The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Rating:
Summary: BRAVO SYNAPSE....
Review: If you're in the right mood, this movie is sidesplitingly funny. Otherwise, it's still wonderfully weird. When his girlfriend dies in a car wreck that he caused, the guilt ridden plastic surgeon Dr.Cortner saves her head (her body burned up) and takes it to his secret lab. There he attaches tubes etc. to it and feeds it the secret formula he has made and keeps it alive much to the chagrin of his assistant who has a withered arm. The head (Virginia Leith) begins telepathically communicating with a "thing" kept locked in a closet (a failed experiment) also to the assistant's aggravation. Meanwhile, the doctor has promised her a new body so he sets out to find one. But Leith just wants to die so she plots revenge with the "thing". Dr.Cortner goes to a sleazy "body beautiful" contest, then an even sleazier strip club where two strippers get in a catfight over him (a memorable sequence) and finally to a figure model. She has the right bod but a scar on her face he promises to fix. Meanwhile, the assistant has had it so he begins taunting the "thing" until it reaches out and rips the good arm off of him! The doc brings the model home and drugs her. But before he can he can get started with the surgery, the head compels the "thing" to break out of the closet and chew the doc's neck apart (yes, we're talking b&w gore here as with the arm business) and it carries the model to safety when a fire breaks out. At last the head has found peace. Now, what we have here is a film with a budget so low a roach couldn't crawl under it. But, oddly enough, it works and is the textbook example of "guilty pleasure". The acting is nil however Leith gives her role an uncomfortable edge by actually being believable (as far as disembodied heads go) and her telecommunication with the "thing" is well done. It knocks back at her when it understands. Kind've creepy. This is a "sleaze" movie nonetheless but it has an endearing quality to it that makes it enjoyable. Much thanks to Synapse for restoring it so well on DVD. Leith was a rising starlet just three years before this was made having starred with Robert Wagner in "A Kiss Before Dying" and other films. How she ended up in "Brain" (and it ever got made in the first place) is anybody's guess. But I like it.

Rating:
Summary: More than just a movie, a lesson.
Review: Just what was the point of this bit of celluloid? Surely countless horny teenagers went to the drive-in to make out in the back seat while 'The Brain that wouldn't Die' was projected on the screen. Is this movie truly just another bad sci-fi movie that deserves to be lumped into the mountainous pile of 50's black and white garbage cinema? My friends, the answer is no.

This story is not about a brain, but rather a head. It wasn't just a head that wouldn't die; it was a head that was refused the privelidge of death. So where was the soul? Does it live in the heart, or is that merely a muscle that circulates blood? According to this movie, the body is useless and a head is what holds our being. Can telepathic powers be conjured up when the brain has no distractions from the body? Possibly. It is said the average human uses three percent of its brain. Imagine the power that could be unleashed if the mind has to take care of nothing but it's own being. The brain performs all involuntary actions such as heartbeat, pulse, and digestion. Imagine the relief a brain would feel if all those functions were no longer its responsibility! What untold and undiscovered secrets could a brain tell us if it was allowed to explore rather than care for a body?

And why was a woman's brain chosen for this movie? Could it be a salute to the brave and misunderstood Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France? Surely when Marie Antoinette ascended the stairs to the guillotine, her thoughts were on the death that she so desired after the torment she had been through at the hands of the Revolutionaries. Her pain was indescribable indeed. Research tells us that the human brain can survive up to seven seconds if violently separated by the body. Marie Antoinette was very much aware of the cheering crowd as her head was held up by the hair and displayed to them.

So how does the brain in this movie survive for over an hour? The answer of course is the 'Life Serum' that pumps into an aluminum TV dinner tray that the doctor has provided. What exactly was this serum? Certainly people will laugh it off as bad 50's silliness, but consider this. Alchemists longed for this secret. Not only did alchemists try to turn rock, brass, and tin into gold, but they also sought out the mystery of eternal youth. Does the brain age like the body, or does the body merely grow old and die leaving a totally capable and sufficient brain to die with it? Could a brain of a hundred year old person be placed into the body of a teenager and continue living? Of course! If only technology could catch up with man's dream of eternal youth.

Ultimately this movie brings a serious message to the females. You're never good enough to satisfy your man. Let's face it, I mean look at yourself. You are no Marilyn Monroe and you never will be. Men want beautiful women, not you. You are not satisfied with your body either, no woman is. Oh what a better world we would have if women's brains could be placed in the body chosen with her man's specifications in mind. Maybe then we'd rather talk to you and spend time with you instead of watching ESPN.

And what of the monster thing in the closet? That should be obvious to even the average ignoramus, the creature represents God. Yes that's right. Man was not meant to know such things, and when we make even a small break through, God puts us right back in our place. The world needs flat-chested, overweight, and thunder-thighed women. Why? Beats me, but it is not for me to know or question. They must serve some purpose if they are here. It probably has something to do with the alcohol industry. I mean men wouldn't really drink gallons of beer if all women were beautiful right?

Rating:
Summary: The best presentation of this bad classic.
Review: Synapse's release of "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" is probabaly the best version out there.

Other DVD releases of this classic bad movie involve the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version. This is worth having for the boys and the robots tearing up the film. However, the flip side of that DVD, presenting the movie itself (without the MST3K treatment)comes from a well worn print (although the transfer itself is pretty good)

Then there is Madacy's "Creature Feature" double feature discs. That series is hit or miss with the transfers never being above average. In the case of thier transfer of this film, it was below average. It was fuzzy and the contrast was low. Get that only if you want the second feature "Beast From Haunted Cave", that transfer is fairly okay.

Then there are a couple more releases I haven't seen (public domian movies like these really get around).

This DVD has a pretty clean transfer that is slightly windowboxed. That is, black bars surround the image. Most of you might not see those bars though, since they are mostly swollowed up by your monitor's overscan (the edges of the picture that are covered by the rim of the TV frame). But it's nice that the unseen areas of this image are mostly black instead of picture.

To round out the great transfer is the original trailer and a photo gallery which actually shows a bare breasted dancer in one.

As for the movie itself, it's was one of those films I watched wide eyed on 1970's Saturday afternoon/evenings "Frightening Flickers" (that's what they called it in my town). It was a movie that eventually merged in my mind with another disembodied head movie called "The Frozen Dead". It took seeing the movies again to realize I had remembered details from both movies thinking it was one.

Although I don't remember exactly, I'm sure it was edited down from the version you'll see on this DVD. I'm sure I'd remember some of the gorier scenes had I saw them.

Now of course, the movie is a pure riot. Although not as inept as an Ed Wood movie it still had it's moments of unintentional hilarity and awkward dialog. Like when a father commented to his son and his fiance that when they get married it won't be as fun to watch (!).

But by far, the most unintentionally hilarious scene has to be one which they intended to be horrifying. A character gets his arm ripped off by an unseen monster.

For what seems to be forever, he staggers around bumping into the walls with his stump, smearing blood all over the place (it's not hard to see that he really has his arm tucked inside his clothes). He stumbles upstairs, can't use the phone, can't open the door, stumbles back downstairs and staggers, bumps into things and twitches some more, then finally dies.

The movie is pretty misogynist too. One scene has these strippers fighting over a doctor, when it comes to blows, they cut to a painting of a cat, complete with a "meow" on the sountrack.

It's an essential part of any bad movie collection. This is the DVD version to get.

Rating:
Summary: Oh, what a beautiful film!
Review: THE BRAIN THAT WOULD'NT DIE is an all-time trash favourite; an it deserves to be. It has all the sleaze and slime that is not all that in exploitation films made before 1960. If you havn't seen this classic, then its about time!

A surgeon's girlfriend's head is decapitated during a car crash. He takes the head, brings it back to life and hunts down a sexy new body for it. At one point, a monster suddenly comes out of the cupboard (for no particular reason) and tears a piece of flesh off the doctor.

This is the Rhino version which has been cut by about 21 mins. Other versions (except for the Warner video as well as this) go up to 92 mins and include a fight between two strippers and a scene where the monster rips the doctor's assistant's arm off. Theres even a terrific jazz soundtrack which may have been lifted from another film.

Rating:
Summary: Let this Brainless Movie Die, PLEASE!
Review: The fact that this edition is Letterbox is new. My version from Alpha Video is only a regular TV picture with so so sound. Having said that, I doubt I would want behind-the-scenes pictures if they include a topless stripper as one reviewer remarked. It is also noted that this version has 20 minutes of footage never before seen on video. I find this puzzling. The running time is still 90 minutes and other editions, even older ones come close or match this. My version from Alpha Video is noticeably shorter at 82 minutes, but that is only 8 minutes shy of this new version. Bris/K-Tel International released it at 90 minutes and Gotham at 89 minutes. Madacy even puts it out as a double-feature with the BEAST FROM THE HAUNTED CAVE. The extra 20 minutes business does not jive. People on a budget would really have to think about whether superior sound and Letterbox would be worth paying 2 or 3 times the price of cheaper versions.

As for the film itself, it is NOT the movie I remember from Creature Feature television. I had not imagined that a film produced in 1962 could be as crude in taste and lewd regarding women. All that had been cut out for the kids. There is no nudity as such, but buxom women scantily clothed leave little to the imagination. There is even a cat fight in the film. Combined with the gore violence (dismemberment), I found the film quite unpleasant to watch.

As a kid, I thought the talking head on the table was cool. As an adult, I am dismayed at the callous way her boyfriend treated her and others. The plot is simple. Dr. Cortner (Herb Evers) has discovered a way to make transplants of any part of the body. After a speeding accident he causes, his girl friend is decapitated and he goes in search of a woman he can kill to replace her body. Ultimately, because of his girl friend's increased mental powers and a freakish accident that he keeps imprisoned in a closet, this not-so-good doctor will get what's coming to him.

>No nudity but sexual inuendo and immodest dress and gestures.
>Gore and horrific plot violence.
>Lack of respect toward women.

I cannot reccomend this film.

This film could have been a good commentary on the dangers of unbridaled science and/or a false compassion that objectifies human beings for the sake of some hypothetical greater good. Instead, it gives in to exploitation and becomes a forerunner to the later slasher films.

Rating:
Summary: If It Were Any More Disturbing, It Would Be Illegal
Review: The rating isn't for quality. This movie is one of the cheapest productions ever put on film. It literally defines schlock. The performances are so uneven, they come off as amateur night at the community theater. The cinematography is so bad, the day-for-night shooting slips in and out. Several scenes sound as if they were recorded in a tin can - and probably were. It's more padded than Dolly Parton, and not as delightfully.

On the other hand, once you get past all that, this is one of the most unsettling movies ever made. If it were any more demented or disturbing, it would have to be directed by Tobe Hooper and rated "X".

Psychopathic surgeon Jason Evers gets in a car accident speeding home to check on one of his failed experiments, and ends up decapitating fiancee Virginia Leith. He carries her head to the lab, and keeps it alive in a pan of his special serum, which he uses in limb-grafting experiments of so-far unsatisfactory results. Leith is extremely unhappy with being kept alive in her present condition, and even more so when she discovers Evers intends to murder the most beautiful woman he can find so he can put Leith's head onto a new body. The serum Evers keeps Leith's head alive with gives her telepathic power, and she develops an unsettling friendship with the failed experiment Evers was running home to check on in the first place - a hideously deformed giant golem in a locked closet, constructed of badly grafted-together tissues. The longer Leith is kept unnaturally alive, the more twisted and hateful she becomes, until she and the deformed monstrosity create an insidious alliance to kill Evers and his criminal assistant.

What makes this unbelievably cheap p.o.s. work is the conviction of the performers - Leith, especially - and the pervasive dementia, throughout. The soundtrack is incredibly effective, eerie beyond belief, often creeping up and down your spine. The visuals are genuinely unsettling in their very simplicity, to the point that you don't even notice the rubber bald-cap on the hideous golem until repeat viewings. The violence is shuddery-awful, voyeuristically lingering on some of the most gruesome things imaginable - like a man's arm being ripped out of its socket, and the camera's following him through the house while he bleeds to death, the demonic head in the pan cackling delightedly throughout.

In short: cheap beyond belief, but more often than not incredibly effective. A must for all schlock horror afficionados.

Rating:
Summary: "What's done is done, and what I've done is right..."
Review: There are some movies that are gloriously bad and "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (a.k.a. "The Head That Wouldn't Die", which is the better title because we are talking an entire head not just a brain) is one of the classics in that particular category. You can get a hold of this film hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, or skewered by the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" crew, but you will have no problem appreciating this example of bad science fiction cinema. This is a movie that should be on every fan's list of the 10 Worst Science Fiction Movies Ever Made.

Dr. Bill Cortner (Jason call me Herb Evers) is unhappy with the outdated surgery practice by his father, Dr. Cortner (Bruce Brighton), who warns him about higher laws and other nonsense. Bill has a fiancé, Jan Compton (Virginia Leith), who keeps talking about how she cannot wait for them to get married. So when they are in a car accident he rescues Jan's head and takes it back to his private laboratory. There his assistant, Kurt (Leslie Daniels), who has a transplanted arm that has not exactly taken from one of Bill's earlier experiments and who also rails against the doctor's plan to find his fiancé (now the infamous "Jan in a Pan") the perfect body. Bill only has 48-50 hours (you have to love the specificity) to come up with a new body and heads for the nearest strip club. When that does not pan out (hehehehe) he starts stalking women on the street and finds his way to a Beautiful Body contest. But Bill will accept nothing less than the best for Jan and that ends up being Playboy Playmate of the Month for June 1959, Marilyn Hanold.

Meanwhile, Jan would rather be dead than be a detached head; besides, she has some questions about the soundness of the whole procedure, which she discusses with Kurt. The rest of the time she carries on a one sided conversation with whatever is on the other side of the bolted door in the basement (Kurt will not let the cat out of the bag, but we know it is pretty bad and that it is another result of Bill's insane desire to play god). In the bloody climax of this film, the situation comes to a head...

Oh, you just cannot have too much fun at the expense of this film. Director Joseph Green and producer Rex Carlton came up with the story, and you have to admit that any movie that combines a talking disembodied head, a monster behind a locked door, and exotic dancers is a movie that is going to be made. Green even gets a bit creative with the camera in the car accident sequence. However, the dialogue and the strong sexual subtext are what really stand out for me in this film. It is amazing that the actors could say some of these lines with straight faces, but it is rather surprising that the sexuality of the film could be so overt. It is very easy to read this film being all about lust: Jan is ready to make Bill very happy and when he is left with just her head he insists on getting what is clearly an even better body so that they can consummate their destiny.

I will go out on a limb...and say that "The Head That Wouldn't Die" is one of the two worst Science Fiction movies that you have to see, along with "Plan 9 From Outer Space." Certainly they are the only 5 star ratings I have ever given to "bad" films.

Rating:
Summary: They Don't Make Them Like This Anymore
Review: This is a great movie. It's intelligent, suspensful, well written, and well acted. And it probably really could happen in the future as medical technology advances. That's the scary part.

Buy this movie.

Jeff Marzano

Rating:
Summary: It's worse than 2001.....pins being stuck into my eyes.
Review: This is one of the worst movies ever made. A first hint is that Mystery Science Theater 3000, a show that makes fun of B-movies, riffed it. The acting was similiar to that of a rock, the detached head *somehow* gained some sort of pyshic powers, (can you say lazy writers?), the plot was slow and the main character was a just another mad scientist. The simple fact that this movie was an MST3K episode is enough to buy the that and not waste your money on the original.

Rating:
Summary: Please Let Me Die!!!!
Review: This is one of those guilty fun movies that you are embarrassed to admit that you like. I can remember it from Shock Theater on channel 18 in Milwaukee when I was a kid. The memory of the woman's head in the pan stayed with me for years. Now, having rented it many years later, I find that it holds up pretty well. It is fun and entertaining as long as you remember that it is a B movie.

For any Re-Animator fans out there, this movie seems to be a predecessor to those movies. The serum that the Doctor invents reanimates dead tissue. He uses it on his girlfriends head, and it gives her psychic powers which she uses to communicate with the "sum total of the doctors mistakes" in the closet. Not unlike the sum total of Dr. West's mistakes behind the basement wall in Bride of Re-Animator

The picture on this DVD is very clear. The sound is weird making me think that it was recorded later in a bathroom and dubbed onto the movie. I would recommend this as a rental. It isn't a movie that you really need to watch over and over. One viewing should stay with you for years.