Ed Wood had proposed a tv show called Dr. Acula to star Bela Lugosi as an investigator into the supernatural (kind of like the ghost hunter TV shows that there are today) However, this never came to light, so Ed produced a low budget film alongside his friend Alex Gordon called Jail bait. Out of the Ed Wood filmography this film isn't talked about that much but it being an Ed Wood film, it is highly assumed that it's bad. I personally think the film's decent even it being Ed Wood who made it. The film is a 1930's style gangster flick with a twilight zone twist. Ed also wanted to cast Bela into this movie, but he could not perform due to illness. It was during this time in the production of Jail bait, that Ed met the majority of his B movie buddies, who would later appear in his films.
In 1955 Ed made Bride Of The Monster. Ed was having trouble with this movie from the start, he couldn't find a producer who wanted to help make his film, so he had to raise the money himself and produce his own film. Ed however found this an upside because he would become like his role model. Orson Welles, in every film Ed made he'd talk about it as if it would be his Citizen Kane.
Ed got Bela Lugosi to agree to appear in this movie as well, Bela hadn't seen Glen or Glenda. Bela this time would play the role of a mad scientist who wishes to rule the world by creating a race of atomic supermen. With the help of his assistant, the monster Lobo. When searching for a role to play Lobo, Ed came across the wrestler Tor Johnson, who was the first man in a monster movie who didn't need to wear make-up. Whether this was a compliment or an insult towards Tor is up to you.
Originally going to be titled Bride Of The Atom, Ed held vairous fundraiser's with film backer's to help raise money to produce the film along with funding from various businesses. Ed finally shot his film which is very reminiscent of the early low budget monster movies, and had payed homage to one of Bela's monster movies, The Corpse Vanishes. Ed had intended to cast Channel seven star Vampira, but she turned him down. Vampira was known at that time for featuring old horror films from the earlier years such as Dracula.
Budget-saving film library footage of lightning, explosions, a nuclear blast, and a giant "atomic" octopus was also inserted. In one scene the hero, trapped in quicksand, is menaced by an obvious stock footage alligator. In the finale, the frail, elderly Lugosi was reduced to thrashing about in the mud with a large rubber octopus when the motor needed to turn it into a flailing beast could not be located.
This is where Ed Wood really became entertaining with his films, they aren't great by any standards, today's or the fifties, but it's entertaining as heck especially where some scenes where Tor gets stuck when he walks through a door, and Bela flogging Tor around in his scientist's lab. It provides a good laugh and is a good movie watching experience.
