The first time I saw this, Robert Osborne presented it on TCM, and he spoke very highly of it. When it came down to it, I trusted Robert, whenever I wanted to know something about the movies that interested me I would just watch TCM and eventually he would say something about whatever movie I was watching at the time.
So that the first version of "bride of the atom", which I like to call this film, I could have sworn it was distributed by RKO. But it was a black and white print.
I was highly impressed with Bela Lugosi's performance, of course he was old, but he still had it.
And I was thinking "who is that big lug?" Not realizing I had already seen him already as a cop with actual speaking lines in plan nine!
And I remember actually liking the way Tor Johnson played the police officer- he sounded coherent. He had good diction, and he actually acted. Instead of just grunting and doing wrestling moves on Bela or Lyle Talbot (or whoever the lead actor in this film was, I'm still not sure, and I'm even looking at the cast list)- oh, that was Tony McCoy.
It is ironic that I saw many of the scenes from this film in Tim Burtons "Ed Wood", and they were performed almost verbatim to this film.
And what is kind of humorous there is that Martin Landau's daughter played Loretta King... I didn't realize that until today when I was watching the film.
But also, today I came across a real prize, a colorized version of "bride of the atom." It was partially worked on down here at a film studio in San Diego where I had worked at to do a gaming television show, I got to control a Mechwarrior/Battletech robot with a sidewinder joystick, while other players got to shoot back at me. They filmed the video game play and that got broadcast in the episode. After I did my job, I stayed there and talked to the owner who showed me a bunch of interesting videos he had made where he played musical instruments and filmed himself doing all of the parts.
But whoever worked on this rendition of this film, the color really adds to the story- it helps it make sense.
And I remember the first time I saw this film, Bela goes on his "home" rant, talking about creating a race of Atomic Superman that will rule the world. Which is a pretty famous line as far as Bela Lugosi lines go. This film also has a reprise of Bela's famous hand gestures which he used in "white zombie", he uses them to summon a victim. It may have been a different movie, or maybe the gestures were used in more than one film. Regardless, it was a classic homage to his early work.
And when I saw that first version in black and white, it never occurred to me that when Lobo strapped Bela to the table, he demonstrated that the machine actually worked and Bela had become a Superman.
I apologize if that gives away anything but that aspect of it completely slipped away from me the first time but this time when I watched it in color, the meaning of that whole scene became clear.
So... for the first time the entire ending of this movie made sense, a lot more sense than it did before.
I was very impressed with the way Bela held himself, he delivered his lines beautifully. He is the consummate actor.
It's just that he never was given very many quality acting parts.
But I am also thankful for his friendship with Ed Wood, who gave him the opportunity to perform in a few more movies, as chintzy as they were. You could tell this is something that he loved doing, and he should have been given more opportunities to work before he was taken from us.
And when you think about Ed Wood, if he just had a little bit more money, and a little bit more control, what he would have been able to do. Because even the films that he wrote and directed himself, were interfered with by religious groups, by movie studios, and by dirty film companies.
And this, this was Bela Lugosi's last full movie, and as it exists today, represents a huge sock in the face to big Hollywood, even with the religious interference.
So that the first version of "bride of the atom", which I like to call this film, I could have sworn it was distributed by RKO. But it was a black and white print.
I was highly impressed with Bela Lugosi's performance, of course he was old, but he still had it.
And I was thinking "who is that big lug?" Not realizing I had already seen him already as a cop with actual speaking lines in plan nine!
And I remember actually liking the way Tor Johnson played the police officer- he sounded coherent. He had good diction, and he actually acted. Instead of just grunting and doing wrestling moves on Bela or Lyle Talbot (or whoever the lead actor in this film was, I'm still not sure, and I'm even looking at the cast list)- oh, that was Tony McCoy.
It is ironic that I saw many of the scenes from this film in Tim Burtons "Ed Wood", and they were performed almost verbatim to this film.
And what is kind of humorous there is that Martin Landau's daughter played Loretta King... I didn't realize that until today when I was watching the film.
But also, today I came across a real prize, a colorized version of "bride of the atom." It was partially worked on down here at a film studio in San Diego where I had worked at to do a gaming television show, I got to control a Mechwarrior/Battletech robot with a sidewinder joystick, while other players got to shoot back at me. They filmed the video game play and that got broadcast in the episode. After I did my job, I stayed there and talked to the owner who showed me a bunch of interesting videos he had made where he played musical instruments and filmed himself doing all of the parts.
But whoever worked on this rendition of this film, the color really adds to the story- it helps it make sense.
And I remember the first time I saw this film, Bela goes on his "home" rant, talking about creating a race of Atomic Superman that will rule the world. Which is a pretty famous line as far as Bela Lugosi lines go. This film also has a reprise of Bela's famous hand gestures which he used in "white zombie", he uses them to summon a victim. It may have been a different movie, or maybe the gestures were used in more than one film. Regardless, it was a classic homage to his early work.
And when I saw that first version in black and white, it never occurred to me that when Lobo strapped Bela to the table, he demonstrated that the machine actually worked and Bela had become a Superman.
I apologize if that gives away anything but that aspect of it completely slipped away from me the first time but this time when I watched it in color, the meaning of that whole scene became clear.
So... for the first time the entire ending of this movie made sense, a lot more sense than it did before.
I was very impressed with the way Bela held himself, he delivered his lines beautifully. He is the consummate actor.
It's just that he never was given very many quality acting parts.
But I am also thankful for his friendship with Ed Wood, who gave him the opportunity to perform in a few more movies, as chintzy as they were. You could tell this is something that he loved doing, and he should have been given more opportunities to work before he was taken from us.
And when you think about Ed Wood, if he just had a little bit more money, and a little bit more control, what he would have been able to do. Because even the films that he wrote and directed himself, were interfered with by religious groups, by movie studios, and by dirty film companies.
And this, this was Bela Lugosi's last full movie, and as it exists today, represents a huge sock in the face to big Hollywood, even with the religious interference.