423-Bride of the Monster

Film Year:  1956
Genre:  Science Fiction, Horror
Director:  Edward D. Wood Jr.
Starring:  Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy, Loretta King
MST Season:  4
Featured Short:  "Hired!" (Part I)

The Short

Chevrolet's automobiles can't sell themselves, and they've got salesmen to do it!  But customers seem to be hesitant of buying the product, but it can't be that they're selling a commitment of thousands of dollars door to door.  It's the salesman's fault!  Or is it?

This vintage training film was split in two, with Part II being featured in "Manos" The Hands of Fate.  It's hard to get invested in this portion of the film because it distantly concentrates on failure without going into the portion that attempts to contextualize it and correct it.  This short doesn't quite go anywhere, but becomes better when viewed back to back with it's followup.

The Movie

Bride of the Monster might very well be Ed Wood's second most well known motion picture, the first obviously being Plan 9 from Outer Space.  It's probably a toss-up between Bride and Glen or Glenda, since the making of both were both portrayed in the Tim Burton biopic film Ed Wood.  In Bride's favor it has far more Bela Lugosi.  However Glen or Glenda has "PULL ZEE STRINGS!  PULL ZEE STRINGS!" so maybe it wins.

The legendary Bela Lugosi stars as Dr. Eric Vornoff, a mad scientist who intends to create a race of atomic supermen to do his bidding.  His assistant Lobo, played by Tor Johnson presumably reprising his role from The Unearthly, rescues a beautiful reporter from a car accident and Vornoff takes her prisoner, keeping her subdued via hypnosis.  But her police officer fiancee searches for her and stumbles upon Vornoff's house and his experiments.

When you watch an Ed Wood movie it's safe to assume you know what you're going to get:  Lackluster special effects, bad continuity, flubbed lines galore due to a lack of takes, and tons of simplistic editing tricks to help convince audiences that two entirely separate things are in the same vicinity via MOVIE MAGIC!  As usual for Ed Wood, all of this is bad filmmaking, but none of it hurts because it's too damn funny.  Unfortunately Bride of the Monster isn't as hilariously incompetent as Plan 9, though it has Wood's most fleshed out and taken advantage of uses of Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson, which makes it probably the Wood feature I'm most fond of.

All of this and the movie has a killer octopus too!  With a thoroughly convincing combination of stock footage and a rubber prop, we get to witness the joys of watching victims fall to their doom and roll around on top of tentacles while pretending they're being strangled to death.  If a movie isn't worth watching for that alone, I don't know what is!  Yes folks, Bride of the Monster is well worth your time!

The Episode

Oh boy.  Dr. Forrester has finally tapped the films of Ed Wood for his experiments.  I don't know whether to be excited for terrified.

The question that enters my head when I hear Mystery Science Theater is riffing Ed Wood is whether or not it's worth the trouble.  Wood's films are funny on their own, and a good riffing might not add much to the experience.  Luckily the right approach seems to have been found, as the commentary isn't too mean-spirited and perfectly willing to let the film speak for itself.  Instead they play on it's level and keep things goofy, gleefully mocking the poor filmmaking on display as well as breaking out those reliable impressions of Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson (with a few Unearthly callbacks thrown in for good measure).  The synergy between the commentary and the movie works quite swell, and when we have a movie that can't be taken seriously and a riff that has no intention of doing so the laughter comes rolling quite often.  For Ed Wood's first riffed picture, Bride of the Monster sets the bar for which all other Ed Wood riffs must be judged.

In a brilliant moment of coincidence, Crow mistakes a character for Johnny Depp at one point.  The following year Depp would play Ed Wood himself in Tim Burton's Ed Wood!

As for the short, Hired! is a MST classic, though when most say this most point to Part II, which is not only hilarious but paired with one of the most infamous movies of the series.  It must be said that Part I is no slouch either.  It's not as funny as Part II, but it's quite fun and the riffing keeps great momentum with the short.  You can't go wrong with either in my book.

The best host segment in my opinion is the Invention Exchange, which sees a delightfully evil Tough Love Seat perfectly executed by Dr. F and Frank, while Microwavable Faith Popcorn is a dated reference that is still kind of funny.  Highlighting the rest of the segments we have Joel and Servo witnessing the horror of what Crow dreams at night ("TURN IT OFF!  TURN IT OFF!") while Hired the Musical is a little bit of fun.  But as the episode goes on the segments get lighter and more lacking, with a rambling discussion, a silly return of Willy the Waffle, and a re-editing of the ending of the movie.

Bride of the Monster solidifies a late season four winning streak with a classically bad movie and some wildly fun riffing.  If one is in the mood for some Ed Wood this weekend, pop it in and laugh yourself to tears!

Classic

The DVD

Bride of the Monster was featured on Shout Factory's Volume XIX set, featuring good audio and video.  The special features included Citizen Wood:  Making the Bride, Unmaking the Legend, which is a documentary hosted by Tom Weaver on the filming of the movie.  Talking heads include MST creator Joel Hodgson and also George Steele, who played Tor Johnson in the film Ed Wood.  Also featured is Inventing the Invention Exchange, a brief retrospective of the Invention Exchange by Joel, who talks about being a prop comic and the idea of the segment.  Rounding out the disc is a trailer for the film.

Part one of Hired! was featured on the compilation disc Mr. B's Lost Shorts, featured in Rhino's Volume 6 collection, which was eventually re-released by Shout Factory.  The short was also edited together with it's followup into one glorious whole in Shout Factory's "Manos" The Hands of Fate special edition release.