The Man Without a Body

It's been a little while now, maybe a few months, since I saw this obscure title thanks to Netflix. I've been searching out goofball old movies like this for some years, and even I had not heard of this one, that's how obscure it is.

I had seen a few films previously by the director, W. Lee Wilder, the much less talented brother of Billy Wilder. These included Phantom From Space and The Snow Creature, both of which I thought had a lovable, shaggy-mutt quality of boisterous genre thrills on a rock bottom budget. But still, those films, as ridiculous and low-rent as they were, made some kind of sense.

This film makes hardly any sense AT ALL.

Too many weirdnesses in the story and strange plot holes to even begin listing them. But the overall effect is like Ed Wood at his most hallucinatory.

The movie feels like a sweat-drenched fever dream glimpsed obliquely through an oppressive cloak of madness draped over and blocking out the everyday world you and I inhabit.

When a filmmaker, or any kind of artist, can achieve an effect like that on his audience, well, this is an artist that one cannot just dismiss wholesale. As ludicrous as this film is, it will make you sit up and take notice, even if it is only to groan "What am I LOOKING AT????"

If you are an Ed Wood fan, and you appreciate his type of skewed reverie, this is a must-view. Even for those casually interested based on this review and the others listed here, I would encourage you to check it out. May not be a life-changing experience, but it is a loopy, way-out way to spend 80 minutes of your life.

I defy anyone to find a 1950's film more off the wall and unpredictable than this. Even Nostradamus himself wouldn't be able to do it! Calling this campy trash is taking the easy way out. The film has more original ideas than a dozen big budget Hollywood films from the same period that cost a hundred times as much. If you have never seen "Man Without A Body" before, find it on Youtube, where it is presented in complete and pristine form. Then sit back and get ready to be amazed by the entertaining absurdity of it all.

To cover the basics of the plot, an egomaniacal millionaire in the vein of Charles Foster Kane and Howard Hughes is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor after he has head pains and starts answering phantom phone calls. Veteran actor George Coulouris plays Karl Brussard with lots of vigor. Of course Brussard cannot contemplate his own end, so he hooks up with renegade scientist Dr. Merritt, who has found a method of keeping long dead monkey heads alive and in perfect condition.The crazed Brussard has the idea to imprint his mind and personality upon the head of the greatest man who ever lived...the French prophet Nostradamus! After a grave-robbing expedition, the dessicated head of Nostradamus is brought back to life and asks Dr. Merritt and company: "Have they burned all my books?" Despite the cheesy effects, there is something quite eerie about the ease with which Nostradamus adapts to his new situation, saying "I have always lived in the future". Soon Brussard tries to brainwash Nostradamus into thinking he's Brussard, leading to one of the craziest scenes ever filmed.

Meanwhile, there's a lot more going on. Brussard's sexy nymphomaniac mistress Odette, whom he treats like an annoying pet, has hatched a plot to murder the old man with the help of Merritt's assistant Lou. At the same time, Merritt's female assistant Jean tries to get this frosty egghead to thaw out and return her advances. Finally, in an amazing scene, Nostradamus is transformed into a Frankenstein-like monster with a giant paper mache blob encasing his head. This crazy creature goes on the rampage in search of the now-fugitive Brussard, whose company has been ruined due to false stock market advice given by the prophet.

The ending is very abrupt, yet quite appropriate. It seems Nostradamus had foreseen everything all along, resulting in a satisfactory resolution where everybody gets their due.

Despite the cheapness of the production, "The Man Without A Body" holds you in a spell from the get go, with better direction than you would think. This film is begging to be discovered! I wonder if the real Nostradamus could have ever foreseen his participation in a movie like this?

Absolutely incredible! Not only are there head grafts, but they manage to graft Nostradamus' intact head onto a person's body! Imagine his confusion. Terrible movie, but mercifully short, and so unbelievable it's worth a stare.

Man Without a Body, The (1957)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A wealthy businessman learns he has a brain tumor but thankfully he's met a doctor who's doing experiments on head transplants. The rich man decides to steal the head of Nostradamus and put on his body. There are a few interesting ideas scattered throughout the film but the poor direction and screenplay doesn't allow anything good to happen. I think a better screenplay could have made this one of the better horror films of its era but what we end up with is nothing more than a disappointment. The film is way too slow and overly long, which is never good for a horror film.

A wealthy business man discovers he has a brain tumor and seeks medical help. The business man finds a scientist experimenting with transplanting monkey heads on different monkey bodies.

How can you go wrong when Billy Wilder's brother directs? You simply cannot. Especially when he has a nice scene that acts as free advertising for Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

What I find most interesting about this film is that it implies the French have discovered the secret to keeping corpses fresh. You would think that after a few hundred years, Nostradamus' head would be nothing more than a skull (if that). Yet, he is hardly rotten at all and even has his vocal cords in working order.