ORGY OF THE DEAD: DANCING DEMONS

Whenever you see the name Ed Wood you know you’re in for a treat of the worst written, directed or produced films ever made. His name has become synonymous with bad movies, in part because the book THE GOLDEN TURKEY AWARDS written by Harry and Michael Medved placed his film PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE as the worst movie ever made. I honestly can’t think of a movie associated with Wood with the exception of the biopic directed by Tim Burton about him that was good.

And yet there is a certain charm about his movies. This was the little guy determined to make a break into the film business in any way imaginable. And to tell the truth he actually did so given that we’re still talking about him 39 years after he passed away. While his movies may have been bad, filled with string held hubcaps for flying saucers and cardboard tombstones that shook or fell over when anyone walked near them, you find yourself watching them whenever they pop up. You might laugh at what you’re watching but you ARE watching.

While both PLAN 9 and THE BRIDE OF THE MONSTER are the most famous films Wood directed he later went on to do more mundane films, mostly nudie cutie films that featured various topless women either dancing or doing burlesque routines. Remember this was when burlesque wasn’t frowned upon and less sexual than what strip clubs offer these days. In 1965 Wood wrote a film and turned the directing chores over to Stephen Apostolof. That film was ORGY OF THE DEAD and has gained a reputation all its own.

The film tells the story of a young couple, Bob (William Bates) and Shirley (Pat Barrington), out for a night drive to a nearby cemetery. Bob is a horror novelist and wants to go there for inspiration while Shirley just wants to go home. A crash lands them in said cemetery where strange happenings are taking place. The Emperor of the Night (Criswell) is being entertained by the Black Ghoul (Fawn Silver) beneath a full moon. That entertainment is the performances of ten different scantily clad women, all of whom eventually become topless and who have certain themes to their dances.

Along for the ride, and for comic relief, are a Wolfman and Mummy, both featuring some of the worst monster make up ever. Let’s just admit it, the Wolfman is a guy wearing a mask and gloves from a Halloween store. The Emperor sees Bob and Shirley and has the duo capture them and tie them up to two monuments to watch the evening’s entertainment. The Black Ghoul wants to kill the two of them but throughout the night the Emperor tells her there is still time, get on with the dancing.

And there you have the entire plot of the movie. At most maybe 5 pages of dialogue surrounded by 5-10 minute dancing segments. Yes, this is one of those nudie cuties I was talking about earlier. These movies were made to titillate as much as could be done back in the sixties. Considered an early form of pornography, which they were, they offered men of the time a chance to watch bare breasted babes au natural. One can imagine this movie playing in some lodge where a group of smiling guys sit and smoke cigars and drink whiskey while watching.

If you’re a fan of the genre or of Ed Wood then you’ll want to add this one to your collection. It’s been available in various formats for years but most of those have been terrible prints either cut to pieces, out of focus or in some other way a terrible print. Vinegar Syndrome has once more come to the rescue of a movie that some might not consider worth saving but that actually deserves to be preserved as a piece of film history.

To start with they’ve remastered the film from an original 35mm camera negative to a 2k format giving us the most perfect picture this film has ever had. In addition to that the release has a number of extras including a commentary track with Ed Wood biographer Rudolph Grey and film maker Frank Henenlotter, “Impressions of Nadejda” an interview with actress/dancer Nadejda Dobrev, “Orgy of the Ted” an interview with Ted V. Mikels, a still gallery and reversible cover art.

Vinegar Syndrome has been trying to capture a time in history and the films of that time period in restored editions for a while now and they’re one of the better companies doing so. The time and care they’ve put into a film like this shows their interested in not just making a buck but in providing the best representations of the films they have the rights to as possible. Let’s hope they continue to do work as good as this item.

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