Ed Wood scripted, but didn’t direct, this 1965 mind-roaster, which was allegedly conceived as a loose sequel to PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1958). Directed by the longtime Wood cohort “A.C. Stephens,” a.k.a. Stephen C. Apostolof (1928-2005), ORGY OF THE DEAD was made for a reported $30,000 (a not-inconsiderable price for a 1960s nudie-cutie).
ORGY OF THE DEAD (1969) Trailer
Headlining was a charter member of Wood’s acting troupe: The Amazing Criswell (1907-1982), famous in his day for appearing in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, and for making inaccurate predictions (Mae West as president of the United States! The end of the world on August 18, 1999!). The (uncredited) gaffer was the famed schlockmeister Ted V. Mikels, and the script was credited as being adapted by Wood “From his novel” of the same name, although said novel was actually published after the film was made.
It begins with a close-up of the Emperor of the Dead, played by a very inebriated looking Criswell in Dracula get-up (actually the cape Bela Lugosi wore in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN). Very evidently reading from offscreen cue cards, he introduces what he calls “A tale of the threshold…so astounding that some of you may faint. This is a story of those in the twilight time, once human, now monsters, in a void between the living and the dead.”
The Emperor seats himself on a throne located in a cemetery (with very cardboard-y graves). In the light of a (fake) full moon, several undead women (whose looks and talents vary) perform topless dances, set to jazzy lounge muzak and billowing smoke. If the Emperor doesn’t like what he sees, he informs his Vampira lookalike assistant Black Ghoul (Fawn Silver) to “banish their souls to everlasting damnation!”
The dances commence with a headband wearing “Indian” woman (Bunny Glaser) doing her thing, followed by a prostitute (Coleen O’Brien), a “Hawaiian” (Mickey Jines), a “Mexican” (Stephanie Jones) and many more. One woman (Pat Barrington) undergoes the threatened banishment by getting boiled in liquid gold and ending up a gold coated, G-string wearing corpse (a la GOLDFINGER) that’s shut away in a crypt.
In the meantime, the horror novelist Bob (William Bates) is in route to an ancient cemetery where he hopes to find inspiration, together with his hot wife Shirley (Pat Barrington, again). A car crash fortuitously deposits them in the very place Bob is looking for, which is, of course, the location of the Emperor’s “orgy.” Bob and Shirley surreptitiously watch the gyrating zombies until, three dances in, they’re discovered by two of Criswell’s henchmen, a mummy (Louis Ojena) and a wolfman (John Andrews), who tie the couple to headstones and force them to watch the remaining dances.
Eventually Black Ghoul decides to stab Shirley to death so she can join the dead, but before the killing can occur the sun rises and turns BG and the Emperor into skeletons. The end.
Stephen C. Apostolof, it’s been claimed, wanted above all else to make art films. ORGY OF THE DEAD isn’t an art film by any means; it is, in fact, gutter-level exploitation, with nearly two thirds of its runtime taken up with topless dancing—which in the absence of a compelling narrative isn’t enough to sustain one’s interest. The performers do nothing to improve matters, with Criswell’s “acting” best summed up by the cameraman Robert Caramico, who’s alleged to have likened the performance to “watching paint dry.”
What interest the film exerts is due to Ed Wood’s inimitable dialogue (“I wrote for years without selling a single word. My monsters have done well for me. You think I’d give that up, just so I could write about trees, or dogs, or daisies?”) and a definite retro charm. Despite its adult orientation, there’s an innocence to ORGY OF THE DEAD that places it far outside modern cinematic mores, and of sexploitation fare of the mid-1960s, which had a rough and gritty edge (1965, let’s not forget, was the year of Russ Meyer’s famously hard-edged FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!).
This film, in short, likely seemed as unprecedented and out of place back then as it does now, being an altogether fascinating sui generis oddity. That, however, doesn’t make it any less boring.
Vital Statistics
ORGY OF THE DEAD
Astra Productions
Director/Producer: “A.C. Stephen” (Stephen C. Apostolof)
Screenplay: Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Cinematography: Robert Caramico
Editing: Donald A. Davis
Cast: Criswell, Fawn Silver, “Pat Barringer” (Pat Barrington), William Bates, Pat Barringer, Mickey Jines, Barbara Nordin, Bunny Glaser, Nadejda Dobrev, Coleen O’Brien, Texas Starr, Rene de Beau, Stephanie Jones, Dene Starnes, Louis Ojena, John Andrews, Edward Tontini, William Bonner, Rod Lindeman, John Bealey, Arlene Spooner