Lugosi is Dr. Varnoff, a mad scientist living in the jungle who hopes to perfect a race of supermen and conquer da vorld. So far he's only managed to make Lobo, aka 350+ pound Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson, in his stunning debut. The rejects get fed to Varnoff's pet octopus, played by stock footage. The lovely, lovely, lovely Loretta King plays a meddling reporter because Ed thought she had enough money to cover the film's expenses, except that she didn't. Dolores Fuller, Ed's girlfriend, is reduced to a small walk-on part, which is okay, because neither of them can act. Actually, no one in the movie can act, including Lugosi, so it's all par for the course. The sheriff is played by the son of a local cattleman, who paid for the rest of the film. Anyway, the reporter's snooping gets her into trouble with Varnoff, who has hypnotic powers for some reason. He plans to zap her with atomic energy, too, but Lobo gets a whiff of her angora sweater and goes medieval on Varnoff.  Well, not really, since Lugosi was a frail old man and couldn't take on a professional wrestler.

The forces of justice close in on Varnoff, and he's subjected to his own ray and is made into one of his own supermen, played by Lugosi with burn makeup in closeup, and a really big guy in long shots. The reporter is rescued from Varnoff's clutches, who's finally killed by a giant rubber octopus, secured during a late-night raid on a studio prop warehouse, but whose motor had been left behind. But hey, Lugosi did a good job making it look like it was attacking him. Then the octopus explodes, because the cattleman financing the picture wanted it to end that way.

Now this is good Wood. It even has a good speech for Varnoff, even though Martin Landau's delivery was better in Ed Wood, Tim Burton's biopic. But more on that. One of Varnoff's countrymen, played by a fellow described as thoroughly unpleasant by others on the set, has found Varnoff and explains it all for him: he's forgiven, he can return home, etc. Here's what I remember of it: "Home? I haff no home. Hunted. Despised. Living like an animal! Da chungle is my home. And from this god-forsaken chungle hell, I vill show da vorld dat I am all right! I shall perfect a race of atomic supermen vid vich I shall conquer da vorld!"

Mad scientist speeches just don't get better than that.