1958's "The Bride and the Beast" was a three-time loser on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, long before the cult of Edward D. Wood Jr. took shape following his death in 1978. You can tell it's a Wood script, with its angora sweaters and bestiality theme, but any camp value is totally drained off by the interminable stock footage once the picture shifts to Africa 34 minutes in. Before that it's a riot, with a captive gorilla caged in a bargain basement basement making advances toward Charlotte Austin's newlywed bride, passively taking it regardless of the 'stares' that other commentators have deemed sexy (more indicative of a bored actress given nothing to work with). The stakes get raised when a psychiatrist taps into her inner 'Bridey Murphy,' and deduces by regression that the girl was a hairy gorilla in a past life! Once the action enters safari country, we get endless big game hunting, none of which feature animals in scenes shot with the actual performers, nothing but stock footage of a leopard (referred to as a 'cheetah'), a black leopard, and at least TWO tigers (who find themselves on the wrong continent!) all getting dropped abruptly after 35 minutes for the dreaded climax, when the 'gorilla her dreams' pops up out of the blue to kidnap Miss Austin and take her back to his place for a rendezvous with three of his pals (I kid you not). Admittedly, Lance Fuller (previously victimized by another Bridey Murphy ripoff, "The She-Creature") was never the sturdiest of actors, but knowing how difficult it would be to keep a straight face while walking through a studio jungle, his bemused performance seems understandable (his character certainly did nothing to deserve his fate, even stripping off his shirt at one point). The worst thing an Ed Wood movie can be is boring, and this one pays the price for 78 minutes (even "Orgy of the Dead" is more exciting). Charlotte Austin looked like a decent actress in "Frankenstein-1970," but since that was her final film, she probably picked a good time to throw in the towel (think Virginia Leith in "The Brain That Wouldn't Die"). The three films that were paired with "The Bride and the Beast" on Chiller Theater were "Caltiki the Immortal Monster," "Phantom from Space," and "Doctor of Doom."
Review of The Bride and the Beast
