Orgy of the Dead

The film belongs to the genre of nudie cuties, narrative-based films featuring female nudity. It was an evolution of earlier films, which featured striptease and burlesque shows. These predecessors mostly depicted actual stage performances, sometimes attached to a frame story.[1]

The film has "little to no" story line. About 70 minutes of the film's running time features topless female dancers without any dialogue.[2]

The film opens to two muscle-bound men dressed in loincloths approaching a crypt. They open the doors, revealing a coffin. They remove the lid and exit the crypt, then the inhabitant of the coffin (Criswell) sits up to deliver an opening narration.

A lone Chevrolet Corvair drives down a California desert road. Its passengers, Bob and Shirley, are arguing over the decision to use this night to search for a cemetery. Bob is a horror writer who hopes that the scene of a cemetery at night will bring him inspiration. The conversation ends when Bob accidentally drives the car off the road and over a cliff.

The next scene opens to a nocturnal image of a fog-shrouded cemetery. The lonely figure of the Emperor walks towards a marble altar, sits, and then summons his "Princess of the Night", the Black Ghoul, who appears and bows before him. The Emperor warns that if the night's entertainment fails to please him, he will banish the souls of the entertainers to eternal damnation, indicating that he is an all-powerful demonic being.

As the full moon appears, the Black Ghoul summons the first dancer of the night, a Native American woman. The Black Ghoul explains that this woman loved flames, and that her lovers and she died in flames. The woman dances and strips before the flames of the cemetery. The Black Ghoul then introduces the second dancer of the night, a street walker in life. While the woman dances, Bob and Shirley make their way to the cemetery and start observing the dance from a distance. Shirley suspects that they are observing a college initiation, though Bob seriously doubts her theory.

The Emperor himself summons the third dancer, a woman who worshiped gold above else. The Golden Girl dances in her turn, and the Emperor instructs his loin-clothed servants to reward her with gold. The supposed reward is soon revealed to be a punishment, as the servants place her in a cauldron with liquid gold. What emerges from the cauldron is a golden statue of the living woman who entered. The servants transport the immobile statue to a nearby crypt.

A werewolf and a mummy appear and seize the intruding young couple. They are brought before the Emperor, who decides to postpone deciding their fate. The intruders are tied up, side by side, and allowed to continue watching the dances. The Black Ghoul next introduces the fourth dancer, a "Cat Woman" (Texas Starr). She is depicted as a woman dressed in a leopard costume, which exposes her chest area. As she dances, a servant follows her around and thrashes her with a bullwhip, offering a sadomasochistic show for the spectators.

The Emperor next calls for a Slave Girl to be whipped for his amusement. The slave wears a tunic and is chained to a wall. Following her torture session, the Slave Girl breaks free and becomes the fifth dancer of the night. Later, the Black Ghoul exhibits a fascination with Shirley and scratches a mark on her. She draws a knife and seems about to kill Shirley, when the Emperor decides it is not yet time for the intruders to properly join them. The female ghoul reluctantly obeys.

The Emperor is puzzled when a human skull appears instead of the next dancer. The Black Ghoul explains it is the symbol of the sixth dancer, who loved bullfighting and matadors. She used to dance over their demise, and now it is time to dance over her own. The dancer of apparent Spanish/Mexican heritage (Stephanie Jones) appears to perform. The Emperor and Ghoul briefly discuss the past of the dancer, who came to them on the Day of the Dead. The seventh dancer appears dressed in Polynesian garments. The Black Ghoul describes her as a worshiper of snakes, smoke, and flames. A rattlesnake is depicted along with her dance. The camera shifts to the mummy and the werewolf. The mummy voices his dislike of snakes and recalls the death of Cleopatra. He informs his companion that ancient Egypt had many snakes and they were the stuff of nightmares.

The Emperor next expresses his boredom and demands "unusual" entertainment, while the Black Ghoul notes that the night is almost over. She reminds her superior that they will be gone at the first sight of the morning sun. They proceed to argue over the fate of Shirley. The argument ends with the introduction of the eighth dancer, a woman who murdered her husband on their wedding night. She dances with the skeleton of her spouse. The argument over Shirley then resumes, as the Ghoul claims her for her own. The Emperor feels the need to assert his own authority over the Black Ghoul.

The ninth dancer was a zombie in life and remains zombie-like in death. The tenth and final dancer is introduced as one who died for feathers, fur, and fluff. She starts her dance in clothing matching this style. When the final dance ends, the Emperor finally offers Shirley to the Ghoul. The Ghoul briefly dances herself as she prepares to claim her prize, but dawn arrives and with it, sunlight. The Emperor and all his undead are reduced to bones. The final scene portrays Bob and Shirley waking up at the scene of the accident, surrounded by paramedics, suggesting it was all a dream. Criswell appears in his coffin to offer parting words to the audience.

• Criswell as The Emperor
• Fawn Silver as The Black Ghoul
• Pat Barrington (as Pat Barringer) as Shirley/Golden Girl
• William Bates as Bob

Apostolof was attracted to the project, because the film was "relatively very inexpensive" to produce and direct.[3]

The film's graveyard prologue is a recreation of the opening scene from Ed Wood's then-unreleased 1958 film Night of the Ghouls. Originally, Wood titled the film's script Night of the Ghouls, as he did not expect the 1958 film to ever be released. The film also had a working title Ghoulies.[2]

The action begins when a young couple, Bob (William Bates) and Shirley (sexploitation actress Pat Barrington, billed as Pat Barringer) survive a car crash only to find themselves tied to posts in a misty cemetery where they are forced to watch dead spirits dance for the Emperor of the Night played by Criswell (best known for Plan 9 from Outer Space). Criswell reprises his role from the earlier film. Wood convinced Apostolof to cast his friend Criswell in the film. His lines were written on cue cards, which he had difficulty reading because he wasn't wearing his glasses.[2]

Ten striptease performances by topless dancers outfitted in various motifs comprise most of this movie. The Wolf Man (wearing a very obvious mask, with the actor's bare neck visible below the bottom of the mask) and the Mummy are also tossed in for comic relief. Barrington doubles as the blond Golden Girl (inspired by Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger)[1] while her red-headed "Shirley" character watches her perform. The dancing has been described as awkward and wooden, probably exacerbated by Apostolof firing the dance coordinator during the shooting of the film.[2]

Criswell's undead consort, the sexy Black Ghoul, was allegedly written for Maila Nurmi, a.k.a. Vampira, but was instead played by Fawn Silver, who wore a black bouffant wig. The Black Ghoul appears to have "pasty white skin", with red fingernails and lipstick. She wears a black dress, implying the role of a funerary garment. Black, red, and white are the main colors associated with her.[1]

Wood served as writer, production manager, casting agent, and even held up cue cards on the film, although he did not direct. Apostolof paid Wood $400 for the script. Several gaffes typical for Wood-associated projects are present, such as day-for-night issues, poor integration of stock footage, obviously fake props and absurd dialogue (for example, at one point, Criswell declares something to be "more than a fact").[2]

Wood allegedly stole money from the film's budget to purchase alcohol for himself. The incident caused a falling-out between Apostolof and Wood, and the two men would not collaborate again until 1972.[2]

An article on the making of this film was published in Femme Fatales, 7:1 (June 1998).

Film journalists Andrew J. Rausch and Charles E. Pratt describe the film's attempt in eroticism as juvenile, with a puerile focus on jiggling female breasts. They write that the viewer "just has to sit back in awe and speculate how something like this could come from the mind of a grown man".[2]

TV Guide criticized the film's "boring" striptease performances and music, but praised Wood's dialog as "priceless".[4]

Allmovie critic Mark Deming stated that the film "moves like molasses on a cold morning", and that Orgy of the Dead "is that rare film that would have been improved if Ed Wood had directed it".[5]

In September 2017, the film was restored in 2K and released on DVD and Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome.[6][7][8]

• Edward D. Wood Jr. filmography

• Orgy of the Dead at IMDb
• Orgy of the Dead at AllMovie