Le cerveau qui ne voulait pas mourir

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")

The opening credits bear the title THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE. Some 80 minutes later, the same film is strangely billed as THE HEAD THAT WOULDN'T DIE in the end credits. That gives you an idea of how much effort went into this '60s schlockfest.

But that doesn't mean it's not worth watching if you're in the right mood. 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). Jan Compton (Virginia Leith), or Jan in the Pan as she's called, spends an awful lot of time yapping and whining. Another IMDb reviewer wasn't far off when he likened her to THE HEAD THAT WOULDN'T SHUT UP! Can you blame her? She's understandably not content to live this sort of life. But what's really holding her interest (and mine... there, I admitted it) is the doctor's other monstrous creation, which keeps trying to pound its from behind its single-doored prison. Will our hero find a body for his woman? Are the authorities on to him? Why am I enjoying this so much? 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. As incredible as it sounds, the picture is legitimately able to hold the viewer's interest with its outrageous plot and suspense built up over the creature behind the door. Sure it goes on a bit too long and sure there are dull moments, but what did you expect?

Admit it. If you haven't seen this one, at least part of you wants to. It's probably that part that yearns for pure, unadulterated stupidity from grown men and women from time to time. So indulge that inner glutton with THE BRAIN THAT WOULD'T 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.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 rescues another classic from the dust bin -- and with a new victim for the mind-melting film-watching experiments. Mr. Nelson must suffer through this movie, but we can enjoy his suffering.

Let's see -- where to begin. 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). And that's just for starters.

A man loses his wife -- well, actually he loses her body but keeps her head, see? Then, of course, since he's a mad scientist, he has to go cruising around looking for a new body so she will be a whole woman again -- 'cause he's not into anything kinky, see?

But guess what? Just like the Wolfman, this unappreciative head just wants to die. How ungrateful, huh?

The dialogue is so overly unintentionally hilarious, you must hear it to believe it, and even then it's hard to believe.

This is a surreal existential treatise that has the subtitle, "A celebration of betrayal." Throw in some sci-fi and morgue humor, and you have a classic! And the closeted monster and the drugged model live happily ever after. What other movie could give you all of this?

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.