For all its ineptness, Bride of the Monster actually boasted the largest budget of any film directed by Ed Wood.

Bride of the Monster was Bela Lugosi's last speaking role. His remaining appearances on film, in The Black Sleep (1956) and the posthumous Plan 9 from Outer Space, were mute.

Logic played no part in the design and creation of the laboratory set. Characters reach it by ducking under a false fireplace entrance, yet it has a full-size walk-in door. The stonework is painted on a flat wall, and the lake behind the house appears to be underwater through an eye-level window, yet is accessible through another full-size door which is a few feet from that window!

Police Captain Robbins constantly has a bird nearby for the simple reason that Harvey B. Dunn, the actor playing the role, was a clown for children's parties and the parakeet was a part of his act.

When she heads out to the swamp house, Janet wears an angora beret. Angora clothing was always close to Ed Wood's heart, and often worn on his person, as well. An angora sweater figures prominently in Wood's cross-dressing semi-documentary Glen or Glenda.

Although Swedish character actor/brute Tor Johnson is now usually thought of as part of the Ed Wood "stock company," his defining character Lobo was described and named by Alex Gordon in his original script. Lobo became the default Tor character, and reappeared in Wood's Night of the Ghouls and in a non-Wood film, The Unearthly (1957).

Shortly after completing his scenes for Bride of the Monster, Bela Lugosi found himself broke and needing medical care. He stayed for a few weeks at the Motion Picture Country House Hospital, but was informed that he couldn't stay because he hadn't worked on a union picture within the previous five years. With no other choice, Lugosi checked himself into the Los Angeles General Hospital for drug detoxification.

Still called The Bride of the Atom, Wood's film premiered on May 11, 1955 in a gala screening meant to benefit the ailing Lugosi. In attendance were most of the cast, as well as such celebrities as Stepin Fetchit and local horror-show hostess Vampira. (Vampira would appear in Wood's later film Plan 9 From Outer Space).

The benefit for Lugosi was considered a failure, as it only netted $1000.

With a title change to Bride of the Monster, the film was finally given a general release in July, 1956.

Sam Arkoff, who would later co-found American International Pictures, attended a preview screening of Bride of the Monster with Alex Gordon and told Gordon that "it was quite good for the money."

As an indication of its lowly status, the movie posters and lobby cards for Bride of the Monster were printed in cheap duotone rather than in full color.

Ed Wood: "Bela was in the hospital when Bride of the Monster was released, but I took him to see it after he was released, at the UA theater in L.A., and he liked it. He really liked that speech. He met an old man when he came out of the theater. ...This old man said to him, 'Well, I'm 62 years old. I feel very old.' Well, Lugosi brought his chest way out and he said, 'I'm 71, but the brain, the brain, it never feels that you're old. Only the body looks old, but never the brain. The brain is young, then the body is still young, like a young man."

Sources:
imagesjournal.com/issue09
Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. by Rudolph Grey
AFI
The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film
Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Flashbacks: Conversations with 24 Actors, Writers, Producers and Directors from the Golden Age by Tom Weaver
The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi by Arthur Lennig
It Came From Weaver Five by Tom Weaver
The Horror People by John Brosnan
The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal Video Watchdog
Psychotronic Magazine