THE
BRIDE AND THE BEAST (1955)
Directed by Adrian Weiss
Retromedia DVD
Reviewed 01.03.04
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba
THE FILM
I’m really fascinated by all
things Edward D. Wood Jr. -- his
films, his writings, and most of
all his unbelievable life story.
In fact, I’d go as far to
say that he’s one of my most
favorite directors of all time.
So it was with great anticipation
that I looked forward to viewing
The Bride And The Beast,
which comes from the pen of Ed Wood
himself. I hadn't seen a copy available
anywhere until I read that Retromedia
was releasing it on DVD. For me,
this film was kind of the last holy
grail of Ed Wood discoveries, along
with The Sinister Urge.
Now I’ve seen it. It stinks.
Wow, this movie was boring. The
story concerns our hero, Dan Fuller,
and his pretty new wife, Laura (who
has an angora fetish). It seems
Laura was really a gorilla in her
past life and she suffers from nightmares
reliving the experience. She also
suffers from romantic passes by
Spanky, Dan’s pet Gorilla.
Spanky gets a little too hot and
bothered and visits Laura during
the night. Dan witnesses some heavy
petting and shoots the hell out
of Spanky. Romantic guy that he
is, Dan decides to go ahead with
the next day’s honeymoon --
a fun filled hunting trip to the
African jungles. You won’t
care about anything else that happens
next.
I know this picture might sound
goofy and/or funny, but it’s
not. Endless jungle stock footage
combines with none of Wood’s
usual charm (save for the plentiful
Angora on display) to deliver a
film that breaks the golden b-movie
rule: it’s super boring. That
said, it’s still an interesting
watch at least once for the Ed Wood
completist. Maybe if he directed
this one, it might have amounted
to something...
AUDIO AND VIDEO
The print on Beast itself looks like you’d expect
a non-restored film of this year
to look: scratchy, hairy, and noisy.
The mono sound is fine. Unfortunately,
there’s a problem with this
disc that runs throughout: bad compression
and pixelation. When a lot of movement
is taking place on screen, the feature
and extras tend to look like streaming
internet video. It’s slightly
bothersome.
EXTRAS
Three David “The Rock”
Nelson shorts: read the full review
here.
Other features include a trailer
(which contains a deleted scene),
a brief photo gallery, and a short
called “Beach Blanket Bloodbath,"
which is apparently based on a script
Ed Wood was working on when he died.
I don't get it.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Bride is for Ed Wood
completists only. I can’t
imagine that I’d ever want
to watch it again. Still, this disc
is worth picking up for the David
“The Rock” Nelson shorts
alone. |
Spanky & Laura
Angora PJs
Jungle Dan
Off to the casbah
|
