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Brief Synopsis
A mad scientist fights to create a race of supermen.
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Synopsis
One night, hunters Lafe "Mac" McRae and Jake wander around Marsh Lake despite a brewing storm. The friends comment on the eerie storms, which began three months previously and have occurred every night since, and decide to take shelter in the abandoned Willows home. Mac is afraid, because it was rumored that a monster was responsible for several recent disappearances, but Jake urges him on. At the old mansion, they are turned away by a mysterious man and his enormous, mute servant, Lobo. Fearing that Lobo is the monster, Mac and Jake run, while the man, Dr. Eric Vornoff, laughs about their misconception. In his secret laboratory, Vornoff frees the real monster, a giant octopus that he has created with radioactivity, from its underground water tank. The monster swims to the surface and kills Mac while Lobo captures Jake, upon whom Vornoff experiments. Vornoff is hoping to create a race of super beings, but the atomic ray to which he subjects Jake proves too powerful and he dies, as did the other men whom Vornoff kidnapped. The next morning, police captain Tom Robbins and Lt. Dick Craig discuss the disappearances, which the local newspapers have blamed on the supposed monster. Robbins and Dick are both sick of the monster story, which was the creation of Dick's reporter fiancée, Janet Lawton. As they are discussing the case, the policemen are interrupted by Janet, who bursts into Robbins' office and demands that they answer her questions. Robbins reminds Janet that facts, rather than sensationalistic speculation, will solve the case, but after she accuses him of withholding evidence, she announces her determination to explore Marsh Lake herself. Janet then goes to the "paper morgue" of her newspaper and asks clerk Tillie to help her find the sales records for the old Willows home. While Janet continues to investigate, Robbins introduces Dick to Professor Vladimir Strowski, an Eastern European scientist who specializes in prehistoric monsters. Hoping to uncover evidence of a beast similar to the Loch Ness Monster in Marsh Lake, Strowski agrees to go to the lake with Dick in the morning. Meanwhile, as Janet drives into the forest surrounding the lake, her car gets stuck. After abandoning the vehicle, Janet is scared by a large snake and faints. While Janet is unconscious, she is carried by Lobo to Vornoff's house, and when she awakens, the scientist assures her that all is well, then puts her into a hypnotic trance. The following morning, Dick and his partner, Martin, arrive at the forest to meet Strowski and find Janet's car. While Dick and Marty drive back to a nearby coffee shop in the hope that Janet had walked there, Strowski arrives and begins to search the forest. At Vornoff's lab, Janet awakens and is instructed by Vornoff not to be dismayed by her surroundings, explaining that the hulking Lobo is harmless. Lobo has become fascinated by Janet, however, and Vornoff has to whip him to force him to leave the room. After Lobo exits, Janet reveals her knowledge that Vornoff quietly bought the Willows home several years earlier. Rather than answer her questions about the monster, Vornoff again hypnotizes her, then goes upstairs to his library. There, Vornoff finds Strowski as he sneaks into the house. Vornoff is bemused to see Strowski, who is actually his former colleague. Strowski admits that he has been following Vornoff's experiments in atomic energy as he traveled the world, and asks him to return to their home country, which now wants to sponsor his work. Vornoff laughs bitterly, as their government had exiled him twenty years earlier because of his spectacular theories. Vornoff expounds on his plan to build his own army of "atomic superpeople" with which to take over the world, then orders Lobo to feed Strowski to the octopus. Meanwhile, Dick and Marty return to Marsh Lake and separate after discovering Strowski's car. In the laboratory, Vornoff prepares his machines to experiment on Janet, who, still in a trance, is now dressed in a wedding gown. Calling her "the bride of the atom," Vornoff wakes up Janet and tells her that he intends to give her super strength and beauty with his machinery. Upstairs, Lobo finds Dick, who has crept into the house, and knocks him out. Meanwhile, Robbins, along with Marty, rookie policeman Kelton and several others, begins combing the area. When Dick awakens, he finds himself chained to a wall in the laboratory, where he will be forced to watch the experiment on Janet. Unable to hurt Janet, Lobo attacks Vornoff and frees Janet, who then releases Dick. Lobo straps Vornoff onto the table and turns on the machines but then turns them off when Vornoff screams in pain. Upon recovering, Vornoff discovers that the atomic ray has worked and that he now possesses super strength. Freeing himself from the straps, Vornoff fights with Lobo, who is electrocuted when he falls against the machinery. Vornoff then grabs Janet and flees from Robbins' men, who have surrounded the house. As the men pursue Vornoff, a bolt of lightning, brought on by the machinery, strikes the house and destroys it. After Vornoff puts Janet down, Dick knocks him into the swamp with a boulder, and the octopus devours its creator. The monster itself is destroyed by another bolt of lightning, and as they watch the resulting mushroom cloud, Robbins tells Dick and Janet that Vornoff deserved his fate because he "tampered in God's domain."
Production Dates 26 Oct--early Nov 1954 at Ted Allan Studios and KTTV Studios mid-Mar 1955 at Centaur Studio
Alternate Title(s) Bride of the Atom
Duration (in mins) 67-68
Premiere Information World premiere in Hollywood, CA: 11 May 1955 26 Oct--early Nov 1954 at Ted Allan Studios and KTTV Studios mid-Mar 1955 at Centaur Studio
Distribution Company Banner PicturesState Rights
Production Company Packing Service CorporationRolling M Productions
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