(1965)
Dir - A.C. Stephen
Overall: WOOF
When viewing anything under the Ed Wood umbrella of awful, you are usually guaranteed to be in for a very bizarre experience to say the least. Orgy of the Dead is an Ed Wood movie in all but the fact that it was technically "directed" by A.C. Stephen, with Wood handling nearly every other level of production including holding up the cue cards for one of his most infamous alumni The Amazing Criswell to badly and obviously read from. Essentially nothing more than a nudie-cuite, (an exploitation subgenre and precursor to adult films featuring female nudity in place of any narrative content), Orgy of the Dead features a whopping total of ten topless dance sequences, all performed by women who look as bored as we are watching them. The fact that these striptease scenes make up over an hour of the movie's ninety-two minutes is the one thing that makes it an easy contender as one of the most absolutely boring movies ever made. Actually, if not for how suicide-inducingly dull all of the nudity is, the movie would have otherwise been a masterpiece of trash. The dialog, acting, and preposterous set up of Criswell and his female ghoul/vampire/whatever, (plus a werewolf and mummy for no reason), conversing with each other is just hilariously stupid. It further boggles the mind that Wood would later turn the "script" here into a novel, yet another example of how he was probably the most clueless filmmaker who ever breathed air.
(1966)
Dir - Alan Rafkin
Overall: MEH
Hot off his success on The Andy Griffith Show, Don Knotts scored a contract with Universal for a number of staring vehicles, the only one of which that had a horror connection being The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Unfortunately this is not one of the comedies of the day that has aged particularly well as it remains pretty consistently unfunny throughout its running time. As one could imagine, Knotts spends the entire movie with his eyes wide open while being nervous and scared at absolutely everything. Right from the very opening scene where he is frantically screaming at everyone that he just witnessed a murder, it becomes something of a chore to sit through. It is hardly spoiling anything that the "ghost" of the title is simply a Scooby Doo-style red herring and naturally it is a rather shrug-worthy twist. Then there is also an "adda boy" running gag that likewise gets really old, really fast. Perhaps if the movie spent more than one scene in the Gothic mansion and delivered a few more fun, spooky moments, (and if Knotts toned down his cartoonish persona a bit), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken could have been more welcoming, but alas it is just adequately dull.
(1969)
Dir - Bud Townsend
Overall: GOOD
The deliberately cheap, ham-fisted House of Wax rip-off Nightmare in Wax very oddly overcomes its shortcomings and makes the absolute best use out of its silliness. Technically speaking, the movie is poor for the most part. The cinematography is occasionally terrible, the sound design is muffled, there are some embarrassing attempts at humor, and the ending is either incomprehensible or laughably stupid. Plot details are hardly important as within the first few minutes, we pretty much then know exactly what is going to happen for the whole movie. All of that said though, the camp level is certainly high and great mileage is gotten out of the familiar premise of a wax museum operator out for revenge. Cameron Mitchell mostly made a career out of appearing in B-movies that were all levels of bad, (from fun bad to unwatchably bad), and thankfully he was still giving it his all here, sinking his scenery-chewing jaws into the material. While he does not bring a level of class to the proceedings like say a Vincent Price or Christopher Lee would have, he makes up for it with a delightfully outlandish portrayal that is anything but shallow. His performance is enough yet all things considered, this is the good kind of dumb movie that keeps up the pace, making it quite user-friendly to chuckle at.
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