Monstrosity: The Atomic Brain
by Joseph Mascelli
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DVD details
Actor: Frank Fowler, Frank Gerstle, Judy Bamber, Margie Fisco, Marjorie EatonDirector: Joseph Mascelli
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 72 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Video
DVD Reviews of Monstrosity: The Atomic Brain
DVD Review: Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty! Schlock At Its Best!
Summary: 3 Stars
The Atomic Brain: I saw this movie, or rather flipped through it, again, this time from the Alpha Video release. The film is a lot cleaner than the Sci Fi Classics presentation I reviewed before, but the black & white is still pretty washed out.
I can understand why they did not want to go through all that trouble to clean it up, though.
The plot centers around a mad scientist who is experimenting on brains and transplanting them to other bodies by "stimulating the brain cells with an atomic cyclotron". Groovy so far.
He is being supported with lots of money and an illegal lab by an old woman, played by Marjorie Eaton.
She wants the best possible body, so she puts an ad in the paper for someone who is not attached, is an orphan and hopefully someone she can hang something over so they don't squeal. Not a nice gal.
The narrator in this film is a bit annoying but keeps the plot flowing.
Some partial nudity in the beginning with a woman strapped in a standing table, where the straps conveniently hide the good parts.
The women in the piece are a strange lot and so I thought the heroine of the piece might have a listing in IMDB. I could not find Lisa Lang in here. Perhaps she quit acting after this.
The movie is so convoluted and poor that the video disc had the entire plot written on its cover: rich old lady hires mad scientist; he doesn't like her; puts her brain in a CAT. WOW>
-----------------------------------------------------Trivia: ----------------------------------------
Dr. Frank is played by Frank Gerstle, a character actor who has appeared in one or two things throughout his career, such as McHale's Navy, Gomer Pyle, USMC.
The crazy old lady was masterfully played by Marjorie Eaton, who has played in bit parts in such filmography as Zombies of Mora Tau (1957), One Step Beyond and even Mary Poppins! Mary Poppins (Disney Gold Classic Collection)
Directed by Joseph Mascelli, his only directorial film, thank the gods.
Per IMDB he is best known as a cinematographer on:
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964) (director of photography)
... aka Diabolical Dr. Voodoo
... aka The Incredibly Mixed Up Zombie
... aka The Incredibly Strange Creature: Or Why I Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-up Zombie (USA)
... aka The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Judy Bamber, the sexy blonde in the piece, was apparently her last film. She's played in such TV classics as Peter Gunn, Hawaiian Eye and The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis. She even appeared in a Roger Corman film, the comedy-horror piece, Bucket of Blood! A Bucket of Blood
DVD Review: No Danger of This Ever Becoming a Cult Classic
Summary: 2 Stars
Not likely to attain cult classic status, "The Atomic Brain" concerns a rich old woman, Mrs. March (Marjorie Eaton), who is funding researcher Dr. Otto Frank (Frank Fowler) to discover a way to transplant her brain into a younger woman's body. Otto has a small nuclear reactor in the basement of Mrs. March's house. The laboratory set looks even cheaper than similar stuff on the original "Outer Limits" television show.
The scientific basis behind Otto's experiments and the need to radiate his subjects is never adequately explained, obviously they needed the reactor to justify the original "Atomic Brain" title, the word fission is unconvincingly thrown around several times. I can only assume that the alternate title, "Monstrosity", is someone's comment on the quality of the film. At the start of the movie Otto's success has been limited to the transplant of a dog's brain into a man (who has large teeth and looks a bit like the goon in one of shorts featuring "The Three Stooges").
Mrs. March is encouraged when the doctor steals a woman's corpse from the graveyard and reanimates it to zombie status. Needing fresh living bodies for her transplant she hires three attractive young girls from Europe serve as housekeepers. Mrs. March has no other staff at her mansion, only a wimpy "companion and gigolo" guy who is turned on by the young girls. His name is Victor and the narrator sums up his motivation with the movie's best lines: "Three new bodies. Fresh, live, young bodies. No families or friends within thousands of miles, no one to ask embarrassing questions when they disappear. Victor wondered which one Mrs. March would pick. The little Mexican, the girl from Vienna, or the buxom blond? Victor knew his pick, but he still felt uneasy, making love to an 80 year old woman in the body of a 20 year old girl; it's insanity!"
Despite the low budget and feeble scripting, the movie is not entirely awful. Eaton (who played the fortune teller in cult classic "Night Tide") is wonderfully evil and nasty. Fowler (a veteran of countless golden age television classics) is amusing as your basic mad scientist, and the house itself is appropriately sinister. In fact, when the girls first arrive I thought that it might actually turn into a decent film as things get very spooky and suspenseful. Unfortunately the three actresses (none of whom did any subsequent film work) are not up to even modest acting challenges and things pretty much fall apart until a nice twist at the end (which would have worked much better if they had not spoiled it with a second twist). Despite the frequent use of a narrator to explain much of the story, so much happens off camera that is never explained that it is likely there was a much longer original version that was extensively trimmed to get to the present 72 minute running length. This much slash and burn editing does have the benefit of requiring viewers to exercise their own atomic brains whenever a narrative gap occurs. But the story follows the genre's formula so closely that it is not too difficult to fill in the blanks each time this occurs.
Only fans of bad 50's-60's science fiction are likely to ever actually watch "The Atomic Brain" and they should find it fairly representative of this genre. At least the premise is decent, with a significantly bigger budget for sets and competent supporting cast members it could have been an entertaining movie.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
DVD Review: And they say 'Robot Monster' is bad????
Summary: 2 Stars
Oh where do I begin with this one? The plot is pretty good. An ugly old lady wants to be young again. She foots the bill for a scientist to live in her basement and conduct experiments on brain transfer. Three young ladies are hired as housewives, and the old woman will choose who she wants to become. Personally I like the blond who says "I have the same measurements as Marilyn Monroe!" There is some double crossing and the old lady brain is transferred into the body of a house cat.
You think this sounds pretty good huh? A quaint old movie to watch on a rainy Saturday? Guess again. First of all the picture quality is terrible. The film is so grainy, you would think they filmed this with oatmeal on the camera lense. The acting isn't too bad, but the lines they are forced to regurgitate are inane. And why does this movie move so slow at times? DO we really need to watch the old lady walk down the stairs, down to the basement, and then back up again? Couldn't they just film part of this long journey and we can ASSUME she walked the whole way?
I love old movies, I love bad movies. I really love old, bad movies. But it will be a long time before I revisit this lost cinema gem.
DVD Review: ALPHA DVD VERSION
Summary: 4 Stars
PURRRRFECTLY HORRIBLE...3 YOUNG GIRLS ARE HIRED BY AN OLD SPINSTER THAT MAKES THE WICKED WITCH FROM OZ LOOK CUTE. THE BIDDY PLANS TO HAVE HER BRAIN TRANSPLANTED INTO THE BODY OF ONE OF THEM. SHE CHECKS OUT THEIR BODS AS THEY DISROBE & POSE FOR HER. DR. FRANK(ENSTEIN?) LIVES IN THE BASEMENT LAB & IS ON STANDBY...TOTALLY INANE.
SEE THE DOGMAN! SEE THE BROAD WITH A CAT'S BRAIN! SEE THE ALMOST NAKED BRAIN-DEAD GIRL IN THE LAB! HEAR THE POINTLESS ED WOOD STYLE NARRATION THAT DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO FURTHER THE PLOT!
THEY SURE DON'T MAKE EM LIKE THIS ANYMORE...IN OTHER WORDS, A TOTALLY FUN ROMP DOWN SLEAZY-CHEESEY LANE!!! A TRUE CLASSIC OF IT'S KIND. NOT TO BE MISSED.
THE ALPHA DVD IS VERY ACCEPTIBLE, NOT GREAT BUT NOT BAD. A FEW MINOR GLITCHES, SOME SPLICES, SOME SCRATCHES, BUT ONE WOULD HAVE TO BE NITPICKING HERE TO FAULT THE SOURCE PRINT. I WAS PLEASED WITH THIS DVD & CAN RECOMMEND IT TO THOSE WHO NEED (THAT'S YOU) TO SEE THIS CLASSIC. AND BESIDES, THE DVD COVER WITH THE BRAIN-DEAD ALMOST NAKED GIRL IS A MUST HAVE!!!
DVD Review: Monstrosity, The Atomic Bore
Summary: 2 Stars
This early 1960s black and white "horror" film is a prime example of the misunderstood evil genius-reanimated zombie genre typical of the era. The distinguishing features of this film are the extremely disagreeable spinster and the outlandishly bad acting, particularly of the three female victims. (I am especially fond of their skillfully crafted foreign accents.)
This one has it all: ornery old woman, evil genius, hokey pseudo-scientific sets and dialogue, wooden acting, and a cat brain transplanted into a nubile young girl. The one unifying theme of the film, however, is that of boredom. The film isn't one of the very worst ever made, but it ranks right up there on the all time boringness scale. I recommend that if you want to watch this film you buy the version featuring the MST3K guys and their trademark mockery: it relieves the boredom and makes the viewing experience infinitely more enjoyable!
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