The Brain That Wouldn't Die

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.). It's surprising that it hasn't been remade and updated, even if only for the cable or home video market, like Not of This Earth, Little Shop of Horrors, How To Make A Monster and other B programmers. Sure it's a cheap little film but that's the fun of it.

We might call "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" a B-movie, but it actually wasn't too bad. Granted, the concept was pretty outlandish, but the movie is worth seeing (if only for sci-fi fetishists). The plot of course has Dr. Bill Cortner (Herb Evers) keeping lover Jan Compton's (Virginia Leith) decapitated head alive. The head befriends a monster (Eddie Carmel) in the closet.

Sound far-fetched? It is, but the movie's pretty cool. And I remember that Diane Arbus titled one of her photos "Jewish Giant Visiting His Parents in Brooklyn", and I think that it was Eddie Carmel in that photo. The things that we see in life...

The unethical surgeon Dr. Bill Cortner (Herb Evers) is developing a technique of transplantation of organs and members using a serum against rejection. 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". The acting and the direction are very reasonable, and there are some mistakes of edition (for example, when Dr. Bill Cortner is having a conversation in the car with his friend on the sidewalk), but these errors just contribute to make the movie funnier. The make-up of the creature is great. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Cérebro Que Não Queria Morrer" ("The Brain That Did not Want to Die")

This movie reminds of of an old black and white horror comic --- not the good ones, like TALES FROM THE CRYPT or CREEPY, but their sleazier offshoots like NIGHTMARE. And while the film is pretty bad by normal standards, it ranks high on the whacked-out-imagination meter, and maybe even higher on the anything-to-creep-you-out chart. I mean, anyone can make a movie where a guy's arm is torn off but it takes a special brand of sicko to make him a cripple with only one good arm and then tear THAT ONE off --- AND have him stagger around the room smearing the walls with blood from his stump. Ouch. The disembodied head is also pretty creepy when you actually think about it, thanks in large part to a quite good performance by Virginia Leith. And that mutant in the closet is a seriously ugly dude.

Oh, and one other thing: Meow.

For what this is (a rather over-heated horror sci-fi stew), it works for its sheer audacity and shameless full-bore conviction of its aims. Mad scientist movies end up resorting to long shots of people in white lab coats talking in sterile sets. 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. This film with its hell-bent-for-leather pace is a fever-dream that works because it doesn't let go, or tip you to the fact that the makers thought it was ridiculous as it certainly is.

Be sure to get the restored version with the monster in the closet finally grabbing the doctor's arm and making a bloody mess at the end. A great cathartic bloody end to this near Shakespearean morality play about how man should not meddle in god's business.