Orgy of the Dead is certainly a title that sticks out! Does this 1965 movie live up to that name though? Not really, as rather than a necro-porn flick, it's actually more of a nudie-cutie, written (but not directed by) the incomparable Ed Wood! With that in mind, it's kind of surprising this wasn't a hardcore necro-porn! That tale of weird love came later!...
Young couple Bob and Shirley are driving to a secluded cemetery to seek inspiration for the former's novel, but their car crashes, and the two later wake up and stumble across the graveyard, where they witness several nude women dancing for a mysterious man. Soon enough, they're captured, tied up, and forced to watch the proceedings, afraid of what'll become of them once the dancing ends...
Orgy of the Dead isn't much of an actual movie, sort-of. Rather than have a story, it's instead basically just a nude dancing reel, with just a little plot surrounding it to give it flavour. Most of the screentime is devoted to the dancers, who range from a tribal Native American woman, to a streetwalker (that performance being my particular favourite, along with the gold dancer, and the fluff girl), and a skimpy bride who air-swims and super-jiggles her boobs. The problem though is how the dancers lose their tops. They go from being fully clothed, to almost nude in a single cut, their clothes just vanishing between shots, and that bugs me. So much for a proper burlesque striptease! The worst is the 'fluff girl', who's whole schtick is fashion, yet loses all those clothes almost immediately. Thankfully not all are this abrupt, like the cat woman, who we actually do see disrobe, but she's pretty much it. There's also not a great deal of effort put into the costumes for the most part. The most egregious is the Day of the Dead performer, who's just briefly wearing a Flamenco shirt and a veil, with zero ooky make-up, or anything creative like that. The film also has a touch of BDSM to it, which some may enjoy.
Given the entire movie is just dancing, you'd think it would be boring, but it surprisingly isn't! Perhaps that's because it's just so overt in what it is. It makes no pretenses about being anything else other than simply an excuse to showcase dancing bevvies showing their boobs, wrapped in a framing story, and that helps it a lot. It never tries to be something its not.
Despite often overdramatic delivery, some of the dialogue here is actually pretty good. "It is on nights like this that the creatures are said to appear and to walk. The day is gone, the night is upon us, and the moon, which controls all of the underworld once again shines in radiant contentment.". The closing lines are quite effective, in a way, too!
The remainder of the dialogue in this movie is golden! There are many hilariously bad lines, made even better by the deliveries. "Pussycats are born to be whipped.", "No-one wishes to see a man dance.", "Torture, torture, it pleasures me!", and "Your puritan upbringing holds you back from my monsters, but it certainly doesn't hurt your art of kissing!", among others. Best is the exchange of "The moon is almost gone!" -"There is yet time. Don't you want your own pleasures?"-"Oh, if there was only time."-"Ah, there is always time. All in good time.There is always time".
Orgy of the Dead's effects are actually quite good, for the most part, because the film works within its means. It just wants to show nude-dancing in a foggy cemetery, and it nails both counts. Where it falters is the costuming for the Wolf Man and Mummy, which are...less than convincing, in an amusing way. The Wolf-Man is either getting on in years, or resembles a skunk! The ill-fitting, poorly-matched voice acting is really what sinks those two monsters though. There's also a vat of melted gold that looks more like blue dye brought to the boil, but I'll give the movie the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a cauldron of random magic goop that turned the woman gold. Said gold woman looks decent, by the way, like a sight straight out of Goldfinger! Later on, there's an unconvincing skeleton which has a hook on its skull, like Ed procured it from a classroom! Finally, the fog is really good in some places, but in others, it seems they left the machine running too long!
The acting in this movie ranges from almost decent to laughable. Criswell, of Plan 9 from Outer Space infamy, plays the nefarious leader of the ghouls, and is by far the funniest thing about Orgy of the Dead. I bet he must've been enjoying himself! Probably the easiest paycheck of his career, just sitting back and watching nude dancing for over an hour! Vampira was intended to play his pale and sexy sidekick, but I guess she was either unavailable, or just didn't want to be in the film, and Fawn Silver played the role instead. Frequent sexploitation actress Pat Barrington stars as the girlfriend, and she manages to keep her top on for most of the film. Though despite being bound, her blouse still manages to strategically unbutton itself gradually, before the ghouls (specifically, not-Vampira) eventually start doing it themselves. Of note is that Barrington has a double role, also showing up as the busty dancer who gets showered, then painted in gold. I didn't even recognize it was her on first viewing! Anyway, enough about her nude contribution. How about her acting?...Yeah, it's awful! In a funny way, though.
Onto the choreography. Some of the dancing looks pretty amateurish, but others are better, or at least well-thought-out, like the slave girl dancing, with the chains on her wrists becoming an accessory in the routine (though not for long). Good dancing is vital in a movie like this, so thankfully it delivers.
The scoring is decent for the most part, but a bit annoying here and there, most notably in the 'Hawaiian' dancer's segment.
One final thing to mention is the surprising fact that Orgy of the Dead is based on a novel! (written by Ed Wood himself, of course). How is that even possible?! I actually wanted to procure a copy, partly just to read it for its own sake, and also to compare to the movie in this post, but the only copies around are rare and expensive. There was a more recent printing, but I couldn't find any copies of that, either.
As a film, Orgy of the Dead is hilariously terrible, but for what it is, it's also not that bad. I recommend it if it's your kind of thing, or want to see a quintessential Ed Wood-ian flick. I won't judge you...
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