BOTM isn't quite the delirious howler like PLAN 9, but it sure has its fair share of giggles. The atomic salad-bowl helmet is a treat (and makes a cameo appearance in Ed's NIGHT OF THE GHOULS as well). But Bela doesn't "shine" as much as he struggles through it all with the tattered remains of his dignity. For that alone, we applaud him. If you want to see what a great character actor he truly was, check out his performance as Ygor in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN and GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN.Dracula will always be his signature role, but when he fit the bill he did it flawlessly. If you've never seen him in Universal's THE RAVEN by all means do! Even the lesser productions such as DEVIL BAT and THE HUMAN MONSTER are delightfully sinister. He is sorely missed.

I sat down to watch this movie expecting something awful - boy was I not let down. First let's make sense of th story. Polliwogs fall up into the tree and sink in quicksand. Drinking jello-shots, torn blue jeans fill empty drinks with marshmallows. Once the marbles are finished chasing deflated pillows, penguins must burp up logs of toaster-waste. An army of warts gang up on a pair of Tuesdays and chill their frog-eyes with spaghetti sauce. (Scared yet?). Ole MacDonald and his farm sing a pistachio to sleep and staple papers to the walls. But then...yes then...I stopped dreaming and drank my milk. Mmmmm-mmmm good. Testimonial echoes beneath sheltered hamstrings and rusty face-plates...crying the silent cheers of boredom. Chisel me some jello-art and Un-smell my feet for half a league onward road hemlock and tomato plants. Phew...that was tough...but I think I summed up Ed Wood. Oh...and this is the finest movie wish I could Un-see.

Ed Wood Jnr has often been cited as the worst director of all time, and his films(Plan 9 From Outer Space especially) also get a similar reputation. I personally think that the distinction is unfair, there are certainly better directors than Wood and better made, written and acted films/movies out there of course, but- unlike something like anything Friedberg and Seltzer- Wood's films are entertaining and kind of like guilty pleasures. Great movies no they're not, but when someone says that they are among the worst of all time I'll respectfully disagree on that one. 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. (Paul Murco's small role is also rather embarrassing) Even with these, Bride of the Monster is still one of Ed Wood Jnr's better movies. Wood is never going to be up there with the greatest directors, but not the worst either, at least he directed with heart. Lugosi's fight with the octopus is absolutely hilarious and has to be seen with be believed, easily one of the memorable scenes of any of Ed Wood's movies. The dialogue has some very funny moments(of what I can remember only the final line really made me groan), but the I have no home monologue is really quite poignant. The ending is senseless indeed but a lot of fun, and while the story does drag at times and also a little senseless, I didn't ever feel my intelligence being insulted to unbearable degree(unlike the SyFy/Asylum movies). The acting is not amazing, but King was the only one really that came across as really, really bad. Tony McCoy is handsome and does manage to give some of his lines credibility and Harvey B.Dunn is very amusing. Tor Johnson is somewhat stiff but looks the part of a monster figure and he does provide some of the movie's most entertaining scenes. But it is really Bela Lugosi's movie, in his final role he gives a commanding and heartfelt performance, succeeding also in giving moments of banality some genuine meaning. Overall, not great but better than I expected it to be. 6/10 Bethany Cox

What can you say about Edward Wood Jr.? He's been called the worst filmmaker ever, yet his movies are so fun to watch regardless. 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. Vornoff wants to create a nuclear-charged master race with which he can use to take over the world. He also has a mute, Tibetan lab assistant with an angora fetish named Lobo (played by wrestler Tor Johnson) who stumbles and fumbles around Vornoff's swampy bungalow for much of the film. Through the efforts of a young policeman and his Lois Lane-styled reporter girlfriend, Vornoff's world domination scheme is foiled.This movie has tons of silliness. One personal favorite is where Lobo mutinies against Vornoff and fights his shorter, platform shoe-wearing stunt double. Another funny scene: Vornoff's getting killed by his giant octopus and a random bolt of lighting strikes him, causing an atomic blast; the heroes watch the mushroom cloud from a safe distance of forty feet away!This is a movie you have to see to believe!