423 - BRIDE OF THE MONSTER with short: HIRED! PT 1

Don’s Synopsis:  The feature is a Ed Wood camp classic that stars Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist (what a stretch) and hulking Tor Johnson as his muscular assistant Lobo (another stretch).  Lugosi is experimenting with the atom or something and creates a deadly rubber octopus that basically kills people by getting them to grab its tentacles and roll around so that it looks like the fake octopus is moving (but the illusion fails to work). The mad scientist takes anyone who comes near his house prisoner and uses them in his experiments.  Until he takes a woman reporter prisoner and Lobo takes such a liking to her angora hat that he frees her, strapping Bela to the lab table and runs the atom experiment on him, instead.  The experiment turns Lugosi into a super-being or – more accurately – a stand-in who looks nothing like Bela.  Super-Bela then beats up Lobo and runs around outside until a guy pushes a rock on him, knocking him into a pond where he is rolled around to death by the fake octopus.

Don’s Review:  This movie features the usual Ed Wood touches: all of his buddies star in the film; clunky dialogue; cheapo sets; laughably bad continuity between connecting shots; and angora somehow factoring into the plot (Ed really loved his angora).  The riffing is very good and the last host segment where they re-edit the finale of the film with J&tBs playing Lugosi is a hoot.  As for the short, the riffing on it is great, with a fantastic host segment spoof soon afterwards in which J&tBs re-enact Hired! as a Broadway musical.  It’s brilliant – the songs even sound like real songs from Broadway musicals and it is one of my favorite host segments of all time. All-in-all, this is another great episode in a great season.

Don’s Rating:     [ S: F: ]

Forrest’s Review:  Every frame of Bride of the Monster is filled with Ed Wood’s love for his films.  Ed Wood loved all of his films, but, sadly, nobody else did (unless you’re a fan of Ed Wood, because his movies are so bad, they’re good.  And I admit it, I’m one of his fans).  Ed Wood was a terrible director, there’s no doubt, but he is not the worst director. I mean, I’d rather watch Bride of the Monster uncut ten times, rather than seeing the uncut Beast of Yucca Flats once!
      The episode begins with Short called Hired! and it truly is one of the best shorts seen on the show. The riffing on the short is rapid fire to the extreme, and some of MST3K’s very best work ever on their very long list of Shorts.  In fact, if you just want a ton of laughs within a short amount of time, all you need to do is watch Hired! along with part 2 (seen in the next episode Manos: The Hands of Fate, and part 2 is actually funnier in my opinion). The movie is already hilarious on its own, as are all of Ed Wood’s films (in fact, if you see the Tim Burton movie Ed Wood, his films are even funnier! And the movie Ed Wood is hilarious as well).  There are so many unintentional laughs in this episode, and it really need no riffing at all. There are some truly great lines in this episode, and many of the riffs are great. Unfortunately, there are many, many flat moments for me in this episode, and the only truly funny parts are the unintentional laughs from this film- but they are a thousand times better with Joel and the ’Bots.  This MST3K episode only really enhances the already funny film.  The riffing in between all the funny Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnston antics seem to just fill up space.  Sure there are some funny lines here and there, but it was just good, middle-of-the-road, 3.5 CROW riffing. However, whenever Tor Johnston or Bela Lugosi are in the scene, some of the biggest laughs in MST3K history are heard. The one where Bela whips Tor for no apparent reason is hilarious on its own, but the riffing in that scene made it, surprisingly, even funnier, way funnier. In fact, I laughed my head off.
      The host segments are also very good, all of them, in fact are good.  The one about advertising with Willy The Wonderful Wisecracking Waffle (or whatever the hell they call him) fell just a little bit flat for me.  But the true highlights are the Hired! inspired segment, and the hilarious ending segment where Joel and the bots re-edit the hilarious ending to the film.  I’m not going to give this episode 5 CROWS, because the riffing simply isn’t anywhere near the highest heard on the show.  Don’t get me wrong, it had good riffing, but that’s all, and the only time the riffing truly shined was when Bela Lugosi or Tor Johnston were on the screen, and, not to mention when the hilarious snake, alligator, and (very unconvincing) octopus stock footage scenes appear.
      The truth is, the movie is already funny, and the riffing enhances what there is, therefore making it even funnier.  So, it was a great episode, but the riffing wasn’t the best ever heard, and only enhanced this unintentionally funny movie.  This enhanced riffing seen here is similar to the Season Eight episode The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies, only, while the unintentional laughs and riffing enhancement in both episodes are equally good, the fill-in riffing seen in The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies is way better (Be sure to give that episode a look).

Forrest’s Rating: 

Related Links:
   (1) Mighty Jack’s MST3K Review (Episode Review)
   (2) B-Movie Central (Movie Review)