Atomic Brain

Monstrosity

Cast:

Frank Gerstle is Dr. Otto Frank
Erika Peters is Nina Rhodes
Frank Fowler is Victor
Judy Bamber is Bea Mullins
Marjorie Eaton is Hetty March
Lisa Lang is Anita Gonalez

What the box says:

Inside an evil mansion, a mad scientist and an old woman hire three young women as servants. Grave robbing and forced brain transplants by atomic power add to the, horror, as the three women are chained...to the devil's love lab!

Plot:

We get the omniscient but annoying narrator discussing how science can transplant many different organs. But, what if the brains of the rich could be taken and placed in the young. Wait, I just found another movie that was stolen by Freejack. Scientist Otto Frank steals the bodies of dead girls to transplant an animal brain into it before moving onto a human brain. I sort of lost track how fission is used in the process.

At night, a watchman patrols the cemetery. But, Dr. Frank needs another body. The watchman has a nip to keep the chill off as Dr. Frank breaks into the mausoleum. One of his previous experiments failed creating a slave for him an animal brain in a deformed body, called Hans. Well, Hans kills the silver watchman. Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. The girl’s body is taken to the lab. They arrive at the mansion.

Dr. Frank’s new experiment requires living bodies because of body deterioration. He doesn’t like working for the old hateful crone, Hetty March. This research is what she hopes will land her a young beautiful body to live another lifetime through. Hetty has kept her family and Victor, her boyfriend, dangling for money. She’s looking for more applications for servant women.

Plot specific radio reveals a watchman was killed. Hetty isn’t happy with Dr. Frank for it. But, she isn’t happy with anything in this movie.

Dr. Frank is working in the lab, readying another test. Hetty and Victor watch Dr. Frank prepare the dead girl. Hetty is worried about the police discovering what is going on. Dr. Frank has a self-destruct device rigged to destroy the evidence. The dead girl opens her eyes, but needs a brain. The girl can walk around but that’s it.

Stock footage of a plane landing assails us. Bea, English girl, meets Nina, Swiss girl. They are foreign domesticates. The Spanish Anita meets them. They discover they all work for Hetty March. Victor arrives to take them to the mansion.

Narrator strikes again. Which of the girls will Hetty pick? Victor is biding his time until Hetty swaps brains into a hot body and he’ll have a hot chick. Hetty watches them approach the mansion. Hans spies on the girls. Anita is freaked out and screams.

I'm going to star in Screaming Skull 2: Screamening!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! No one else seems to be bothered by it, though. They are shown their rooms.

Hetty meets them and looks them over. Victor is sent to have Dr. Frank look them over. Dr. Frank has the brain dead girl wandering around his lab. When Dr. Frank arrives, Hetty chews out Victor, again. If this guy wasn’t just there for the money, I’d think he was in a verbally abusive relationship with the old crone.

Anita has a birthmark that would impress Gorbachev. Hetty is disgusted by it, she’s off the list.

Nina wants to leave. Hetty refuses to let her go. Bea isn’t bothered by any of this. She doesn’t mind being prodded by Hetty. Bea isn’t quite the brightest cookie in the toolbox.

Bea is lounging in her room. Victor takes Anita and Nina to their rooms. Anita is taken to a bedroom in the basement. Nina tries the phone. It’s dead, the wires are cut.

Dr. Frank is working in the lab some more where various machines flash, etc… Hans roams outside. Anita awakens and screams. The next morning, Bea and Nina discuss what happened to Anita. Both of them are cleaning. Hetty complains their hands will get stained. She tells them Anita quit. Bea and Nina want to leave too. They will discuss it later. Hetty hobbles away.

If you guessed, Dr. Frank is in his lab, you are the brightest cookie in the toolbox. It looks like he’s dipping giant industrial-sized popsicles.

Hetty calls for Nina and Bea comes for her. Bea is chewed out; she’ll develop ugly muscles… Later, Nina and Bea go to the basement. They check Anita’s room, nothing has been taken. She takes Bea to another room managing to hide before Dr. Frank sees them.

Don't I look academically evil?

Our narrator reveals the last experiment putting a cat’s brain into Anita’s body. Isn’t that what happened to Hans? Bea and Nina plan to escape. Hetty wheels down the hall. Bea and Nina skulk about. Hetty heads to the basement, finds broken door latch. She calls for her servant girls.

In the lab, colored liquids are bubbling. Brain dead girl walks around the room and leaves.

Hetty searches for Bea. Bea and Nina are in the bedroom and locked in there by Hetty.

Victor returns. In the lab, Hetty, Victor, and Dr. Frank watch the cat-brained Anita. She is drinking milk from a bowl. The cat remembers how it hated Hetty. Dr. Frank demonstrates that Anita has the instincts of a cat. She/it catches and eats a mouse.

Blank girl wanders the grounds. Bea and Nina spot her in the gardens. Hans attacks her. Dr. Frank rushes out with his cattle prod. Hans is chained up. Bea and Nina are trapped in the house. Bea will get the keys from Victor. She puts the moves on Victor. Suckin’ face ensues. They make sure Hans is chained up and go outside. While outside, Hetty calls for Victor.

Bea takes a stroll. She finds Anita who’s hissing like a cat. Anita rushes her scratching an eye out. We have a girl with Cat Scratch Fever.

Nina is in the room. She sees Hans outside. Somehow she spots Anita on the roof above her. Nina wants to get her off the roof. Nina gets on the roof and finds the meowing Anita. She runs from Nina. Anita falls off the roof. That’s one cat that won’t come back. Moreso, that’s one cat that didn’t land on her feet.

In the lab, Dr Frank, Hetty, and Victor are all around Bea on a bed. . Bea is unconscious but will be fine. Nina tells them that Anita fell off the roof. They leave Nina behind. Dr. Frank may perform surgery on Bea later. He explains he’s the only doctor in the world capable of transplanting on this scale. But, the medical field has scorned his work, so he works for Hetty.

Bea awakens, discovering she’s blind. Dr. Frank gives the distraught girl a tranquilizer.

The next day, Victor and Hetty are bringing in packages. The plan is to use Nina now.

Nina is planning to escape and take Bea with her.

More narration ensues. Nina models clothes for Hetty. Victor walks in and is sent away. He almost mentions the brain transplant when he learns Hetty will get rid of him.

Victor is getting good and drunk. Nina wants to know what is going on. HE accuses her of being after Hetty’s money. Nina learns she’ll inherit Hetty’s fortune. She asks for his help. He agrees to help her escape if she signs something first. Nina runs off to get Bea.

Hetty is skulking about. Victor gets a gun and gets an ice pick in the back for his trouble.

Nina can’t get Bea to go. She heads back to get Victor and finds him dead. Dr. Frank chloroforms Nina from Hetty’s orders.

Hetty and Nina are on surgical tables beside each other. Hetty talks about how people only wanted her because of her money, not love. Dr. Frank asks why she killed Victor. Hetty is practical and he was a fool.

Dr. Frank gets to work, machines flash and liquids are bubbling. This is place where SCIENCE is at hand.

Nina awakens and Dr. Frank talks with her. She signed a paper making Victor her legal guardian. He congratulates her on becoming wealthy. He ponders what to do with her. Keep her sedated, brain transplant. He reveals that Hetty’s brain is in the body of a cat.

Narrator mentions the irony of Hetty scrounging for food in alleys.

Nina is still tied up when Dr. Frank goes into the atomic chamber for some reason. Hetty cat locks the room. It-she activates the controls bombarding the room with radiation. It kills Dr. Frank. Bea heads to the lab and frees Nina.

Bea tries to get the eye Dr. Frank has specifially grown for her but is electrocuted. The lab is coming apart. Nina rushes out before the mansion explodes. Hetty cat escaped too and will follow Nina.

What I say:

Having the omniscient narrator to explain what is going on kind of drags the movie down. The only way voiceovers could be worse would hear the characters thoughts. David Lynch’s Dune is a prime example of it. But, the narration is even worse when you realize they aren’t saying anything you don’t know. We know the crone wants a new body to put her brain into with the help of her mad scientist from the basement. In the great tradition of a narrator who actually will star in something someday like John Larroquette from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yes 'Saw came out in the 70s unlike Atomic Brain did in the 60s. But, this narrator I was surprised to have heard of in anything else: Bradford Dillman. Who's he you might ask? The star of Joe Dante's Piranha, Swarm, Bug. 3 killer animal movies from the 70s. Quite an accomplishment...

I thought the DVD box mentioning 3 women tied to the devil's love lab was just trying to make the movie sound better than it was. But, the tagline from when the original release is "Chained... to the devil's love lab!" Though not anywhere really near the plot of the movie. It sure sounds awfully racy, doesn't it. I'd be surprised that one of the sexploitation movies out of Europe from the 70s didn't use the tagline itself. It's just too sleazy sounding to be left alone...

Marjorie Eaton has been in movies from Witness to Prosecution, Mary Poppins to Atomic Brain. Granted she didn't have that many roles be they big or small. Well, playing an hateful old crone doesn't seem that hard. Of course, you don't have to be that convincing when you're character is evil. And not the honerable yet tragically noble evil. This is the evil that would drown a sack of kittens for fun or drown a busload of nuns and orphans.

A grown woman acting like a cat is probably the only saving grace for this movie. It is so campy, so off-the-wall, so hilarious. I picture the actress asking for her motivation. The director telling her to hiss and spit like a cat. Scratch and meow. It is hard to be believed unless you see her acting like a cat with your own eyes. We have to assume she claws out the English chick's eyes out. Imagine a scene where we just hear someone screaming and then learn something terrible happened to them in the next scene.

This movie was a chore. How could a movie about bodysnatching, brain transplants, and grown women doing a better cat impression than Julie Newar around Adam West seem drawn out? Well, watch this move to learn for yourself. It barely scraped past the infamous Yuk rating like the little amount of bread stuck to the top of its mouth after eating a peanut butter sandwich. I can understand why it was on MST3K. Actually, I have to think Screaming Skull was better than this. It was at least shorter. Say what you will but Screaming Skull had well screaming skulls. Not one atomic brain in this movie. I would have been happy with just any brain.

We have the tired mad scientist who is better than his more well known colleagues. More than that the scientist who won't be stopped by what he considers the pathetic morals of his "betters." Check. Creepy assistant, guy with animal brain to be pushed around by our scientist. Check. Rich old lady wanting to cheat death, no matter the cost. In fact, I did enjoy when she was talking about how people were only interested in her for her money but after the operation, they will love her. The part about being young and hot but with bukus of money just bypassed her head.

Frank Gerstle has been in a lot of movies in the 50s and 60s. But, just doesn't appear that familiar. I could picture him as a dour(whatever that means) ok grim police detective or mobster. This is a man who worked on more movies than you'd think of. He does have this gruff tough guy appearance. Never made a name for himself other than one of the hordes of unrecognized character actors. This movie would mark his 2nd appearance on MST3K in Atomic Brain, San Francisco International. It is kind of sad he plays this role almost in his sleep. He just wants to continue his work even thought the scientific community has scorned him. We never got the patent-pending Mad Scientist Speech like Tia Carrera's in Merlin. I'm starting to drift at this point and visions of Tia Carrera are starting to dance in my head so that calls for me to bring this review to an end without saying something witty and cunning...

Quotable Dialogue
"The watchman's mind was not on bodysnatchers."
"Those pretty legs of yours will get ugly muscles."
"I'm a doctor. I'll take care of her."
"The stupid girl wasn't just modeling Mrs. March's future wardrobe. But, Mrs. March's future body."
Morals of the Story
Fission is used in medical experimentation.
Foreign nationals have no right to quit their jobs.
Cats instinctively can use thumbs.
Scientists always have a cattleprod handy....