The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Bill Cortner (Herb Evans) is a brilliant surgeon who saves the life of a patient that his father Dr. Cortner (Bruce Brighton) is operating on. Bill uses one of the techniques that he has been researching in his studies on amputated limbs and the ability to keep them alive. The research Bill has used is controversial because the ethics involved include using body parts of expired patients. Dr. Cortner appreciates his sons assistance but warns him to proceed carefully. As Bill meets up with his fiancée Jan Compton (Virginia Leith) to make plans for the weekend a call comes in from Kurt (Leslie Daniel), the doctor assisting Bill at his country house, that there is a problem in the basement. As Bill hurried drives toward the house with Jan by his side the car accidentally goes off the road and Jan is decapitated. Bill rushes the head of the woman to his country house and keeps it alive with the intention of killing a woman for her body and transplanting it onto Jans head. One of Bills earlier experiments is being kept locked in the basement and becomes more violent as time proceeds. Jans surviving body part, her head resents being kept alive and communicates with the thing living in the closet, telling it to break out. As Bill searches for the perfect female body for Jans head, he meets several women, finally meeting up with a former friend Donna Williams (Lola Mason) whose scarred face Bill promises to eradicate with plastic surgery. As Bill brings Donna back to the country house a startling reaction from the creature in the closet causes astounding results.================ A More Detailed Synopsis Follows ===============The movie opens with a black screen and a woman's voice pleading, "Let me die. Let me die." Title and credits follow. A man is on the operating table covered with sheets. He is surrounded by three doctors and a nurse in surgical gowns, caps and masks. The patient stops breathing and the senior Dr. Cortner (Bruce Brighton) laments, "I should have known he was a good as dead when they wheeled him in." Nurse Jan Compton (Virginia Leith) tries to comfort her soon to be father-in-law, "You did everything possible. Everything you could Dr. Cortner." His son, Dr. Bill Cortner (Jason Evers as Herb Evers) seizes the opportunity and asks, "Now, Dad, do I have permission to take over and try things my way?" Father reluctantly agrees and assists his son by working on the heart while Bill takes over the brain. They manage to revive the patient, his outcome is still uncertain, but he is now alive. Bill admits he has been working in his laboratory with similar results. Dr. Cortner does finally admit his son did perform a miracle, "I may not approve of your methods, but I am proud of your results."After the patient is wheeled out of the Operating Room, Father and Son wash up and discuss the medical ethics of experimentation on humans. Bill tells his father he is close to perfecting a drug that will assist in transplantation without rejection. They walk back into the O.R. to talk, and Jan joins them. Bill reminds his father about the medical convention in Denver. Jan checks on his reservations. Dr. Cortner reveals that the hospital has been making inquiries about missing human parts. He tells his son, "But I can't cover up for you anymore. The Superintendent had it out with me. He thinks it's you whose been stealing those limbs from the amputee operations." Bill admits he needs them for his work. Before he leaves, Dr. Cortner asks his son about his weekend plans, cautioning him about the country house, "Place gives me the creeps. I should have sold it when your mother died." Bill promises Jan they will be married in a few weeks.A nurse (Doris Brent) catches Bill and Jan before they leave the hospital. She tells him about an important phone message from Kurt at the country place, "Something terrible has happened and he wanted you to come right out." Bill drives Jan's car up to the country house. He drives too fast and crashes the car. Bill is thrown clear of the wreck, but Jan is trapped inside the burning car. Bill retrieves her head, wrapping it inside his jacket. He runs back to Dad's house in the country carrying Jan's head in his arms like a football. When he gets to the palatial estate he calls to his assistant, Kurt, while pounding on the front door. Kurt (Anthony La Penna as Leslie Daniel) answers the door, still wearing his lab coat. His left arm is paralyzed, his left hand is drawn back into a claw, the skin dark and leathery. Bill explains there has been an accident. He is cradling Jan's head in his arms, he is frantic. "I've got to save her," he tells Kurt. Kurt tries to relay his concern about the thing in the closet, but Bill insists, "For Gods sake Kurt, this is urgent. Do as I tell you before its too late. I can't waste precious time arguing with you." The two walk downstairs to the lab and hook up equipment. Bill carefully pours a test tube of liquid into a flask. The time is now 10:20 and we see what all the frantic work involved. Jan's bandaged head sits in an enamel pan, attached to various tubes and wires. Kurt is astonished and tells Bill, "The eyelids, I saw them move. It can't be. My eyes are deceiving me." Bill replies, "What you see is real. What's done is done, and what I've done is right. It's the work of science." Jan starts to revive and mumbles, "I remember fire. Burning. Let me die. Let me die." Bill reminds Kurt he's had transplant success, but Kurt asks, "Transplant her to what?" Bill considers the question, then replies, "I've brought her back. She'll live and I'll get her another body. I can make her complete again." Kurt disagrees and voices his objections. Bill does admit he can only keep her alive for 48-50 hours in the pan. We learn that Kurts arm, withered and deformed, was an earlier unsuccessful experiment using an earlier formula. Kurt reminds Bill about the creature in the closet. Bill approaches the heavy door, padlocked on the outside. Something inside is breathing abnormally. Bill peers inside through an observation door near the top. He is horrified by what he sees. "Keep it locked," he tells his assistant. He then turns his attention back to his fiancée, "I've got to think about her now. I've got to find her a body." "How are you going to go about getting one?" Kurt asks. Bill assures his assistant that there are ways.It is late evening and Bill decides to go cruising at a local strip club, The Moulin Rouge. Outside the entrance, he sees two cut out display boards of strippers, a blonde and a brunette. He likes what he sees, obviously the discriminating shopper. Inside the blonde stripper (Bonnie Sharie) does her show for the patrons of both sexes. Bill wanders in and takes a stool at the bar. Blondie wanders over and bumps and grinds to get Bill's attention. The brunette stripper (Paula Maurice), a bit masculine looking, is jealous of her co-worker. When the blonde finishes her act, she heads for the dressing room. This gives the brunette a chance to make eyes at Bill. A table becomes available and Bill sits down next to the brunette and chats. Blondie comes back and joins Bill at his table. At the house, Jan is resting in her pan. Blondie goes back to her dressing room, and Bill follows. They chat. Jan begins to mumble again about dying. Bill is getting a little anxious and tells the stripper, "You may be just what I'm looking for." Before Bill can close the deal, the brunette enters the dressing room and changes. Bill is concerned that a witness is more than he can handle. When the girls get catty with each other, Bill excuses himself. The brunette tells Bill, "Come back later, I'll remember you." "That's what I'm afraid of," he replies. The blonde and brunette strippers get into a fight. We close this charming scene with a camera pan up the wall to a pair of cat paintings and someone meowing. [Note: Yes, we get it, a cat fight!]Jan awakens and looks around the lab. Her brain waves register high on the equipment. She calls out to the creature in the closet, "What has he done to you?" It is mute, so she directs it to knock once if it hears her. Kurt is attracted by the noises downstairs. Jan expresses her anger and disappointment at Bill for what he's done to her. She invites the creature to join her in a plot of revenge. Kurt goes down to the lab and Jan pretends to be asleep. Kurt tip-toes over to the closet and listens at the door. It pounds on the door and Kurt jumps. Jan laughs hysterically. Kurt runs over to the lab table and confronts his tormentor. Jan asks Kurt, "What's locked behind that door?" "Horror: no normal mind can imagine. Something even more terrible than you," Kurt replies. But Jan corrects him, "No, my deformed friend. Like all quantities of...horror has its ultimate, and I am that." Kurt explains that Bill's experimental mistakes are summarized by the creature behind the closet door. Jan realizes what Bill has been doing at the country house and Kurt's part in the grotesque work. Kurt lost his arm in a lab accident, and Bill promised to restore it. Jan realizes that Bill intends to transplant her head onto another woman's body. Jan explains the new serum has given her power Bill never expected. She demonstrates for Kurt. The terrified lab assistant runs when the creature tries to force the closet door off its hinges. Kurt runs into Bill in the living room and asks if he was successful in finding a woman. Bill explains he can't be the last person seen with a woman before she disappears.The next morning Bill goes cruising in his car. He runs into a woman acquaintance, Donna Williams (Lola Mason). Donna suggests a bathing beauty contest, so Bill invites her into the car. He makes an excuse to stop at home first, but they run into another woman. A friend of Donna, Jeannie Reynolds (Audrey Devereal as Devereau), joins them in the car. Now with a witness, Bill's plans for Donna are scuttled and the three go to the beauty contest. They sit down just as the M.C. (Bruce Kerr) starts the show. The first contestant is Helen Appleton (uncredited). She is wearing a one-piece swimsuit. Bill nods his approval. Next up is Betty Brockton (uncredited), a blonde with her hair in a single braid and wearing a modest two-piece swimsuit. Terri Lund (uncredited) is the third contestant. She is wearing a one-piece and the crowd applauds. Peggy Howard (Marilyn Hanold) is the final contestant and Bill leers approvingly. Donna notes, "She has the second nicest body I've ever seen." Bill assumes Donna is just trolling for a compliment and asks, "Second to you?" But Donna quickly corrects Bill and reminds him of Doris, the girl in school who was disfigured by a jealous boyfriend. Donna mentions that Doris is seldom seen and has few friends. Bill is thinking Doris may be perfect for his needs.Jan continues her one-way chat with the creature in the closet and concludes they must stop Bill. Bill drives over to see Doris Powell (Adele Lamont) at her apartment. He walks in and she is posing on a platform for five photographers. Bill sits on the couch and observes the display. Doris stops and puts on a robe and dismisses the photographers. Art (an uncredited Sammy Petrillo) hangs back and suggests some unprofessional work. Doris makes it clear she is not interested and tells him to leave. She confronts Bill, "See it all, mister? The show's over. Next time bring a camera and buy a ticket. I'm not running a charity." Bill reminds her they were class mates, but Doris is bitter and tells him she hates all men. She reminds Bill by showing him the scar on her face. Rather than being repulsed, Bill explains that he is a doctor and that his father is a very good plastic surgeon and they can fix her face. Doris is not convinced and tells Bill, "I've been doctors. It's no use: the scar tissue is too deep. No one can help me." But Bill convinces her that new techniques are available. He talks her into a consultation at his home with his father. When Doris asks his motive, Bill tells her his version of the truth, "I'm gonna make your face beautiful again, cut it off and give your body away." Doris laughs and explains that she believes him. Doris changes her clothes and they drive to the country house.At Jan's direction, the closet creature has been pounding on the door working the hinges loose. Kurt enters the lab with food for the creature. He is in a sarcastic mood, so Jan taunts him with, "Your formless, sniveling fear becomes you more." They bicker and Jan directs Kurt over to the closet door. As she distracts Kurt, she summons her friend behind the closet door to attack Kurt. It reaches out through the observation door and pulls Kurt's arm inside. As Kurt struggles, the creature pulls his good arm off at the shoulder. Kurt wanders around the lab and house, smearing blood all over the walls. In cinema's longest death scene, Kurt wanders back to the lab and collapses and dies of shock and blood loss. All the while Jan giggles and laughs.Bill arrives home with Doris. Bill tells Doris he will mix some drinks and they will wait for his father to return. Bill discovers Kurt's body in the lab and covers it with a sheet. He closes, but forgets to lock the observation door and then he mixes the drinks. He adds a powerful sedative to Doris' drink. Bill walks back upstairs and gives Doris the spiked drink. Doris consumes the drink, and then accuses Bill of putting something in her drink. She collapses and Bill carries her down to the lab in his arms. Bill proudly announces to Jan, "I told you I'd bring you a body. A beautiful one. Soon it will be yours." Bill rationalizes his intentions to Jan as he prepares for surgery. Jan tells Bill, "You must be stopped." Bill needs quiet, so he places a strip of tape over Jan's mouth. Just as Bill prepares to cut off Doris' head, a pounding sound comes from the closet. Bill walks over to the door. He does not notice the observation door is unsecured. He looks back at Jan. The observation door opens and a large hand and arm reaches out to the doctor. It pulls him back and the door pulls loose from the casing. A grotesque creature (Eddie Carmel) emerges, still holding Bill Cortner through the door. It is a misshapen mess with one bulging eye, folds of scar tissue for a face and a pointed head. It carries the door and its victim across the lab. It manages to knock a flask of flammable liquid on the floor starting a fire. It throws Bill to the floor, discards the closet door, and approaches the doctor. It easily picks Bill up in its arms and chews a sizeable piece of his face off. At Jan's direction, it carries the unconscious Doris off the operating table and out of the burning lab. A stunned and dazed Dr. Cortner is still lying on the floor. Jan tells him, "I told you to let me die." We close to a black screen and Jan laughing. [Note: The end title card reads, The Head That Wouldn't Die and a copyright year as 1960.]

Tags: cult, violence

Review:
Today it is difficult to imagine how anyone could have taken the thing seriously even in 1959; the thing is both lurid and lewd, but it is also incredibly ludicrous in a profoundly bumptious sort of way.The story, of course, concerns a doctor who is an eager experimenter in transplanting limbs--and when his girl friend is killed in a car crash he rushes her head to his secret lab.
In fact, she seems mightily ticked off about the whole thing, particularly when it transpires that the doctor plans to attach her head to another body.As it happens, the doctor is picky about this new body: he wants one built for speed, and he takes to cruising disconcerted women on city sidewalks, haunting strip joints, visiting body beautiful contests, and hunting down cheesecake models in search of endowments that will raise his eyebrow.
On the whole THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE comes off as even more unintentionally funny than an Ed Wood movie.Director Joseph Green actually manages to keep the whole thing moving at pretty good clip, and looking at the film today it is easy to pick out scenes that influenced later directors, who no doubt saw the thing when they were young and impressionable and never quite got over it.
The cuts made before the film went into release are forever lost, but the cuts made for television have been restored in the Alpha release, and while the film and sound quality aren't particularly great it's just as well to recall that they probably weren't all that good to begin with.Now, this is one of those movies that you'll either find incredibly dull or wildly hilarious, depending on your point of view, so it is very hard to give a recommendation.
The acting ranges from very poor(the two strippers), barely professional(Herb Evers as the leading man), gothic overstatement(Leslie Daniels as the assistant Kurt)to first-rate with Virginia Leith in the title role as the headless victim alive against her will for the benefit of science and her fiancee's lustful passions.
But this one has a woman's head in the tray, fighting with the doctor, yelling at the monster in the closet, and engaging the assistant in metaphysical questions usually not heard in such low-budget potboilers.Nice dynamic that it's his fiancé that he wants to save...but she has become so bitter since becoming a disembodied head in a tray of water.
I remember watching this for the first time on TV in the early 70s and being amazed they used to make movies like this.Better than average camera work, also, trying to get a sense of vertigo and movement throughout.
Some 80 minutes later, the same film is strangely billed as THE HEAD THAT WOULDN'T DIE in the end credits.
Jason Evers (who would later lend his considerable talents to such memorable efforts as A PIECE OF THE ACTION and A MAN CALLED GANNON) stars as a wacky doc who thinks it'd be just super to keep his fiancée's head alive in his laboratory after her untimely decapitation in a car accident.
He's understandably not content marrying a head, so he seeks out an appropriate (though not necessarily willing!) body donor.Much of the "action" takes place in the mad doc's basement lab (likely marking one of the final times the traditionally cheesy horror film lab set was put to use).
Those are just some of the questions you'll find yourself asking.THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE comes to us in the tradition of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS, though it's not quite on par with those films in terms of "so bad it's good" appeal.
They're so jaded with mega-million dollar budgeted, hyperactive action films, they have no idea what movies were like before "Star Wars" ruined the market for drive-ins and one-screen sidewalk theaters."Brain That Wouldn't Die" is a personal favorite of mine.
Everyone's stomach turned over at the arm tearing out scene and my mother used to excuse herself from the room at that point, she found it so disturbing.Like Abbott & Costello before them--and MST3K after them--the Medved brothers ruined films like this by burlesquing them in their 1980 book, "The Golden Turkey Awards." This and the post- "Star Wars" culture have doomed these movies to an eternity of sneering contempt from a younger audience weened on endless laser blasts, propane explosions and hyperactive CGI effects.Happily, I got to see and enjoy "Brain That Wouldn't Die" while it was still considered relevant.
With all the "teasecake" in Brain (shot in 1959 but released in 1963), the locations (a loner wandering through strip clubs, swimsuit contests, a model's studio, in a convertible following and picking up women on the street) and the wolfish emphasis on full-length shots of near-naked stacked women, the movie has the sensibility and style of the men's magazines of that time (with symbolic titles like Rogue, Knave, Dude, Bachelor, Caper, etc.).
When he has a car accident with his girlfriend Jan Compton (Virginia Leith), he saves her head only, and tries to find a woman with a beautiful body to transplant Jan's head against her will.I found the low budget movie "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" very underrated in IMDb. The story is not so bad, and certainly inspired "Frankenhooker" and "The Man with Two Brains".
Granted, I didn't rent it because I wanted a deep, fulfilling cinematic experience...but would anyone in his or her right mind actually expect that from a movie with the phrase "that wouldn't die," in the title?It has everything a cheesy sci-fi/horror flick from the '60s should: right down to inherently over-dramatic line, "You men are all alike."Realistic?
The Brain (or head) that Wouldn't Die is one of the more thoughtful low budget exploitation films of the early 1960s.
I am really not sure what point the film was really trying to make, but it seems clear that it strives for an unusually edgy and raw sort of horror (without the blood and guts today's audiences expect).Another unique and interesting aspect of the Brain is that there really are not any heroes in this film, and none of the characters are particularly likable.All considered, this is a fairly painful and disturbing look at early 1960s American pop sexuality, from the viewpoint of a woman kept alive despite her missing body after what should have been a fatal car crash.
In fact, this movie has elements of Hershell Gordon Lewis AND a little Russ Meyer thrown in for good measure.Anyway, I recommend this for anyone who likes trashy, sleazy, black and white horror films from the early '60's (I think the date at the end of it read 1960)..
We might call "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" a B-movie, but it actually wasn't too bad.
The plot of course has Dr. Bill Cortner (Herb Evers) keeping lover Jan Compton's (Virginia Leith) decapitated head alive.
Meanwhile one of his monstrous creations lurks in the cupboard in the lab...Like a number of similar cheap sci-fi/horror productions of the time, this film includes a lot of scenes with scantily clad women; in this case dancers and a photographic model.
Bill and his lab partner, who helps the doctor in hopes he will get his amputated arm treated, keep the head alive with a special device and a new type of liquid they invented that works like blood.
It's pretty well filmed besides the fairly lame car accident, and main actors, Jason Evers as the doctor and Virginia Leith as Jan, the fiancée, are pretty good.
Anyone who would like to watch this flick (which I would not recommend) will soon realize that the title totally misses the point: actually,the head WOULD die,the actress tells us so during one long hour ,and it is a very talky movie at that.An umpteenth variant of Mary Shelley's immortal Frankenstein,where the scientist ,for a change, is not the old dad ,but the son .He wants to bring the dead back to life ,in spite of his old man's good piece of advice .In a car crash on a winding road (they should have looked at the road sign ),nothing is left of his dear wife but her head;hence the necessity to find a body.And while you're at it,try to find the most beautiful body you can.People who play with fire must expect to get burnt..
This plot has got to be the most original, and surprisingly ahead (excuse the pun) of its time idea I have ever seen come out of the 60's sci-fi/horror movies.
Slinky babes, sleezy music, severed heads, a closeted monster, a body-beautiful contest, a model who doesn't date men because she hates them all (just like the title character in KISS ME, KATE).
The plot line is actually pretty decently thought out despite some tragically terrible acting that only add to the humor of the movie as a whole.After surviving a car crash that his fiancé had been decapitated in, scientist Bill Somethingoranother takes the head of his dead love's body from the scene of the crash and keeps it alive through the use of his new, special serum in hopes that he could transplant the head to a new body.
The disembodied fiancé's head and creepy monster thing form a tight bond through the Power of the Serum and form a brave attempt to stop Dr. Bill from maiming any more people in the name of science.The most hilarious scenes involve arm-ripping and over-exerted acting, and an obnoxiously long death scene from one of the doctor's maimed cohorts.
though not well-made or even truly "good" by film standards, I've come to the conclusion that this could quite possibly be the most hilarious horror movie ever..
Having experimented with body parts in the science of body transplantation for years without much success, both Kurt and the thing locked in the closet are some of his failures, Dr. Bill has now developed a new serum that if injected into the original body, the head in this case, that will keep it from rejecting any other body part or parts no matter how different in blood-type and DNA they are.
The severed but alive head has the thing, through it's new found brain power, in the closet grab Kurt, when he was about to give it it's lunch and tear his arm off having him bleed to death.
But - did you have a good time watching "Head," er, "Brain that Wouldn't Die?" Did you think you got your 75¢ worth that afternoon?
Good Dr. Bill is next seen recklessly driving himself and his sweet, horny fiancé Jan out to his country house; the car crashes, he salvages Jan's head from the burning wreckage, wraps his prize in his jacket, and runs the rest of the way with it like he's going for a touchdown during a football game.
His search takes him to strip joints and a beauty contest, to name two avenues he tries before he finds someone he believes to be a suitable candidate, telling her, "I'm going to cut your face off and give away your body, ah ha ha!" as she innocently laughs along.To add to the fun, there is of course the wretched assistant with a mangled arm; one of the doctor's earlier "mistakes", and the "thing" locked in a closet in the lab.
As far as the gore factor, this movie is actually pretty gruesome for its time, although the blood seems to be rather conveniently spilled (downstairs, but not upstairs, for instance), and "Jan in a Pan" laughs more maniacally as the movie progresses.You can find this movie on Amazon.com in a DVD version that has the original film by itself, and also the film as part of an episode of Mystery Science Fiction Theatre 3000, the now-defunct hit TV show.
Then, because of a car accident, his fiancé Jan is decapitated and he keeps her head alive while he searches for a woman with a great body (that was apparently his main interest) to transplant her head onto.
"Brain" was a black and white preview of the drug drenched hell soon to engulf America, with the mad scientists' Dwight Frye-like assistant getting his arm torn off by the monster locked in a closet, and staggering along a wall, leaving a bloodsmeared trail  behind him.
It is obvious that the monster in the closet was added because the living head was not scary at all -she was even pretty- and they thought they needed something more impressive; they failed here too (the make up is awful even for the late 50's, rather funny).The film shows clearly why Director Joseph Green's career as such and also as a writer never materialized; he was really bad at both.
How often have we seen this: A guy's fiance is killed in a car wreck, so, being a mad scientist, he keep her head "alive" in a tray of what looks like grape Kool-Aid until he can find a suitable replacement body.
But the other Ms. doesn't take kindly to having her mouth taped shut (long story), so she chums up with the Frankenstein monster in the closet (even longer story) and kills the doctor and herself, the suicidal maniac (short story, really.) It's amazing - Virginia Leith (who acted for Kubrick - I can't recall which film) shows off more acting ability from her head up than most of the actors in this flick can project from their entire body.
There seemed nothing wrong with a talking head in a pan, no body, same voice without a windpipe, vocal chords and diaphragm.Fun to watch today just because people actually paid money to see this 50 years ago, to either get a few hours away from the kids in a Saturday matinee theater, or to get a date in a car at the drive-in.If made today, it probably wouldn't even go straight to video.
Iconic campy sci-fi/horror film about a mad scientist who keeps his girlfriend's head alive following a car crash.
This black and white cheapo effort from 1962 is built from precisely the kind of deliciously demented concept that makes fans of B-movie schlock horror go weak at the knees with excitement: Bill Cortner (Jason Evers), a surgeon obsessed with perfecting limb transplants, searches for a top-of-the-range female body to carry the decapitated head of his girlfriend Jan (Virginia Leith), which he has kept alive using his revolutionary life giving serum.
Meanwhile, Jan's head, its mental powers boosted by the serum, communicates with the obscene medical experiment gone wrong that occupies a nearby locked room, convincing it to seek revenge for their hideous existence.Sadly, being a product of the early 60s, the film is a long way from delivering the excesses this incredibly trashy premise deserves; Director Joseph Green goes as far as he dares, with a touch of blood towards the end, a suitably gnarly creature, a cheesecake dance routine from a curvaceous burlesque performer (accompanied by a suitably sleazy soundtrack), and a shapely photographers' model posing in a bikini, but much of the film is also very drab, with a large portion of the running time padded out by dull monologues from the severed head as she ponders her dire situation.It's a real shame this film wasn't made just a few years later, when HG Lewis had pushed the envelope with his extreme gore, and the sight of naked female flesh was no longer restricted to nudie-cutie features—then we might have seen a film genuinely worthy of the sordid story, the 60s equivalent of Stuart Gordon's 80s gore-fest Re-animator (which develops themes from The Brain That Wouldn't Die with delightfully outrageous results).
The severed head makes friends with the failed experiment in the closet and the conehead comes out of the closet and rips off the assistant's remaining "good" arm (his other is not right from a scientist's earlier failure), and the whole place burns down.The movie scared us so much as kids that my friend wouldn't go into his basement for a year after seeing it.
Either way, it's not a good movie but is a must-see (for one time only) for horror and gore fans.Also the head's laugh is pretty creepy.
Classic film about a woman's head in a dish and a monster in the closet is a must see for movie monster fans.
The story of a mad doctor's girl who gets into a car accident that mangles her body but finds her head saved by her beau is as schlocky as they come.
I remember watching a censored version of this on TV back in the 1970's,they cut out part of the operation in the beginning,someone getting his arm ripped out from its socket,and some of the stripper scenes.its a very gory movie for 1962.i believe it was filmed earlier like 1959 but i could be wrong,this DVD is available everywhere you look.for as low as a dollar,i spotted it at a dollar store from a company called PC treasures,with a second feature;beast of yucca flats with the late great;Tor Johnson,with a bonus cartoon superman the Arctic giant.anyway brain that would'nt die is such a classic b-movie,very campy.Jason "herb"evers as a very mad doctor trying to graft his fiancés head on the body of a bikini model,why not?there's also a mutant creature that lives in a locked room,made by the spare parts of unsuccessful experiments,i believe everyone who has seen b-movies had to see this at least once.how about a remake?on the VHS version released by warner brothers its censored.i don't know why,maybe they got the TV print and didn't bother to check it.this movie is a bit much for kids,i think even today it can give children nightmares.beware of Jan in the pan.this was released by the notorious;American International Pictures.6 out of 10..
I've seen a lot of bad films, and "The Brain that Wouldn't Die" would not be in that list.