On a vole le cerveau d'Hitler

It seemed that towards the end of the Second World War the Nazi's not only came up with a game plan to escape from the advancing allies to a South American country named Mandoras to regroup their forces and wait until the time was right to launch their second attempt to take over the world. They had a far more deadlier and sinister plan in how to do it then the use of any Atomic or Hydrogen bomb. The Nazis dreamed up a most intriguing idea of how they can take their leader, Adolf Hitler, along with them by putting his head, well really his brain, in a sealed and vacuumed-packed jar and have it, the brain's, super intelligence direct and guide them to total victory.

You would wonder why his brain? or even his head? why not Hitler's whole body? A movie that has to be seen to be believed with footage taken from two totally different films spliced together to try to make some sense to what the story is all about. With the results of the movie starting out like a porno flick,without any sex, and ending up like a bunch of out-takes of a very bad imitation of "Mission Impossible".

We have Hitler's head popping up all over the movie like some jack-in-the-box giving orders to his Nazi henchmen and evilly smirking every time someone gets beaten, shot or killed by them.

It had to be a miracle of science that they could have Hitler's head severed from his body and not only live but be able to communicate with them and instruct them on how to conquer the entire world. All this when he was not able to do so when he was still in one piece during the war before he was smuggled out of Germany by them. Did somehow by him becoming bodiless make Hitler smarter?

The plot also revolves around something called G-gas being released into the air and thus making it possible for the Nazi's hair brain plan of world domination to become a reality. Theirs only one hitch to their evil scheme, they have to stop a US scientist who's working on an antidote to the G-gas that would short-circuit their entire operation.

You know what, that after all these years since the release of "They Saved Hitler's Brain' I can't for the life of me see why Hollywood hasn't made a sequel.

Got around to finally watching this film the other night. Let me just say that I love bad films. I just get a kick out of them and while I am fully aware that they are bad, for the most part, they are still fun to watch. Not this one!!! I'm sure we all know the story behind this movie. It's actually two films spliced into one and combines a 1950's Nazi/Exploitation/Sci-Fi movie with some sort of espionage 1960's outing. The result is a mess and an incredibly tough experience to get through. Again, if there was a fun factor to it, I probably would have been entertained but the thing was so boring and seemed to drag on forever that I had a tough time staying awake. A lot of rambling dialogue that can be laugh inducing with a few beers I suppose but other then that, forget it. What was so weird is how the characters from the first half of the film were either disposed of or never to be seen or heard from again as the second half got going. They just disappeared as the action shifted to Mandoras. The best thing about the movie and what was really hilarious were the images of Bill Freed as the head of Adolph Hitler. The only thing he ever utters is "mach schnell! mach schnell!" and he only does that one time. Still, Freed's silent facial expressions and gyrations did have me laughing. If you want a "so bad, it's good" kind of experience, stick with Ed Wood because this one is really a total bore.

Getting that awful joke out of the way, let me explain.

This film exists in two forms. THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN is the much worse of the two. Avoid at all costs.

But, MADMEN OF MANDORAS is a hilarious little sci-fi/exploitation B-movie, well worth your time. Please see my more extensive review under that title.

The film was released as MADMEN OF MANDORAS in 1963 and did play in theaters. Posters and lobby cards were made. It probably played in drive-in theaters and ratty city grindhouses on the bottom of double bills.

Around 1972, additional footage was added and the movie released again (probably to television) as THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN. I guess to sell it to TV the movie needed to be a little longer. What a mess. The two different groups of footage do NOT mesh together at all.

But MADMEN OF MANDORAS, recently released by BCI in their Starlite Drive-In Theater series of DVDs, (from the original negative!) is worth getting for fans of schlocky 60's grade-Z trash. Sure, the plot is insane, the film is loaded with every cliché about Latin America that ever came out of Poverty Row Hollywood, and the Hitler head in a jar (not just brain, entire head; it actually even speaks and yells a little) isn't even remotely scary, it's just hilarious.

Fans of Ed Wood films and similar low budget trash will be in heaven here with the stilted dialog, mind-boggling plot machinations and perfunctory grade-B acting, with plenty of phony Spanish accents. MADMEN OF MANDORAS sits on my shelf with pride, right alongside Plan Nine, Robot Monster and Mesa of Lost Women. Quaff a few adult beverages, and enjoy.

They Saved Hitler's Brain: One Star

Madmen of Mandoras: Nine Stars! Get it!

I assure you, as great as a movie entitled "They Saved Hitler's Brain" sounds, it does not live up to that title. It doesn't even live up to the title "They." It's just disappointing.

The plot in general is a little difficult to follow, but as I understand it, well, they saved Hitler's brain. And given that a brain is really no good without a head, they also saved Hitler's head, and a bit of a neck. That way he could live in a big glass jar and bark orders in German.

Sure it sounds fun, but we only see Hitler Head for about 5 minutes out of the 90 total. The rest of the time winds through confusing kidnapping plots, and government scientist, and formulas, and lots of boring people who speak in unnecessary Spanish accents. I never quite understood who was the main character (They sort of shift back and forth), or who was the villain (Hitler I guess, but really his role is more of a cameo). Until they get to the wacky Nazis, it's all rather unfunny, and generally uninteresting.

The movie is poorly made, and that keeps it from being a complete snooze, but with a title like "They Saved Hitler's Brain" I really expected better. Disappointing.

The movie is indeed a pastiche of two separate films with separate casts, shot years apart. However, I take issue with Leonard Maltin and the others who refer to the Stanley Cortez footage (the latter part of the film) as being from the 1950s. The actors are dancing The Twist in the Dos Palabras club in one Cortez scene. The Twist became a craze in the Fall of 1960, and remained all the rage for the next couple of years. The original Madmen of Mandoras was released in 1963 (I have a 22X28 poster, complete set of lobby cards, and some stills from this flick). All this is consistent with an early '60s (probably '62 or '63) filming of the Cortez footage.

The el cheapo additional footage (the first part of the film) was probably shot sometime between 1972-1976. The "liner notes" to the Drive-In Cult Classics 2 DVD says the modification of the old Crown International Pictures for TV release began in 1972, and the first mention of "They Saved Hitler's Brain" in a TV listing was in December, 1976.

BTW, StanleyCortez was a distinguished cinematographer who was nominated for an academy award - Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons; he also photographed Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter. The professionally photographed latter part of the film compared with the totally amateurish photography in the first part of the film makes the hodgepodge all the more evident.