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The creator of IT! (1966) also made this preposterous but slightly more enjoyable precursor to the "Nazi Zombie" sub-genre earlier that same year and, funnily enough, I came across both these hitherto rare movies almost simultaneously from different sources…which is why I ended up watching them back-to-back. Actually, THE FROZEN DEAD had previously been available on a low budget DVD double-feature with the similar (but clearly crazier) THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN (1963) that soon went out-of-print – so I am certainly glad to have stumbled upon the former via alternative channels that, curiously (since I have no recollection of it ever being shown on Italian TV in the past 25 years), sports a second audio track in Italian (which, ironically, is much cleaner than the garbled original)!! Anyway, THE FROZEN DEAD stars waning Hollywood star Dana Andrews (sporting an inadvertently amusing German accent that, together with his silent 'r' pronounciation, makes him sound as if he is slurring his lines…and, being aware of his past battles with alcohol, I wonder!) as a former Nazi scientist who has, since the end of WWII, relocated to a large estate in the English countryside to conduct revivification experiments on 12 cryogenically frozen top Nazi officials (including his own brother Edward Fox)! In fact, the latter's anguished cries open the film as 8 of these subjects are shown to have failed in regaining their normal mental capacities and, consequently, are treated much like unwanted pets, taken out for their daily stroll by Andrews' whip-wielding assistant Karl (Alan Tilvern). Karl's own zeal and blind faith in the Party has made him (unwisely, as it turns out) invite his impatient superiors to witness Andrews' non-existent breakthrough with his first 'success': a hulking, bald manservant named Joseph. To complicate matters further, 3 innocent bystanders (Andrews' niece, her ill-fated best friend, and Andrews' younger colleague) soon take up residence in Andrews' mansion, obviously unaware of the sinister goings-on beneath in his secret laboratory or his past political affiliations. Ever eager-to-please, Karl impulsively injects the visiting friend with a mortal substance – and has Fox strangle her for good measure! – so as to provide the disillusioned Andrews with a live brain specimen for him to study (in an attempt not to muck up any more of the remaining frozen dead)! A complex charade – that also involves Karl's facially-scarred secret female relative who lives nearby – is set in motion to appease Andrews' niece from worrying for (or delving deeper into) her friend's sudden disappearance…but this does not stop the niece from finding out about the former within hours! The young scientist – who, naturally, has fallen for the niece on first sight – is in on the friend's murder (since he was brought here specifically to help Andrews successfully complete his experiments) but only decides to do something about it following a couple of failed murder attempts (courtesy of the increasingly demented Karl) on the niece's person! Ever the dedicated sadists, the 2 Nazi superiors (who seemingly appear and disappear at the mansion at random) torture Karl for his clumsiness and force Andrews to throw him in with the frozen dead for the ultimate punishment! The last (and most outlandish) pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to be found in this lurid shocker are 'the living head' – belonging to the niece's friend, of course, within which resides the all-important live brain…although Andrews is never shown doing much with it – apparently dreading her scowling countenance! – and the remarkably Cocteauesque wall of severed arms – whose real use is never fully explained (unless some of the frozen dead had been maimed or something) but their potential is certainly not wasted when, in the film's climax, the head telepathically (don't ask) fatally wraps them around the necks of Andrews and the older of the Nazi superiors (Karel Stepanek)! The very last shot of the film, then, has the head pleading with the surviving niece and her doctor companion to give it that much-denied burial! 2 final things: director Leder must have seen the works of horror maestro Tod Browning one time too many because, both here and and IT!, he displays the latter's frustrating knack of cutting away at the most inopportune moments and having much of the key action take place offscreen!; besides, while the version I acquired came from an open-matte color print (making the boom mike clearly visible a couple of times!), the film was apparently originally released to theaters in black-and-white…which, I suppose, must have robbed the living head of her creepy bluish pallor!

The Frozen Dead is not the zombie movie you'd probably assume, in fact it's not even what it makes itself out to be based on the cover.

A British horror film it tells the story about a Nazi doctor hidden away in England who is working on re-animating cryogenically frozen soldiers. Alas his attempts thus far have failed, though he can bring the body back the mind appears to be broken. All he needs now is a live brain to experiment on!

Shot in colour but broadcast black and white in the cinema this is an incredibly underwhelming title.

The plot appears so neutered, even though the idea behind the concept is shocking the execution is lacking to the degree that almost all impact is lost.

Poorly paced, no likeable characters and just an all round borefest The Frozen Dead demonstrates why 1966 was a dreadful year for film.

The Good:

Some interesting ideas

The Bad:

Painfully slow

Really doesn't go anywhere

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The creators did little to no research on cryogenics

20 years after WW2 has ended, a German scientist living in London, attempts to revive the frozen bodies of several Nazi leaders. Of course, there are some problems along the way (especially "woman problems")... The main problem however with this film is that it has absolutely nothing to say. Besides a ludicrous story, this film also contains some very "unintended-funny" scenes. Especially the dead girl's head is great! "It seems as though the head forced this glass of water out of my hand!" Needless to say that the dialogue, especially near the end of the film, is superb. This alone makes the film worthwhile. There are films that are far worse than this one (and with worse actors), but this comes pretty close too. Oh, and watch out for Edward Fox as one of the crazed Germans in the basement(!). 3/10

Okay, okay,...I'll admit it,...this is probably the ONLY neo-Nazi transplant movie ever, so I guess that makes it the best--by default! Some might think that THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN might be a better example of the genre, but THE FROZEN DEAD looks like Shakespeare compared to that horrible film. Okay, I'll also admit that the movie still stinks. It's true that the production values and writing are terrible, but at least the movie has Dana Andrews and he does a decent job. It's sad that at this point in his career he was beginning to take ANYTHING that was offered to him. Later he admitted to being an alcoholic and this would explain why he chose to be in this turkey. So who would like this film? Well, lovers of campy schlocky horror films will get a few laughs. However, lovers of Mr. Andrews might recoil in horror to see this handsome leading man resort to acting in THIS! So, beware and try it if you dare. And, on the positive side, Mr. Andrews got sober and talked about this--and was an inspiration to many and went on to better things.

A delightfully schlocky premise is given straight faced treatment here, as a Nazi scientist named Norberg (a slumming Dana Andrews) goes about the business of keeping various Nazi characters on ice and experimenting on them so that they can, one day, be resurrected successfully. A problem arises when his visiting niece Jean (the gorgeous Anna Palk) becomes VERY concerned about the sudden disappearance of her friend / traveling companion Elsa (Kathleen Breck).

While somewhat disappointing - this doesn't play out the way that some people might want it to - it's an okay forerunner to the "Nazi zombie" genre that eventually flourished. There might be too much talk and too little action for some audience members, but everything is played with admirable sincerity, and the movie isn't completely lacking in memorable imagery. Writer / producer / director Herbert J. Leder ("Pretty Boy Floyd", "It!") gives us a pitiable decapitated head on a table, and the sight of severed arms attached to a wall. Filmed in Britain, this is limited in its color palette, and in fact was apparently originally shown in theatres in black & white. It features a wonderful schlock movie score composed by Don Banks.

The cast is fun to watch, especially Andrews, as he makes an attempt at a German accent. Palk is an appealing leading lady, but Philip Gilbert is rather bland as the nice guy American scientist who becomes party to the machinations of our bad guys. Karel Stepanek and Basil Henson are entertainingly malevolent as Nazi goons. Alan Tilvern delivers a standout performance as Norbergs' crazed assistant. A young Edward Fox pops in and out of the story as one of the unfrozen dead. Breck is ultimately quite the sight, and she does earn ones' sympathies.

An amusing, diverting bit of rubbish that may be worth a look for schlock enthusiasts looking for golden oldies of decades past.

Seven out of 10.

British sci-fier that's utterly mad and quite awful at times, yet for fans of "B" movie schlockers from days of yore there's enough boldness and charm to warrant a look.

In short order the plot entails a nutty scientist planning to revive frozen Nazis to kick start a new world order. Dana Andrews is the name actor in the lead role, complete with bad German accent, and Kathleen Breck is the star performer playing a head in a box; a victim of the mad scientists moving throughout the madness. It's all very silly and the fact that Andrews and company are taking it serious further induces the mirth factor. The effects work is a very mixed bag, but always fun, while there are some genuinely great scenes involving the frozen corpses, a wall of moving arms and every scene that Breck's head is involved in. None more so with the latter for the truly haunting ending. 2/10

One of the triumvirate of iconic '60s disembodied head movies and thematic intermediate between the heady love story of "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (1962) and the neo-Nazi delirium of "They Saved Hitler's Brain" (1968), "The Frozen Dead" finds former Third Reich scientist Doktor Norberg (Dana Andrews) attempting to revive frozen members of the master race two decades after the end of the war. Unfortunately, the thawed übermensch are mentally defective and without a living human brain to study, Norberg suspects that resuscitating the rest of the Nazicles is doomed. Hoping to head off failure, his whinging assistant Essen (Alan Tilvern) kills Norberg's visiting niece's friend (Kathleen Breck), whose head the pernicious but resourceful doktor manages to keep alive in a box in the lab (complete with an cranial observation dome). The niece gets suspicious, a romance blossoms, more Nazis show up, Norberg wires up the head to a wall of arms...it just gets better and better! The movie effectively evokes a sense of trapped helplessness - you can almost feel the disembodied head's powerless anguish or the panic of the poor henchman left to freeze to death amongst the icy Nazis. While not great art, "The Frozen Dead" is a well done, low-budget shocker that deserves an extra rating point for being surprisingly creepy despite the inherent silliness of the premise.

According to The Frozen Dead, not all Nazi top brass escaped to South America at the end of WWII, and not all of their scientists were snapped up by the Russian and American governments: Dana Andrews plays Nazi boffin Dr. Norberg, who has spent twenty years living undetected in the UK, waiting for orders from his superiors (who have been living who knows where) to thaw out the Arian elite frozen during the fall of the Third Reich.

Norberg's attempts at reviving the cryogenically preserved Nazis have so far been unsuccessful, but when his assistant Karl (Alan Tilvern) murders Elsa (Kathleen Breck), close friend of the scientist's niece Jean (Anna Palk), Norberg gets a chance to keep the dead girl's head alive and study her brain (which he keeps exposed by replacing her cranium with a clear plastic dome).

Nazis and mad scientists go together like cookies and milk, and with such a macabre premise, The Frozen Dead cannot fail to deliver at least a couple of memorable moments. Unfortunately, writer/director Herbert J. Leder provides too few chills overall, while the lifeless performances mean that it's a struggle to remain conscious at times. I don't want to be too harsh towards such a mean-spirited movie - I appreciate its attempts to shock - but The Frozen Dead left me cold for the most part.

4/10. Not as bad as They Saved Hitler's Brain (but then not much is), but for a slightly more entertaining 'living head' film watch The Brain That Wouldn't Die.

The Nazis' finest (who, in my opinion, couldn't possibly be all that fine) are corpsicled in preparation for the future, apparently a couple of decades downstream. Dana Andrews, a top German scientist, is now trying to thaw them out, but he just gets one basket case after another; brain damage seems to be a major problem. His henchman, knowing that Andrews wants a fresh head with which to work, kills the visiting friend of his daughter, who becomes the head-in-the-box. Naturally, she's a bit angry about this state of affairs. Naturally, all the Nazis end up dead. At the end of the movie, there's the problem of what do do with the head-in-a-box. No one suggests grad school. Instead, sans lungs, she says "Bury me!" Well, that probably is better than grad school. Actually, though it's easy to make fun of this movie, it's not a bad flick.

Handsome, square-jawed Dana Andrews--star of such classics as "Laura", "Elephant Walk", and "The Best Years of Our Lives"--finds himself in tragic circumstances here. It's a jaw-droppingly tasteless, would-be horror-thriller about frozen members of the Third Reich being revived by a Hitler-loving scientist. Oh yes, there's also a sub-plot about a woman's severed head that is either gruesome or hilarious depending on your point of view. Written and directed by Herbert J. Leder, who shows a tiny bit of competency behind the camera but absolutely no class. Why else would Andrews and the other cast members appear in this dreadful Nazi garbage other than for money? Tacky and exceedingly crass; view at your own risk. * from ****

Frozen Dead is basically just a twist on the classic Frankenstein story; except instead of a brilliant doctor trying to reanimate a corpse, we get a not so brilliant doctor continually trying and failing to bring the dead back to life. I have no problem with films like this; in fact, I'd even say that this one was slightly pioneering - but the main problem with it is simply that it's boring. The plot moves at snail pace and despite some interesting ideas, none of them are put forward in an interesting way; and the film has no point to it. The plot focuses on the idea of bringing key members of the Nazi party back to life. A crazy scientist kept the frozen heads of several party members and has been keeping them safe until a chance to bring them back to life presents itself. He finally finds a way to bring them back by attaching their heads onto new bodies; but finds himself in need of a fresh body to experiment on. His niece's friend who is staying with him provides the perfect solution, until the niece decides to look into the disappearance of her friend.

The sixties and seventies were something of a golden period for UK horror; the Hammer and Amicus films are, of course, the main standouts; but there was some good stuff coming from elsewhere also. There were also a lot of very bad horror films being made around this period, and Frozen Dead is certainly one of the latter. The ideas regarding the doctor's failed experiments could have provided some interesting moments; but they don't and the film continually fails to generate any interest from the viewer. It's actually quite a shame that this film is so woeful because we do get some ideas that are original considering the time period; the whole 'Nazisploitation' genre was still a few years away, while the macabre way certain body parts are brought back to life goes a bit further than the Frankenstein films that were made before this one did. There's nothing special about the atmosphere or the acting about the film; both are serviceable considering the type of film but neither is anything to write home about either. Overall, Frozen Dead is a miserable example of a British sixties horror film and I would not recommend it.

Dull. Dreadfully boring. That's the main problem with The Frozen Dead. Nothing much really happens, which is a shame, since Dana Andrews stars in it. The star of Laura and Curse of the Demon apparently really needed the money or something, because his is really the most inspired performance in the movie, and that is not saying much at all.

I supposed I shouldn't have expected much from a tired old schtick (defrosted Nazis wanting to take over the world), but even I was surprised at how dull this film is. If you like this kind of movie, check out They Saved Hitler's Brain, which is fun to laugh at...this one doesn't even have bad comedy to recommend it.

I just read the other user comment saying this film was not easily forgotten and I felt compelled to comment. I too saw this movie when I was young.. about ten years old... and here I am thirty years later and I suddenly felt compelled to Google it out of the blue. It really did haunt me and obviously still crosses my mind from time to time. I would not watch it again, either - there was something very sickening about it. I guess if I watched it now, used to the modern age of special effects and film techniques I would not be terribly impressed... but at the time it left it's mark. For that I give it positive rating even though I wish I'd never seen it in the first place.

I was quite startled when I came to this page to see that people had actually taken this film seriously.It really has to be one of the funniest "horror" films that I have ever seen.once Dana Andrews opens his mouth to speak everything seems to fall apart.He must have the worst ever German accent.What possessed the director to ask him to attempt it.Unfortunately for Dana he came rather cheap at this time and was going through a bad time with the drink.This film seems to try to incorporate all the clichés from these type of films.It has to be said that the supporting cast aren't much better so the level of ineptitude of Dana is matched.The film is so bad it is extremely entertaining.