Okay, I will start off by saying that this is an Ed Wood, Jr. film, so of course it's going to have cheap sets, grade z actors (except for the wonderful Bela Lugosi) and ridiculous dialog. With that being said, this little horror movie is actually better than it should be.
Bela Lugosi plays the mad doctor Dr. Vornoff who has been banished from his home country because of his bizarre experiments using atomic energy. He is trying to create a race of super humans but he keeps killing people as his experiments continue to fail. Ed Wood perennial player Tor Johnson portrays Lobo, his assistant. Let's just say the menacing Lobo is a few french fries short of a Happy Meal.
Dr. Vornoff is hiding out in an abandoned old house in the woods complete with the mad scientist laboratory and a pond outside complete with a giant rubber octopus.
The movie would be a total mess except for Bela Lugosi. He actually gives a wonderful performance, especially given the limitations he had to work with, i.e. cheapola sets, having to wrestle the giant octopus, etc. His speech where he says, "Home? I have no home..." shows the shades of the brilliant actor that captivated fans 30 years before when he performed "Dracula" on Broadway. Despite the terrible material he had to work with, Bela rises above everything and shows the true professional he really was. He is frail and looks old, but he still retained the essence that made him a star.
I feel this movie isn't any worse than many of the cheapie movies that studios were cranking out in the 1950's. To me this is probably the best of Ed Wood, Jr.'s many movies. If you are a Bela Lugosi fan, or a fan of Ed Wood, Jr., you definitely don't want to miss this movie.
6 out of 7 found this helpful