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Monstrosity: The Atomic Brain
Monstrosity The Atomic Brain
Actors: Judy Bamber, Marjorie Eaton, Margie Fisco, Frank Fowler, Frank Gerstle
Director: Joseph Mascelli
Genres: Horror
NR     2003     1hr 12min


     
5

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Movie Details

Actors: Judy Bamber, Marjorie Eaton, Margie Fisco, Frank Fowler, Frank Gerstle
Director: Joseph Mascelli
Genres: Horror
Sub-Genres: Horror
Studio: Alpha Video
Format: DVD - Black and White
DVD Release Date: 04/15/2003
Original Release Date: 01/01/1964
Theatrical Release Date: 01/01/1964
Release Year: 2003
Run Time: 1hr 12min
Screens: Black and White
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 0
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English
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Movie Reviews

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty! Schlock At Its Best!
Scotman | Mt. Shasta, CA | 11/23/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Atomic Brain: I saw this movie, or rather flipped through it, again, this time from the Alpha Video release. The film is a lot cleaner than the Sci Fi Classics presentation I reviewed before, but the black & white is still pretty washed out.

I can understand why they did not want to go through all that trouble to clean it up, though.

The plot centers around a mad scientist who is experimenting on brains and transplanting them to other bodies by "stimulating the brain cells with an atomic cyclotron". Groovy so far.

He is being supported with lots of money and an illegal lab by an old woman, played by Marjorie Eaton.

She wants the best possible body, so she puts an ad in the paper for someone who is not attached, is an orphan and hopefully someone she can hang something over so they don't squeal. Not a nice gal.

The narrator in this film is a bit annoying but keeps the plot flowing.

Some partial nudity in the beginning with a woman strapped in a standing table, where the straps conveniently hide the good parts.

The women in the piece are a strange lot and so I thought the heroine of the piece might have a listing in IMDB. I could not find Lisa Lang in here. Perhaps she quit acting after this.

The movie is so convoluted and poor that the video disc had the entire plot written on its cover: rich old lady hires mad scientist; he doesn't like her; puts her brain in a CAT. WOW>

-----------------------------------------------------Trivia: ----------------------------------------

Dr. Frank is played by Frank Gerstle, a character actor who has appeared in one or two things throughout his career, such as McHale's Navy, Gomer Pyle, USMC.

The crazy old lady was masterfully played by Marjorie Eaton, who has played in bit parts in such filmography as Zombies of Mora Tau (1957), One Step Beyond and even Mary Poppins! Mary Poppins (Disney Gold Classic Collection)

Directed by Joseph Mascelli, his only directorial film, thank the gods.

Per IMDB he is best known as a cinematographer on:

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964) (director of photography)
... aka Diabolical Dr. Voodoo
... aka The Incredibly Mixed Up Zombie
... aka The Incredibly Strange Creature: Or Why I Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-up Zombie (USA)
... aka The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

Judy Bamber, the sexy blonde in the piece, was apparently her last film. She's played in such TV classics as Peter Gunn, Hawaiian Eye and The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis. She even appeared in a Roger Corman film, the comedy-horror piece, Bucket of Blood! A Bucket of Blood
"
Dogmen And Catwomen And Hags, Oh My!
Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein | under the rubble | 05/13/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Atomic Brain" is a masterpiece! Pure schlock, held together by cheesey glue! A mad scientist (Frank Gerstle) is experimenting with brain transplants in the basement of his aged female benefactor. Dr. Frank's been robbing graves, with the help of the "dogman" he's created, in order to find fresh, 60s style centerfold model-type, bimbette bodies for his experiments. You see, he's working on a brain transplant that will enable the old lady upstairs to "die" and inherit her own fortune, in the body of a young bodacious babe! Dr. Frank has already turned one girl into a mindless zombie who roams around aimlessly, until she stumbles into the dogman and becomes puppy chow. Then, three girls are tricked into coming to the house for (fake) housekeeper interviews. One is given the brain of a cat. Unfortunately, she climbs up on the roof and won't come down! The old hag has her eye on the blond bombshell of the three. Sadly, blondie gets her eye knocked out by cat girl. So, the third woman is selected as the body for the crazy old bat's cranial goo. BTW, the Dr.s experimants are all being done by dunking folks into some tub of radioactive slime. I won't give away the ending. Let's just say it's purrrrrfect..."
A true Montrosity
S. B. Dupre | Shadowland | 07/08/2003
(1 out of 5 stars)

"According to the dvd case this movie is called "Montrosity, the Atomic Brain". A more apt title might be "Cheesey, More Neked Girls?". One cannot help but notice yon mad scientist has a knack for grabbing great looking female corpse' to display in his "atomic chamber". The reason one cannot help but notice is that the camera is forever going back to pan these lovelies...repeatedly...up and down...again...again...yawn...again...

Usually I have a fondness for bad movies but they gotta have some redeeming value. I don't care if it's Jacqueline Lovell wandering around in snow drifts wearing nothing but leather hot pants and a gorilla mask -- SOMETHING to spark an interest in what's going on! Oddly enough, you'd think having the cat's brain put into the girl which naturally freaks her out, would be it's saving grace. Then add to it the dog man chasing her up the...on second thought never mind. Remarkable as it sounds, even after this I couldn't get interested in the thing.

All this sad film has is semi-adequate acting, a thin script, gawd awful makeup for the dog man, and a true longing for Michael Myers to grab Lovells mask and a huge knife, ripping his way through the entire flick putting it and us out of our misery.

Don't even bother renting this stinker. It ain't even worth borrowing."
No Danger of This Ever Becoming a Cult Classic
Only-A-Child | 07/19/2007
(2 out of 5 stars)

"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. Unfortunately the three actresses (none of whom 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."