Le cerveau qui ne voulait pas mourir

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?

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...

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.

Come on you guys. Lighten up. This film doesn't belong on the Bottom 100 List. Where's your sense of humor? Try to experience it in the spirit in which it was made. Take it with a grain of salt. It's a very funny movie. Unintentionally maybe, but still pretty hilarious. I run it sometimes when I need a really good laugh.

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")