User reviews

An elderly woman wants to be young again. She has lots of money and enlists a mad scientist who works all day in the basement with his nuclear device to transplant brains atomically. Brought into the picture are three young women who will provide the body, once the process is perfected. One woman gets a cat brain transplant and runs around scratching people and screeching. Another is a victim of cat-woman and loses her eyesight. The third becomes the target for the transplant. Unfortunately, there are failed experiments running around the house, particularly a young woman who has no brain at all. She is just there to provide amusement. The old lady continues to bully the young women who ask to leave, but stay just because she tells them to (apparently, they need her to let them out of their contract and she will call immigration and get them sent back). When they finally act, it is too late. There is also an old lech who can't wait for the old lady to get a new body, but comes to realize that he is going to be left in the dust. He then becomes a possible roadblock, although the old lady is so mean spirited she doesn't seem to care. Nevertheless, the transplant does finally take place but with different consequences than the old lady had anticipated.

The biggest problem has to do with trust. The scientist works at the behest of the old woman, but seems to have his own agenda. He is annoyed by her constant meddling in what he is doing. He betrays here of course. So much of the movie is in anticipation of finally doing the transplant. We just can't get there and the ride is long and tedious.

I enjoy bad movies. There is such a wicked delight in watching something that fails on many levels. Because of this enjoyment, I had originally intended to regularly review a movie from the Treeline 50 Sci-fi movie collection. But that was until I watched "The Atomic Brain" (aka Monstrosity).

It all came to fruition in a particular scene which made me uncomfortable with my whole bad movie fascination; like finding out that your first girlfriend has since turned into a lesbian.

But first, a quick précis of the film.

Given that its a black and white film called the Atomic Brain (aka Monstrosity), you should be guessing that you are about to watch a movie with obvious D-grade plot, photography, acting and script. And you would have made an excellent guess.

But what differentiates this film from other D-grade fodder are two unique aspects.

The first is the voice over. This film must have the longest voice over introduction in history. The only voice you hear for the first 15 minutes of the film is the voice-over guy. Normally, the voice-over guy is a device to setup a film, then he vanishes, to maybe reappear at the end, if everyone has died, with an "I told you so".

But this voice-over is unique. Firstly, the delivery is akin to the "You will follow the great leader" type you might associate with mass hypnosis cults. Except, instead of delivering the facts, the voice-over not only paraphrases the feeling of the main characters, but in places provides disparaging editorial comment on the actions taken by the main characters. Its all quite strange.

The second aspect relates to the uncomfortable scene mentioned earlier. Essentially, voice-over guy in his first 15 minutes establishes that the old lady wants to transplant her brain into a new young body. So, later in the movie, we have this scene where the old lady is asking the young women to model some underwear (so she can also check out her shape), and our friend the voice over guy reappears, and you sense lewdly enjoys telling us what she thinks, with comments such as "she is so nicely rounded in places men like".

Basically, listening to a disturbed voice-over guy explaining the desires an 80 year old women has for the body of a 19yr old girl is not something I would like to experience alone again. Especially when the old lady has the same name as your first girlfriend.

Worth only watching so that when you view the Mystery Science Theatre version, you actually begin to see how clever those MST guys must be to make it enjoyable.

Movies like this were what drive-in managers lived for back in the 1960's. Originally co-billed with THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE MONSTER this is one fine example of gonzo filmmaking at its best. Directed by Joseph Mascelli, who was director of photography on Ray Dennis Steckler's THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES, the very ineptness of this picture is what makes it attractive to lovers of B-movies. Wealthy Mrs. March (Marjorie Eaton) wants her brain transplanted into a young body so she hires Dr. Frank (Frank Gerstle) who has so far succeeded in transplanting the brain of a dog into a man and creating a . . .well . ..a dog-man and lets him install a nuclear reactor in her basement. When three beautiful au-pair girls from Europe show up its obvious one of them is going to lose her mind, literally! I just love movies that involve brain transplants. GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, RETURN OF THE APE MAN, THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL and this film to name only a few, all depict brains being switched back and forth with relative ease and without having the shave the patients head! Before the 66 minute running time has gone by a girl gets the brain of a cat (sadly she and the dogman never get to fight each other), one girl gets her eye gouged out and Mrs. March finally gets her brain switched, but not exactly the way she had planned. Oh and that nuclear reactor in the basement? You just know that's going to provide a bang-up of an ending! The cast is good, no of them betraying just how ridiculous the plot is. Judy Bamber, who plays the Cockney girl, was in Roger Corman's A BUCKET OF BLOOD. You can spot Marjorie Eaton in ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU (1957)and NIGHT TIDE (1962); and Frank Gerstle played the FBI agent in KILLERS FROM SPACE (1956). Once a staple of late night TV (and deservedly so!) ATOMIC BRAIN can be had from several mail order video sources. See it, you'll be glad you did.

"An elderly woman has invested a fortune on a scientist's research which, if successful, will allow him to transfer her brain into the body of a young woman. Needing a host body for her brain and subjects to experiment upon, the elderly woman advertises for a housekeeper in hopes of securing what the scientist needs, human guinea pigs. Three unlucky women are selected by the elderly woman as the choices and are unaware of the true motives behind their employment…" according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Re-titled "The Atomic Brain", the toothy "Monstrosity" referred to in the title is the fusion of a "live dog to a dead human body." He is the one of the mistakes mad doctor Frank Gerstle (as Otto Frank) has made. The body-snatching doctor is funded by haggish, but wealthy Marjorie Eaton (as Hetty March). The elderly Ms. Eaton wants her brain transplanted into a younger woman's body.

Fortunately, Eaton has good taste in the female form - she and gigolo Frank Fowler (as Victor) help arrange for the arrival of three fresh young female bodies: enticing Erika Peters (as Nina Rhodes), shapely Judy Bamber (as Beatrice Mullins), and lovely Lisa Lang (as Anita Gonzalez). Described as "firm and nicely-rounded," Otto's Angels think they've been hired as servants…

If you like good bad movies, by all means, check out this "Monstrosity"; it sinks quickly into awful, but slowly rises up the "so-bad-it's-good" meter. In his only directorial credit, James Mascelli gets in some nice shots, for the budget. The young women are fun to watch - all, coincidently, have "Monstrosity" as their last acting credit. There is a strong erotic undercurrent - think of petting pretty, brain-dead women in captivity...

**** Monstrosity (1964) James Mascelli ~ Marjorie Eaton, Frank Gerstle, Erika Peters

In The Atomic Brain, Marjorie Eaton does a wonderful job of creating a thoroughly unlikeable rich old woman (Hetty March) with a scheme to have her brain transplanted into an attractive, healthy, younger body. To accomplish this, she supports the research of the brilliant sociopath Dr. Frank (Frank Gerstle), who has successfully transplanted various animal brains into humans - creating a dog-man and, later, a cat-woman. Once it becomes clear that cadavers are not going to suffice, Mrs March hires three young women from Europe to serve as maids (and, unbeknownst to them, possible body donors). Erika Peters does well with the Austrian Nina. Judy Bamber - the English Bea - is lovely but overacts and sounds about as English as Tom Cruise. Finally, Anita from Spain (nicely played by Lisa Lang) isn't fully human long enough for us to get a good sense of her personality. Overall, the acting is OK.

The pace is decent throughout most of the film, and the plot, though ridiculous, remains the central focus. Unfortunately the cinematography is, to say the least, uneven - there are a number of unnecessary shots of people moving about. This is sort of surprising since the director was later hired as a cinematographer for some higher profile films. And the voice-over narrative - which is also unnecessary - really seals the deal.

In a sort of in-your-face way, Atomic Brain portrays stereotypes of the rich, the elderly and the feminine gender, and really makes a horror of them. It also adds the cliché of the mad, self-righteous and egotistical scientist, and the somewhat lurid exploitation of youth and beauty. It is not an entirely thoughtless film, but it is not a good film either. Recommended for late night viewing after or during intoxication events.

Really strange and very bad movie. The tip off is that any horror movie than needs a narrator throughout is always bad - no exception here. Another early tip off on this movie is when "Dr Frank" (can't they be more original?) is grave robbing, his assistant kills a watchman. Rather than using the fresh corpse, Dr Franks goes after the entombed body of the young woman. The only good performance was by the black cat. The only reason I gave this flick a 2 rating rather than a 1 is because of its surreal quality at times.

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. One of the girls is played by Erika Peters, who was quite underrated as an actress - her talent dismissed because she was so beautiful. Unfortunately the other two actresses (neither 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.

The Atomic Brain (or "Monstrosity", if you will) can be described best as Universal's Frankenstein for dummies with no money! The basic story is clearly imitating the classic Mary Shelley story, but so many hectic sub plots and extremely poor visual effects are added that the wholesome becomes incredibly bad. The Drive-In-Cinema type of bad…The MST3K type of bad! Or, in other words, so bad it becomes hugely entertaining again! "The Atomic Brain" is a totally WHACK movie that indeed features all kinds of monstrosities but absolutely no suspense, logic or continuity. It looks like the writers tried to camouflage their lack of inspiration and talent by constantly adding more genetically mutated monsters! Three young girls from different corners of the world are lured to the Californian mansion of the wealthy Mrs. March. Supposedly to work as servants, but the malicious wheel-chaired woman plots to steal their youth and virility! She has the bizarre Dr. Frank (got it?) experimenting with brain-transplants in her cellar and she pays him to surgically put her old brain into the body of one of the young beauties. As some kind of practice, Dr. Frank already created a half-man/half-ape monster, a zombie-girl that he keeps around for amusement (!) and a woman with the brain of a cat! This is pretty stupid 60's B-cinema with pitiful effects and an overload of obvious errors. For example, how the hell can you measure an adult's brain into the skull of a cat? Or vice versa? Oh heck, it doesn't really matter since it provides a few good laughs and at least the movie is never boring, unlike so many other poverty row Sci-Fi movies from that era. The finale is sensationally over-the-top and if they EVER plan to make a sequel, I suggest an appropriate title already: "Revenge of the Brainiac Cat". By the way, keep an eye open for the Oscar-worthy performance of Xerxes; the cat!

Monstrosity/The Atomic Brain would make a great entry into any festival of 'Atomic Horror'. Sure, the budget is zero and the acting is poor... but the plot is pure gonzo and seldom dull. The writing is a notch above what you'd usually expect from such a thing. Mad Dr. Frank and his zoo of brain transplant experiments are being funded by a crazy old lady hoping for second chance at life in a young, attractive body. Her greedy and lecherous boy toy goes shopping for suitable donors. There's already a zombie girl and a dog man roaming the property and soon there's a cat woman as well. Things don't go as planned of course when Dr. Frank realizes just how vicious old Mrs. March is. Great twist ending that leaves things more open-ended than movies like this tend to do.

The way this is filmed reminded me a good bit of Night of the Living Dead. With it's make-do sets and lack of glamour. Parts of it could be seen as awkward and unintentionally humorous... but the basic concept is gruesome and the script is lean enough to stay on focus. There's not a lot of filler. I rated it a 10 just to counter some of the ridiculously low votes it's received. But I sincerely feel that it's got a lot going for it compared to other horrors that might look better and have bigger stars but are comparatively vacant on ideas and carry-through.

This is definitely going on my re-watch list.

Okay, it starts out a little slow, which is never a virtue in a 67 minute movie. Things really pick up once the Mexican maid is transplanted with the brain of a cat. Actually, it's the first time that that character displays any personality, even if it is hissing and spitting and eating a mouse. The last ten minutes make the whole thing worthwhile. Was it the hat pin murder in the library? The cat with the old woman's brain pushing buttons and flipping levers to start the auto-destruct sequence on the cyclotron? Or the girl with the fake cockney accent being electrocuted when she runs back (in her shorty pajamas) to retrieve her severed eye (clawed out by the Mexican maid/housecat of course)? People of earth - it's time to stop relying on two robots and a lonely janitor. Start screaming your own jibes at the television. On a more somber note, the actress who played the old woman was only 63 when this was filmed. If I look like that at 63, I'll be robbing graves, too.

When a film like Monstrosity is held up for six years before being inflicted on the movie going public you can smell the gravy and cranberry sauce from your movie seats. In that sense Monstrosity does not disappoint.

Where it does disappoint is in the fact this thing had the elements of being an incredibly funny satire on Frankenstein like films. Someone like Mel Brooks would have had a field day with the plot premise. A rich old cosmetics queen, someone like Helena Rubinstein, is financing experiments in brain transplantation and electronic conversion of brains to various other organs. The experiments by Frank Gerstle are inter special. You got to love him transplanting the brain of a cat into one of Marjorie Eaton's servant girls.

Of course the object is for Eaton's brain to be transplanted into the body of a 20 something beauty queen so she can leave her money to herself. If she can't take it with her, she ain't leaving.

In the hands of someone like Peter Lorre as the mad scientist and Phyllis Diller as the aging beauty queen, this could have been monstrously hilarious instead of in itself being one dull monstrosity.

I'm kind of surprised by the nature of many of the comments here. OF COURSE the movie is terrible, people! But I don't think you or anyone needs the MST3K commentators to know that this is a mega-turkey on a grand scale and add your own commentary! I'm also really surprised how many people find the sexism of the film "offensive." Wow, I never would have expected a 60's drive-in exploitation film to be sexist! I can't believe that!

I found this movie totally enjoyable, and at 66 minutes it's just the right length. The story about switching bodies with a younger person and willing all your posessessions to them (that is, to YOU, after the switch) is from a relatively well-known 18th-century ghost story... I actually wish I could find it again. There were so many enjoyable aspects... the ridiculous narration that tries to cover for the fact that they can't form a coherent story with the footage at hand... the idea that you can fit a human brain into a cat's skull... the animal noises coming out of the people (which is actually fairly effective)... the hideous accents ("Me no speak good English")... it's just a hoot from start to finish.

Some notable moments: >>When the mad scientist explains that if anyone discovers the lab he'll just trip off a NUCLEAR EXPLOSION that'll take care of them! ...and of course the few miles around the house as well. And really, how many of us have space for a nuclear reactor in our basements? >>I love how the two remaining women are getting freaked out and decide that they have to leave, NOW. So they go downstairs to the first floor (where presumably the front door is), but they just keep on going, down to the basement, where they witness the old lady (previously wheelchair bound) up and walking around near her nuclear reactor. So they go back up, pass the front door again, and go back to their room where they proceed to read a magazine! >>The acting in this film is just so on the surface. Like the scene in which the blinded woman reaches around above her until she hits the lamp and sends it swinging, THEN removes her bandage... because if not, what excuse would we have to see the gouged-out eye socket in the chilling swinging light?

Excellent cheese! Ridiculous, glorious, and yeah, a bit on the disturbing side.

--- Check out my website devoted to bad and cheesy movies at: www.cinemademerde.com

I saw the old Universal Frankenstein movie series as a kid and loved it, but watching it today, I noticed that they kept changing the thing's brain in order to calm it until the little connections were worn down. Whoever wrote the script for this movie must have had those movies on the brain. I first Monstrousity (MST3K title: The Atomic Brain) late one night after Elvira's Movie Macabre; the late night horror movie marathon was one of my main staples back then. I saw this movie, liked it, but forgot the title. I've been looking for it ever since. Now thanks to Mike and the Bots, I have this movie back to remind me of how bad and ridiculous it actually is. It has a narrator who drones on tediously as if it were a documentary, an old lady who paws the other actresses as if she thinks the movie is real herself and one actress who has to act like she has the brain of a cat. I mean, the little critter's brain must be rattling loose in there like a Spanish maraca. The film is also full of useless Flash Gordon equipment and a lot of pseudo-science hogwash. Thankfully, the movie ends unpredictably, but you just have to ask: "How many actors had to die to make this ?"

In what appears to be a rip-off of Frankenstein, three women, one English, one Austrian and one Mexican, come to a house where an old woman wants to take their brains. That's about as intelligent as the plot gets. Because every other aspect of "Monstrosity" is so idiotic, you start wishing that a big ugly monster would pop out and demolish the whole house. This movie was once shown on "Mystery Science Theater 3000", which is exactly where it belongs, especially since Mike, Servo and Crow have so much fun mocking the English woman's phony accent.

Oh, and the alternate title is "The Atomic Brain", but no one's brain is actually atomic!

I grew up in the pre-Star Wars days and therefore do not demand that every movie be a 50-million dollar, effects laden, all-star extravaganza. If you want that junk, visit the jerks at LucasFilm, Pixar or Disney. Yech! If you also grew up in the pre-1977 era, you will remember that "little movies" were the norm and only rarely did a big, "important" film come along.

You will also remember something called NEIGHBORHOOD THEATERS and DRIVE-IN THEATERS! Unlike today's airplane-hanger movie mausoleums, neighborhood theaters had a box office ticket taker right on the street so that pedestrian traffic could look at posters & stills in the windows and ask the ticket-taker about times and prices. Then you just walked into the attractively furnished lobby, bought popcorn & chocolate and climbed the burgundy-carpeted stairs to the balcony. Et voila!

If you had a heavy date and felt like making out, but didn't have any privacy at home, you simply saw the late show at the drive-in. Here you could relax in your big flashy car with speaker propped in window, food & drinks on glovebox door and hot-shot heater on the trans-hump. Thrillers were especially effective at the drive-in because sitting in a parked car in a dark lot is enough to make anyone a little paranoid about their safety.

So it is in this time and context "Atomic Brain" was made. And it succeeds. It is creepy, atmospheric and at times gross. Perfect for late-night viewing, the entire film has a dream-like quality that makes it easy to believe the impossible is possible.

Sexy actor Bradford Dillman lends his sexy voice to the film's opening narration. If this fascinating, well-delivered soliloquy doesn't get your attention and quickly draw you into the proceedings, you have no imagination whatsoever. Dillman's voice is as sardonic as the script and he seems to relish the cynical editorials he makes on the characters and their motives.

There are many memorable moments in the film, made so by their irony, truth or shock value. One of most subtle comes when Mrs. March subjects her three new-hires to a THOROUGH "medical examination." One of the girls is so offended by this, she immediately gives notice. Unfortunately, she is bound by contract and Mrs. March won't let her break it.

This film is great as the second half of a double-feature with another underrated B film, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die." Get a DVD projector and park your tail-fin convertible in the backyard some night to see how these films played back in the early 1960s. I did and you should, too.

Old, rich and bitter Mrs March enlists the help of mad scientist Dr Frank (no doubt a play on the name Frankenstein) so that her brain can be transplanted into the body of a young woman in order that she can carry on living and keep her wealth to herself. A form of immortality if you like. In the basement of her mansion lies Dr Frank's laboratory, complete with a nuclear reactor (!). Here he is atomically able to re-animate the dead and also carry out brain transplants, sadly none of the latter is shown. One living dead girl has no brain so is considered a harmless zombie. Frank is also able to transplant animal brains into humans, a hideous looking man called Hans with an animal brain stalks the grounds and needs to be chained up. A young woman has a cat's brain, she climbs roofs, hisses and scratches. It is all rather hilarious. Although no explicit nudity is seen the movie does show a fair amount of female flesh, combined with some sexual undertones. We get blatant day for night scenes, and some of the acting is really bad (in particular the girl called Bea, she is meant to be English but her accent is atrocious). The movie ends with a silly but fun twist, and I believe the moral of this story is that money can make a person very sad. The Atomic Brain aka Monstrosity is a bad horror sci-fi movie, no question, but it's a fun one too.

Monstrosity (1963)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

An elderly woman (Marjorie Eaton) funds the scientific projects of Dr. Frank (Frank Gerstle) but it's not out of the kindness of her heart. No, she funds his atomic experiments in hopes that the doctor will be willing to put her brain into the body of a young hot model. You see, she's never known love from a man so she wants to be young again and good looking.

MONSTROSITY, also known under the title of THE ATOMIC BRAIN, is considered by many to be one of the worst films ever made. If you discuss bad movies with people then someone will usually bring this one up but I must admit that I've never really hated this movie because it's really so bad that you can find yourself being entertained by it.

There's really not anything good you can say about this thing. It's cheaply made, which is to be expected but it's clear that the director didn't know how to make, frame or shoot a movie. He certainly wasn't able to tell a story because this thing rarely makes too much sense and takes way too long for its main story to get going. The performances are downright awful and especially those playing the models because their various accents come and go throughout the picture and often times throughout a sentence.

There are some really campy moments including the "cat woman" and there's a hilarious scene where she's trying to catch a mouse. There's also a rather strange factor of having the elderly woman constantly drooling over the young women. Other silly things include every second of the ending, which I certainly won't spoil here but it's quite funny. Obviously, MONSTROSITY isn't meant to be taken serious and it's a poorly made but campy movie.