The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) - Bill Cortner is a brilliant though unorthodox transplant surgeon traveling to his home in the country with his fiancée. They have a car crash which he survives but she is decapitated. Taking her head he makes his way to his lab where he keeps it alive while he searches for a body he can use to transplant her head.
If this sounds like the plot of some 50s sci-fi schlock theater movie...oh wait, it is. What follows the setup is a lurid tale of a doctor so caught up in the divinity of his science that he can leave his ethics behind, only seeing his search for a replacement body for the woman he loves as an advancement and not the murder it is.
Yet in his lab is where his conscience lies. He may lack one himself but in her, only a talking head, she is his conscience. Locked further away behind a steel door is the sum of all his fears and failures. She not only begins to rattle his cage but stirs that beast behind the door.
Of course the plot of a talking head kept alive in a pan is silly. This was after all made in 1959 (not released until 1962). But this is not a story about scientific realities but one of a man's greed and coming face-to-face with his own demons; the demons of his own misdeeds.
Ultimately though it is just simply an enjoyable movie. You have a talking head, a hideous monster in a closet, a crazed doctor searching for a replacement body in burlesque nightclubs, and a catfight. It was ahead of its time (pun intended) and is quite an interesting allegory if you can enjoy it for what it is.
The Brain That Wouldn't Die is a black&white movie and runs for 82 minutes, though some home video and DVD releases may run for less time due to edits.
The Brain That Wouldn't Die is a black&white movie and runs for 82 minutes, though some home video and DVD releases may run for less time due to edits.
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