Bad Movie fans know the plot. RECAP: Dr.Vornoff( why do all mad doctors have a name that is a variation of Karloff?) is out to make a race of supermen,with Tor Johnson and a rubber octopus in tow. The premire of the film was held at the Paramount Theatre in 1955, under the title of BRIDE of ATOM. The proceeds of the first opening went to paying Bela's rehab bills.When he was employed to play Cashmir, in the BLACK SLEEP, Lon Chaney Jr. recalls having to take turns with Tor Johnson of hauling Bela around the set, because he was so sick. Bride of the Monster was Bela'ss last hurrah, and be damned! He went out like a pro, and never said die. When YOUR life gets screwed up by drugs and booze...well....Bela Lugosi's dead.
Next review....The RAVEN!
Really enjoyed this Ed Wood classic. Bela Lugosi as the mad scientist and Tor Johnson. It's a special film.
(http://www.filmposters.com/images/posters/10019.jpg)
Yeah, I own this one too --
Not as bad as people make it out to be -- Really, the one thing that stands out as a genuine example of badness is the tin lamp-cover that's supposed to be part of the monster-creating apparatus -- you know, the bit that goes on the head. Even the business with Lugosi having to wrap the rubber octopus around him isn't as bad as that!
But the dialogue once again confirms Wood's place in Bad Cinema --
peter johnson/denny crane
The scene with Bela Lugosi and the rubber octopus was one of the scenes recreated by Tim Burton in his film "Ed Wood" w/ Johnny Depp as Ed Wood and Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi.
For those who have never watched this fine film. Here is the trailer:
BRIDE OF THE MONSTER TRAILER (http://youtube.com/watch?v=m49jm7aJqAo)
In my opinion, the worst part about the film is Bela Lugosi's enormous platform shoes he wears to make him look like an atomic superman, battling Tor Johnson (I think).
Funny thing about Tor Johnson. Apparently back in the early 90's and late 80's for a magazine called "Heavy Metal," a cartoonist named Drew Friendman did a comic strip featuring Tor Johnson as the simple-minded character he typically played in Ed Wood and other director's films. Examples of his strip are something like, Tor would be eating a bowl of oatmeal and when finished Tor would look down and say something to the extent of "Tor to go bed now..." or in a dream he was having, Tor would see multiple images of himself and run around yelling "Me Tor! Me Tor too!" Then he would wake up and telephone Bela Lugosi and furiously ask "How many Tor?" Kinda funny.
Tor was apparently a very nice man, who consumed vast amounts of ice cream. He was a Swedish wrestling champion who came to Hollywood to make his fortune & the rest is history.
Apparently, he would eat an entire gallon of ice cream at a sitting as casually as someone else might eat a candy bar.
peter johnson/denny crane
"Home? I have no home. Hunted. Desssssssspised."
peter johnson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tor was apparently a very nice man, who consumed
> vast amounts of ice cream. He was a Swedish
> wrestling champion who came to Hollywood to make
> his fortune & the rest is history.
> Apparently, he would eat an entire gallon of ice
> cream at a sitting as casually as someone else
> might eat a candy bar.
> peter johnson/denny crane
What, like he's the only one who could?...i preffer moose tracks myself...
Anyone else have the colorised PLAN 9 with the Mike Nelson Commentary track?
I thought it was good, concitering he was likely makeing up all the gags himslef, but i felt he was a bit harsh on Tor. "He could had three people in his neck fat", ect...
Hummmm....anyone else think PLAN 9 realy need the MST3K treatment, or is that iceing on the cake of comedy?
Personally, I really don't think that ANY bad movies deserve the MST3K treatment, as the only shows I've seen of "Mike and the Bots" weren't very good --
For instance, I saw their version of "Eegah!", and the "bots" talked right over some funny dialogue in the movie itself.
My understanding is that MST3K should add to the humour & not detract.
Bad movies are or should be good enough in and of themselves, and anything that "Mike and the Bots" have to say, you can do better on your own.
Another example: No amount of extraneous commentary could add one laugh to "Robot Monster" , so whoever this "Mike Nelson" guy is, he should probably pack it in.
just me.
the ONLY reason I ever watched MST3 was to catch the old movies.I saw MANOS,MONSTER-A-GO-GO, and many others here for the fist time....and I always wanted to jump into my TV and beat the hell outta those idiot puppets who kept RUINING a good bad movie with they're mindless blather!!!
I distinctly remember Drew Freidman's Tor comics in HM back in the early 80's...funny s**t.Drew works for MAD now.
I never did do the Lugosi birthday countdown (no computer), but any way,as FM would say,"LUGOSI LIVES ETERNAL!" (oh yeh-hit the little line at the bottom of this rambling monolouge,and you'll see a nice photo of Bela on the set of BotM.)
This was the first film of Wood's that I saw, and as such it has a certain place in my heart. Maybe not a special place, but a place nonetheless!
I enjoyed it for the most part, because of the absurdity of it all, but it wasn't over-the-top stand out I suppose. Nothing really specific jumps to mind that hasn't been mentioned already.
Oh and Peter, I have only seen two episodes of MST3k and one was for Raul Julia's 'Overdrawn at the Memory Bank' and I'd be interested to see how my perceptions of that movie would have changed it I didn't have Mike and the Bots' inane comments over it. I enjoyed their shredding of it, which made me appreciate the movie all the more, but like you mentioned, you do miss out on a bit. Nevertheless, since the MST3k disc was the only way for me to watch that particular 'classic' I'm glad I saw it.
:hot: Yeow! Lit some fires, did i? Not my intention...
but MST3K works for me. Personal taste. I could never watch some movies with out "help". MANOS, for one.
I've done 26 "Roll yer own" commentary tracks on movies Joel/Mike and the bots never go ariound to. I had a ball with Bela Lugosi's "The ape man".
I'm kinda like Leonard Maltin about this. As he said when they did "Gorgo", he can enjoy the film as is, but the riffs work for me, so yeah, thats the version i prefer.
Riffing is fun, if you have good friends who know a good straight line when they hear it.