I think that Bela Lugosi's performance in this film was great! So much emotion, so much heart, he is by far one of the greatest actors of his time.
shareTwo bad it's such a terrible film. I thought he did good too.
"Home? I have no home. Hunted. Despised. The jungle is my home, now."
"Snootchie Bootchies? Who talks like that? That's @#%&$ baby talk!"
My copy has "another turkey from the world's worst director" printed on the cover. This is the marketing approach they are taking, but considering it cost 3 dollars Australian or about a dollar fifty US it's just sad. He is a bad director but at least the movies are entertaining.
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The fantastic thing with Lugosi is that regardless of what film he's in, he gives it his all. Too bad we don't have many actors like that today.
And, for the record, Ed Wood isn't "the worst director ever". His films are actually entertaining... I mean, the guy had a lot of drive (much like Bela). His movies, no doubt, are fun. "Bride of the Monster" is probably his best, in my opinion. Lugosi's performance was amazing.
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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Come on.... I like the film as well, but Bela Lugosi had better performances. Ever see a movie called "Dracula"?
Actually, I think Lugosi's best performance, and probably his best film, is "The Black Cat" (dir Edgar G. Ulmer).
Anyway, on the generalized Ed Wood topic, Ed Wood wasn't a great director but he wasn't the worst out there. The thing about Ed Wood is that he was truly a film fan.... a lot of people who made B movies didn't give a cr*p about their movies. Ed Wood loved his films, he loved other people's films, he loved actors, he loved being around the creative scene. He was a huge fan of B movies, especially Westerns and horror/sci-fi. People say the acting in his movies is "bad", but I think mostly they are just ignorant about what B movies are. B movies is like a whole different aesthetic of film, and Ed Wood was one of the very first film-makers to realize that you could start a 2nd generation of B films that were more "post-modern".... basically we use the term "camp" today to describe what he was doing, but that term didn't even exist when Wood was doing it. Think about it -- he sought out actors from B movies to appear in his films. He didn't do that because he thought Bela Lugosi was as good an actor as Humphrey Bogart or Kenne Duncan was as good as John Wayne, he did it because those people were really good at making B movies. He was well aware of the history of B movies and, as I said, was the first director to spoof the genre while at the same time filling the needs of a B film for the marketplace. He spoofed B movies so well, and with so much authenticity (plus his movie was a B movie as well, but ALL his films exist as HOMAGE to the B movies of the past) that many have been fooled over the years into thinking that he was just a moron. In reality, the relationship between Ed Wood, camp, and the B movies of the 1930s/40s is more complex than what I can easily say here, and the term "spoof" doesn't really do justice to what Wood was trying to do in his 1950s films. It's a spoof and a tribute at the same time, and the fact that he was able to make a movie like "Bride of the Monster" which is in and of itself a fine B movie but at the same time a tribute to Bela Lugosi and a "cap" to his career as it were, is truly remarkable.
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
My favorite Bela role was as "The Sayer of the Law" in The Island of Lost Souls. It is a small part, but he was just so awesome. "Are we not men?"
shareCome on.... I like the film as well, but Bela Lugosi had better performances. Ever see a movie called "Dracula"?
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I'll grant you Lugosi's PERFORMANCE in DRACULA, but the film itself is deadly dull. The only interesting parts are the ones Lugosi is in. Everything else is talk...talk...talk...with nothing to carry it.
It's pretty sad when the SETS are more compelling than the actors or the script; but then again, the fault lies more with the original play which in itself was bad...bad...BAD -even for the late 20's.
Lugosi's performance was the only thing -really- that saved that play from the obscurity it deserved.
"If you don't know the answer -change the question."
There is always a tendency to say that somebody "did it on purpose" when the actuality is that they just didn't have the talent or means to create something better. That is just hindsight. Ed Wood should be appreciated more for his INABILITY to make status quo movies than his ability to somehow deceive the history of cinema. He is more autistic than idiot savant, but that is OK with me. John Waters is a better example of someone who is well versed in camp.
Also, if Ed Wood is vilified (or celebrated) for his title as worst writer/director ever, he should also be recognized as the Greatest Pitchman ever because who would read one of these scripts & greenlight it?
"Who's the only one here who knows illegal ninja moves from the government?"
Um he sought our B-movie actors because that's all he could afford on his budget. You really think someone like John Wayne would sign up with the budget Ed had??
And wrong again. B-movies don't have to feature poor acting. John Carpenter's Halloween would be a B-movie. It's low budget and produced outside of the Hollywood system. Acting was fine.
Hell even Barbara Hale was fairly decent in the Giant Spider Invasion.
Oh and no Wood's films weren't meant as spoofs lol.
shareI just love his facial expressions throughout this movie-treads fine line between kinda scary and kinda comical! He does look very frail and near the end also which adds a kinda sad element. I would've liked to see Bela in a modern truly terrifying/gory horror movie where he wouldve genuinely scared the sh*t out of you!
shareHis two best performances, those that stand out, in my opinion, are those in BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT and VOODOO MAN. Both are understated performances that help make his characters mysterious.
In Bowery at Midnight, he plays someone who lives a double-life, or perhaps even a triple-life. By day, he is a college professor with a wife. By night, he runs the Friendly Mission on the Bowery, which he uses as a front for a gang. The way in which he lures criminals to work for him and then disposes of them in such a calm manner is unusual for Lugosi pictures.
At one point, he receives Frankie Mills, who is running from the law. As the police knock on the door, Mills is hidden in a secret room. Lugosi unlocks the door and the cop says "Do you always keep this door locked", to which he says "A precaution, if it were unlocked my guests would be all over the place... Is there something wrong?"
In Voodoo Man, he plays Dr. Marlowe, who lures young women using a trap that includes George Zucco, who runs a gas station(!). Zucco also serves as some kind of High Priest of Ramboona. At one point, he tells Marlowe, "Remember that Ramboona is all powerful!", to which Marlowe says "Yes."
He uses these women in some kind of ceremony to try to revive his wife who, he tells one of them, has been dead for 21 years. Unfortunately, he is only able to bring her back for less than a minute until she falls back into a trance. The women used in the ceremonies join her in similar trances to become "zombies" who attend future ceremonies.
A very understated performance that makes you feel sympathy for him. He is a bit like Boris Karloff's character in The Ape though in this case he doesn't kill anyone.
He handles the ceremonies well. "Emotion to emotion, soul from body to body, life to death! Life to death!"
I'll have to try to catch those last two - i probably saw them 30 years or more ago... I would argue for his best role being (beside "Dracula" of course) Ygor in "Son of Frankenstein". He steals the movie from Karloff and that must have been very satisfying. Not a great movie, but it is a really eery role.
shareThis was far from Lugosi's best acting job, but even though he was by this time a whizzened,desicated wreck, he still had the most expressive hands. Watch those hands, better acting there than many younger players. And let me not forget Tor Johnson; what a splendid Aunt Jemimah he would have made!
Nothing exists more beautifully than nothing.