"The Atomic Brain"

“The Atomic Brain”

THE FACTS!

Also known as “Monstrosity”, it is a 1963 (some sources say ‘64) black and white horror film with a run time of 1 hour and 5 minutes.  The plot of the movie follows an elderly woman who uses her large fortune to convince an eccentric (read “mad” or “crazy”) yet brilliant scientist to transplant her brain into a young, new body. The bodies are unwittingly provided by three immigrant young women, who travel to America to be hired on as servants. The old woman then chooses which of the girls she finds to be the most beautiful, and sets out replacing the young woman’s brain with her own.
  • Written by Sue Bradford, Dean Dillman Jr., Jack Pollexfen, and Vy Russell
  • Staring: Marjorie Eaton as Mrs. March, Frank Gerstle as Dr. Frank, Frank Fowler as Victor, Erika Peters as Nina, Judy Bamber as Bea, and Lisa Lang as Anita.
  • Directed by Joseph V. Mascelli
It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 14%, and a IMDb score of 2.9 stars.

THE REVIEW!

So, many of the online reviews that I read on this movie make references to “zombies” but to be honest…I didn’t see anything that can be considered a “zombie”.  Did we watch the same film?! Obviously not because the movie deals with the transferal of brains and the re-animation of a corpse, more along the lines of an atomic age “Frankenstein’s Monster”.  The writers had to be somewhat inspired by the Shelley story, seen through both the premise and the names of Dr. Frank and Victor (possibly inspired by the name Victor Frankenstein?).

The lack of zombies aside, the movie felt like it had more potential.  I feel like if they had simply made it into more of an atomic age “Frankenstein”, with Dr. Frank robbing graves and possibly even resorting to murder, then it could have been a more entertaining film.  However, the sinister Mrs. March does make for an interesting villain, especially in the age when most bad guys and villains in books and movies were men!  The acting was, I felt, subpar from some of the actors even by 1960′s standards.  Judy Bamber’s British accent was an atrocious to say the least.  The not-so-subtle racism towards Lisa Lang’s character Anita (who was from a Central or South American nation) also dates the film, still not as bad as in others though.  I personally enjoyed when Dr. Frank placed the brain of his beloved cat Xerxes into the body of Anita.

Best part of the film.  The final twist ending was something that really did make the film almost worth while.  You see, it is mentioned in the film that Mrs. March hates the cat Xerxes.  When it came time to place her mind into that of Nina, Dr. Frank exacts his revenge on Mrs. March by placing her brain into the body of Xerxes!  Earlier in the film, in preparation for her mind to be transferred, Mrs. March changed her will to where Nina would be the sole benefactor, gaining all of Mr.s March’s money and property. Now she will forever be a cat, stalking Nina for the rest of her days…or until she tries to cross in heavy traffic.

My overall score being that of 2 stars.
And that is my review on “THE ATOMIC BRAIN”, sorry for it appearing so rough.  This is my very first review after all!  Please follow me for more reviews!!!

Thanks for reading!  -Fargo
#FargosMidnightMovieReviews# TheAtomicBrain #2stars

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