Creature with the Atom Brain (
1955)
Trivia :
One of the first films to use squibs to simulate gunshot wounds
Columbia booked this across the United States as a standard double bill with IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA.
To keep the budget low, like many directors of the period, Edward L. Cahn chose to shoot the film with in as few breaks and edits as feasible, so that the characters are constantly standing, sitting, and pacing to avoid the tedium of talking-head shots. Even when characters move from room to room, there are very few cuts. The effect is both impressive and amusing, once the viewer becomes aware of it, and could inspire a Drinking Game based on spotting the edits!
The film uses the old Columbia Ranch back lot in Burbank, now named the Warner Brothers Ranch, extensively filming on its residential and city street sets. The shot showing the "Monroe Air Force Base" utilized the ranch's entrance with its two gate houses.An ex-Nazi mad scientist uses radio-controlled atomic-powered zombies in his quest to help an exiled American gangster return to power.
AVAILABLE HERE
Die Nackte und der Satan (
1959)
(The Head)A scientist invents a serum that keeps a dog's head alive after its body dies. When the scientist dies of a heart attack, his crazed assistant cuts off his head and, using the serum, keeps the doctor's head alive and forces it to help him on an experiment to give his hunchbacked nurse assistant a new body.
Trivia :
Michel Simon, a major star in France at the time, had used some tainted makeup on a previous film that had resulted in his body and face becoming temporarily partially paralyzed. Since that time he had been unable to find work and took a role in this low-budget German horror film because he needed the money and only his head would be shown, and he didn't think a film of this caliber, which could adversely affect his career, would be seen on the rest of the continent. Unfortunately he was wrong, and the film was in fact a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
Released in the U.S. on a double bill with "Horror Hotel" in June 1963.Available in this 3 movie set :
Weird Science Theater: Triple Feature or
here individuallyTHE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE - A physician keeps his fiance's head alive while searching for a new body to transplant the head onto.
THE MANSTER - A reporter is kidnapped and drugged by a mad scientist, then given a serum that turns him into a monster.
THE HEAD - A scientist's assistant keeps his master's head alive and proceeds with a grotesque medical experiment.
AVAILABLE HERE 
Monstrosity: The Atomic Brain (1964)Starring:
Judy Bamber,
Marjorie Eaton Director:
Joseph Mascelli"The Atomic Brain" is a masterpiece! Pure schlock, held together by cheesey glue! A mad scientist (Frank Gerstle) is experimenting with brain transplants in the basement of his aged female benefactor. Dr. Frank's been robbing graves, with the help of the "dogman" he's created, in order to find fresh, 60s style centerfold model-type, bimbette bodies for his experiments. You see, he's working on a brain transplant that will enable the old lady upstairs to "die" and inherit her own fortune, in the body of a young bodacious babe! Dr. Frank has already turned one girl into a mindless zombie who roams around aimlessly, until she stumbles into the dogman and becomes puppy chow. Then, three girls are tricked into coming to the house for (fake) housekeeper interviews. One is given the brain of a cat. Unfortunately, she climbs up on the roof and won't come down! The old hag has her eye on the blond bombshell of the three. Sadly, blondie gets her eye knocked out by cat girl. So, the third woman is selected as the body for the crazy old bat's cranial goo. BTW, the Dr.s experimants are all being done by dunking folks into some tub of radioactive slime. I won't give away the ending. Let's just say it's purrrrrfect...
BUY HERETrivia :
Orson Welles played the part of Dr. Corey in "Donovan's Brain" on the only two-part broadcast ever produced on radio's "Suspense", 18 May and 25 May 1944.
Writer Curt Siodmak was also set to direct, but at the last minute he was replaced by Felix E. Feist.There is something grotesquely ironic about seeing former First Lady Nancy Regan as the caretaker of a disembodied brain bent on world conquest--but at the time the movie first appeared the great irony in casting concerned actor Lew Ayres, who was best remembered as for his screen series as the respectable and responsible Dr. Kildaire, and who here plays a mad scientist. One way or another, cult-film enthusiasts will have tremendous fun with this one. But even so, DONOVAN'S BRAIN has a lot more going for it than cult-film appeal: the story line continues to resonate in the modern era of medical ethics issues, the script is surprisingly intelligent, and the director and actors play it out at a snappy pace.
Based on a successful novel, DONOVAN'S BRAIN concerns a scientist (Ayers) who is experimenting with keeping monkey brains alive in tanks--and when a nearby plane crash lands a terminal accident victim on his surgery table he presses his wife (Nancy Davis, later Regan) and surgical sidekick (Gene Evans) into recovering a human brain for his work. And he succeeds beyond all expection. Trouble is, the brain belongs to a truly evil multi-millionaire who wants to take over the world, and under Ayres care the brain grows... and begins to exert an unexpectedly nasty psychic influence on those around it.
Ayres was a gifted leading man whose credits ranged from ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT to JOHNNY BELINDA, and the film owes much of its success to his talents; Gene Evans is also quite good as the drunken surgeon Ayres befriends. As for Nancy, she is clearly a B-Movie actress, but she is a surprisingly competent one. Cult fans will have a field day, but the movie is too interesting as a whole to be designated such pure and simple; it has a lot going for it, and just about every one who sees it will have a good time. Recommended.
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The Brain that Wouldn't Die (1959) [DVD] - A Mad Scientist Love Story Featuring Herb Evers, Adele Lamont & Virginia Leith (1959)
Trivia :
Original plans were for last reel to be in color, with the doctor's head being cut off. Scenes were filmed with rats menacing the head.
This film has never been officially released in the UK. It was rejected by the BBFC in 1961 and has never been submitted for a re-rating.
Filmed in 1959 but, due to various legal and censorship problems, not released until 1962.
The last title shot reads "The Head That Wouldn't Die".
One of the men snapping photos of Doris in her studio is Jerry Lewis imitator Sammy Petrillo, who co-starred in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952).
The film was shot in 13 days.
The sets for the production were all housed in the basement of a New York hotel. The Brain that Wouldn't Die is a cult classic sci-fi horror film. Few films are revered for their hilarious exploitation and cheap effects, but The Brain that Wouldn't Die is well worth it. A mad scientist's wife is decapitated in a car wreck, but he decides he can't live without her and keeps her head alive in his lab. He proceeds on a search of seedy locales for a suitable body replacement, and this fills the film with the desired scantily clad sexy ladies. Between the titillation and amazingly campy effects, Virginia Leith steals the show with a performance that features her almost exclusively from the neck up, just a head on a tray. The ludicrous fun continues as she develops psychic powers, and plots with a hideous creature in the lab to get revenge on the evil scientist. Never pausing for a moment to let up on the absurd hilarity, The Brain that Wouldn't Die was a staple of sixties matinee viewing. Today, its entertainment value has only increased with age.
BUY IT HERETrivia :
The special eye effects for Steve March were created by having John Agar wear special black contact lenses that were very thick. The extreme thickness of the contact made it painful for Agar to wear them.
A strange alien ship crash lands in the California desert, bringing a terrifying evil intelligence from another planet whose mission is to conquer the world using subversive mind control. Wonderful Atomic Age entertainment with floating brains, telepathic possession, atom bombs and a scientist whose eyes can destroy planes in mid-flight, plus a sex-starved alien brain monster with lustful desires for beautiful leading lady Joyce Meadows, who delicately refuses its advances with a meat ax. Not to be missed!
AVAILABLE HERE
