Friday, October 05, 2012

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)



Who's in it?: No one you know.

What's it about?: A douchebag scientist kills his girlfriend in a car crash and keeps her head alive while he searches strip clubs and beauty pageants for a replacement body.

How is it?: Oh so campy. Girlfriend Jan is known as Jan in the Pan by devotees, so that tells you everything you need to know about the movie's attraction. Jan resents her boyfriend for keeping her alive and begins to plot with another of his experiments: a hidden monster locked away in a closet. Their relationship is flaky and delightful. Best part of the movie.

Certainly better than the scientist's search. I'd call him a mad scientist - and he technically is - but Herb Evers plays him totally straight. He doesn't seem insane, just evil. How he's fooled Jan however long they've been together is a mystery, but as soon as he gets her hooked up to his life-support equipment, he's off to get her a body. And not just any body, either.

As long as Jan's getting a new bod, it might as well be a stripper's, right? Or a beauty contestant's. Or a model's. He has to try a few different plans because it's impossible to get these women alone. Mostly that's due to his being such a dreamy hunk that other women keep coming around, at which point he has to ditch them all and start over.

I wish the selfish scientist was the only thing I have to complain about with this movie, but it's not. There are mannish strippers, a plastic surgeon who practices a little neurosurgery on the side, and the total rip-off that that one-eyed brain on the poster isn't even in the movie. But Jan in the Pan and the Monster in the Closet almost make up for all that.

Rating: Okay.

1 comment:

Ken O said...

Count me as a fan of this one as well.
I think this was also Mike Nelson's first episode of MST3K as host.

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