The Bride and the Beast (1958)

Thanks for the memories!

i must have seen a different film!!

Good movie but grossly overrated

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Laura Carson (Charlotte Austin) has just married big game hunter Dan Fuller (Lance Fuller.) On her wedding night she finds herself strangely attracted to Spanky, a gorilla gone bad that Dan keeps locked up in a basement cage. Before you can say "Ed Wood wrote this," there are gun shots, nightmares, hypnotism, and Dan's unhappy discover that bride Laura may be the reincarnation of a gorilla queen! Can you dig it? Now and then a bad movie becomes unintentionally hilarious, but most of the time bad movies are simply bad. BRIDE AND THE BEAST actually teeters between the two, and this is largely due to the two leads: even in the face of producer-director Adrian Weiss' obvious lack of talent, Austin and Fuller prove unexpectedly competent, and they actually manage to hold the worst of the dialogue at bay. What this means, however, is that BRIDE never self-destructs in the ludicrous way of such films as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE--and in consequence it isn't so much unintentionally hilarious as it is unintentionally amusing in a mild sort of way.The film is full of absurdities. Dan Fuller's basement, where the ill-fated gorilla Spanky is caged, has a refrigerator, but illumination is provided by torch. Servant Taro (Johnny Roth, in what seems to be his only film role) is very obviously a white man in bad "native" make-up; he runs around saying "Bwana" a lot. There is a lot of canned wild animal footage, shots of Africa that look suspiciously like shots of South America, and men in bad gorilla costumes. And Ed Wood being Ed Wood, he just can't resist writing references to angora sweaters into the script.The print is mediocre, but it is worth pointing out that it was probably never very good to begin with, and the DVD release comes with several bonuses of no interest. Fans of cult films, and especially die hard fans of Ed Wood, will enjoy it--and for their sake I give it three stars. But just about every one else should give it a miss.GFT, Amazon Reviewer

"The Bride and the Beast" starts off well with lots of potential that this could be a pretty good movie. The plot revolves around a man, his newlywed wife, and her strange connection with gorillas. Then the couple goes to Africa and the movie unravels. Forget all about the first part of the movie. Put it on the shelf for a while because you won't need to remember it again until you get to the end. You next get lots of terrible stock footage of African animals and the plot takes a side road as the husband hunts down two tigers. It's almost as though it turned into a Safari movie and a boring one at that. As you watch the different animals, the background scenery changes dramatically from shot to shot. The scenes, especially of the animals are shot in all different kinds of terrain. Very poorly done. At this point there is barely a string connecting the beginning of the movie to the middle. This goes on for quite a while. Nearing the end of the movie, they drop the safari and hunting and go back to the man, woman, gorilla plot to end the movie. It's too bad because this one had a chance if they just stuck with the original plot throughout the film. The Bride and the Beast" is disjointed and boring, not recommended.

OK, don't laugh...I recommend this film to future actresses, directors and just plain viewers that want a good (unusual) time.Bottom line, the movie is a stinker, like so many things Ed Wood was connected with in his life. The whole middle of the film uses terrible stock footage that has little to do with the rest of the film. Fully 30-45 minutes of the middle of the film could have been left out.So, let's discuss the first 15-20 minutes and the last 10 minutes of the film--without giving away too much.First of all, one thing different about this film from most Ed Wood films is that the two leads are real actors. Lance Fuller had done many movies with big names and Charlotte Austin had small roles in films such as "How to Marry a Millionaire" where she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Monroe, Bacall and Grable. And--looks-wise--Austin held her own. She was a very sophisticated and attractive looking girl.But what makes this whole film work--for 25 minutes or so--is the fact that Austin plays the part straight. You really believe this beautiful, elegant model has a thing for gorillas.The part that every budding actress or director should really see, though, is Austin's close-up, facials as she looks with growing lust at 'the beast.'I'm a film buff myself, but I have NEVER seen any actress be able to convey so much with a few close ups as this woman did in the short sequence of her first gaze on the ape.I know, I know...it sounds crazy, but you have to view it. Nothing in erotic films--for all the modern explicitness--touches what this film actress does with a few close ups.It's a shame Miss Austin left movies shortly thereafter...she certainly had the looks and ability to have gone places in movies.Check it out and see if you agree!

Let me see if I have this straight; Adrian Weiss produced it, Adrian Weiss directed it, and Adrian Weiss wrote (relative term) it, but this is an "Ed Wood film.?" Heck, he probably improved it. And it was most likely his imput that had Charlotte Austin staying with the gorillas over Lance Fuller. After all, in the dark, gorilla fur/hair could possibly pass for cashmier.