Underrated, ignored, reconsidered many years later. Are we talking about Ed Wood? No, we are talking of his "Bride Of The Monster", unfairly less celebrated than the great "Plan 9 From Outer Space".

This movie of film has a great dignity, handcrafted dignity, which makes it an important chapter for those who want to enter in the cinema of Ed Wood and in horror/sci-fi of fifties.

Just as bad as ever, as all the Wood's movies  it ha precise and clear message, that this time is that playing with the atoms can be very dangerous.

The warning in this case was wanted by the producer David E.McCoy  the only one who agrees to finance the project, in return, however, he wanted this anti-nuke moral, an explosion and the role of hero for his son Tony.

Working on the screenplay "The Atomic Monster" by Alex Gordon , writer and producer known at the time, Wood began this project in 1953, but as usual he didn't find anyone who wants to finance the work.
With his usal perseverance we find  a year after Wood behind the camera shooting a few scenes, before to ends the money. Then comes McCoy and "Bride Of The Monster" was completed and released in 1955 under the title of "Bride Of The Atom" becoming the most Wood's success at the box-office. 

In fact, this movie has the features to appeal to a wider audience. The story is more linear and then there is a mad scientist who fled from Eastern Europe, a monster and a lot of Radiation things, as we know, in the fifties were working well.

Definitely bad, maybe a bit ' boring in the filmography of Wood  is a "normal "  movie. Of course we are facing with a low-budget production who leaves plenty of room for imagination. Starting with the location, arriving to the acting, to the direction and ending with the "special effects" that have as their top the legendary octopus monster which will be discussed later.

The mad scientist who fled from Eastern Europe can only be played by Bela Lugosi, in his last great spoken role. He is Dr. Eric Vornoff who wants to create a super- race of men with nuclear energy. Aided by his mute servant Lobo, which can only be played by Tor Johnson (who occasionally gets a whip) the evil scientist continues his experiments in his laboratory built near a swamp. A place where among other things it always rains and where there is an octopus monster .

The many missing persons led the journalist Janet Lawton beginning to take an interest in the case, but she is captured by Vornoff and she is destined to become the bride of the monster.

Being a film by Wood can't not have a number of legends. The most interesting is the one about of the octopus monster, a great monster being immortalized also in the film of Burton. According to some sources it is said that it was a remote-controlled gimmick created for "Wake Of The Red Witch " with John Wayne and literally stolen from the Studios but without the remote control. This fact  created fighting scenes in which the attacked actor moves the monster. According to other sources, Wood hired regularly the octopus, however, moved by the actors in the scenes ( and that's what counts! ) .

In 1959, Wood turns the sequel "Night Of The Gouls" but it remains hidden until 1987 due to financial problems.


Technical Specifications

Original title: Bride Of The Monster

Alternate Titles : La novia of monstruo (Argentina ), A Noiva do Monstro (Brazil) , Hirviön morsian (Finland) , La fiancée du monstre (France) , Bride of the Monster , The eromeni Drakoula tou (Greece ), A szörny menyasszonya ( Hungary) , bride of the monster ( Italy ) , Kaibutsu no hanayome (Japan ), La novia of monstruo (Mexico) , Narzeczona potwora (Poland ), A Noiva do Monstro (Portugal) , Невеста монстра (Russia) , Canavarin gelini (Turkey ) , Bride of the Atom ( Alternative ) , the Monster of the Marshes, the Atomic Monster ( working title ), La novia of monstruo (Venezuela) , Die Rache des Würgers (Germany)

Directed by Ed Wood

Cast: Bela Lugosi , Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy , Loretta King , Harvey B.Dunn , George Becwar , Paul Marco , Don Nagel

Year: 1955

Duration: 68 '

Production Company: Rolling M. Productions