's reading his line from cue cards just off camera, and two silly ghouls(a mummy and a wolfman, very obvious comic-relief), who pointlessly argue about the afterlife.
Night of the Ghouls and this movie, Orgy of the Dead I don't at all like.
The good thing about Ed Wood is that he usually kept his movies short (45-60 minutes long).
The Emperor (played by perennial Ed Wood star Criswell - who also never learned to memorize his lines) is in the cemetery getting his monthly dose of undead topless cabaret, sponsored by a Monika Lewinsky look-a-like ghoul.
I have seen porn that has better acting and is more interesting to watch than this movie.
This movie could actually be quite instructive as I believe it should be shown in every freshman film school class, to prevent things like this from being made.
While DEADLY WEAPONS was unerotic because of its bizarre star (Chesty Morgan) and GOOD GIRLS OF GODIVA HIGH was unerotic because of its open-heart surgery filming of hardcore sex, ORGY OF THE DEAD is unerotic because it is never exciting and never holds the viewer's attention long enough.Criswell is the Master of the Dead, who sends a mummy and a werewolf to capture two lovers so they can witness "the tortures of the damned", in actuality some absolutely WRETCHED strip tease acts that do nothing but disgust and cause yawns.
The dialogue (what little there is) is great, as it is written by Ed Wood, and I love the fake sets, the music, and the main cast mentioned above, but above all else, ORGY OF THE DEAD is drop-dead boring, which is sad coming from the director of softcore classics such as CLASS REUNION and SNOW BUNNIES..
I'm a big fan of Ed Wood, and I must say honestly- although I've tried several times- I've never been able to watch this movie till the end.
A bunch of women dressed up like certain "dead things" dancing around topless at most to horrible music.
Urghhh!!!If this isn't one of the top10 badest movie-crap ever made,i'll jump thankfully from the edge of our plain earth,when this saves me from watching this dumb-sucking-asswipe-trash!!!OK,I'm totally in bigboops/barenacked ladies(when we may use this title)/for this voluptious RussMeyer twintower-bodies.I usually watch sleezy films like this in a relaxed atmosphere,but this junkonfilm just let me loose my temper&let me get angry about all this stupidity packed in this movie.This would've been an notsobad-vampire-erotic-movie,with a complete other backgroundcrew,a better set&wardrope(OK,only to let it fall xtreamly fast to the ground),a better director,producer&camerateam;i'll strongly recommended in the last few years after seeing this totally shipped-on-a-sandbank-movie.Totally waste of time..
The acting is typical of an Ed Wood production, with the extra bonus of local strippers getting an opportunity to practice their art on film.The plot (ha):  Horror novelist and girlfriend go driving at night to find a cemetery for inspiration.
Criswell (obviously reading cue cards) is judging various dead girls by having them dance topless ("No one wants to see men dance").
After the couple (a horror story writer and his girlfriend) get into a car accident in a cemetery, they happen upon an "orgy of the dead" that basically consists of topless women dancing for Criswell, who lurks around in Bela Lugosi's cape but is supposed to be playing the devil.
The acting is bad but there isn't much of it (most of the movie is dancing); the alternating day/night camera shots don't last past the first scene; and the set seems to be a tad larger than the one used in Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Although, it's a great movie if your a fan of Ed Wood or cheesy films..
If you are looking for a good movie to watch do not get this one.
I could not believe the absolutely ludicrous Wolf Man and Mummy characters that were tacked on to the "plot." Perhaps the movie's only saving grace is Criswell, who looks a bit bewildered, but campy as always as some sort of "lord of the dead" whose chief concern is his pleasure.
If you want to see snippets of Criswell, his Vampira/Elvira-esque assistant, a couple of cheap monsters, and hordes of "dead" go-go dancers, this is the movie for you.
The opening day-and-night switches are humorous, and you have to give credit to a movie plot which can be summed up in two words--"car crash"--but the strip teases which make up 90% of the film grow old kind of quickly.
Still, it does have Criswell with an awful tan, and he does say "torture,torture--it pleasures me!"  So it's not a total waste, but it is probably Wood's most boring movie.
Now as a heterosexual male, my eyes didn't mind those scenes but I was here to watch an Ed Wood horror/sci-fi movie and instead just got a showpiece for lousy dancers.
Wood, Jr. and Criswell giving out predictions you just know this thing had to turn out really bad.
The movie is disguised as a horror film but in reality it's just a nudie flick but a very bad one at that.
Their car crashes and they awake in the cemetery where The Emperor (Criswell) forces them to watch various ghoulish girls dance around naked.
They are tied at stakes(not real well either) and forced to watch the orgy of the dead.Also on hand are a silly looking mummy and wolf man.The infamous Criswell as the emperor and his cohort Ghoulita emcee the great dance.
Ed Wood Jr. is the master of schlock...there is probably only 15 minutes of dialouge in the whole movie, but the lines are masterpieces, And if you like watching for mistakes, then you will be in heaven.
Also, the only movie where my friends and I got bored watching naked women!.
The movie is just about approximately 10 dancers who strip half naked to perform "lust dances" for two funny characters and their assistants a werewolf and a mummy.
Watch it only if you want to see the so called "lust dances", because really, that is all that this "movie" has to show..
I still say it, "What was this?!"The basic premise is 2 people maybe or maybe not get in a car crash, and see topless ladies emerge from the afterlife to dance for Criswell who looks like he desperately needs some sleep...That's about it.
They end up in some limbo place where Criswell, the legend of "Plan Nine From Outer Space", a man in a bad werewolf outfit and a mummy, sit with them and watch the dancing ladies.
Now, as far as this movie is concerned I found it to be extremely long and tedious with the only scenes even remotely of interest being the dance routines of several "ghouls" (for want of a better word) forced to perform a striptease for an underworld demon of some sort called "the Emperor" (Criswell).
A badly acting couple (Pat Barrington is the girl) drive their car at night (although in longshot it's day) looking for a graveyard.
The car crashes and they find themselves outside a graveyard where various strippers dance for Criswell, his Vampira-like assistant (The Black Ghoul) and a mummy and a wolfman (who are great fun as comic-relief).
The Black Ghoul wants to kill the two of them but throughout the night the Emperor tells her there is still time, get on with the dancing.And there you have the entire plot of the movie.
And during all this, the two prisoners just watch the burlesque show--along with Criswell, his Vampira-like assistant, a were-wolf and a mummy standing around and trying not to look too out of place.