October 31 – #1: Bride Of The Monster

I’ve long loved Lugosi, in all his forms, and this movie scratches a festering itch every time I sit down for a re-watch.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8YGES_Ynkk]

What follows isn’t so much a review as a series of disjointed notes.

It seemed more appropriate.

• You know you’re getting yourself into a quality movie when the major set of the film is obviously made up of large stone bricks painted onto drywall.

• Lugosi explains that Tor Johnson’s Lobo was supposedly found in “The Wilds Of Quebec”. Technically, I was born not far from “The Wilds Of Quebec”, so maybe I am also half monster/big guy with an awkward vest.

• This was Bela’s last speaking role. His last appearance was in Ed Wood’s next film, Plan 9 From Outer Space.

• Bela uses the Dracula hand wave of hypnotism in this movie too. I realized, after seeing him put the main female character under his influence, that I’d probably watch The Mentalist if he played the lead.

• Oddly, this film actually passes “The Bechdel Test” in spades. Not only does the female lead play a hard-nosed reporter, she blows off her love interest for work, and has repeated conversations about the plot without any males on screen.

The Bechdel Test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. – BechdelTest.com

• Finally, despite the fact that the crux of the movie largely revolves around people accidentally falling into the arms of an inanimate octopus, somehow it has really nice looking cars throughout.

Bela LugosiBride Of The MonsterMST3kTor Johnson