THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE / Rex Carlton Productions - 1962

Welcome everbloody to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon! What a wild one we gots tonite, and, one that Eegah!! and I saw back in '62 at the old Sierra Theater. Neccos were a nickel, which was a great deal, because, there were about 30 of them, and, when you got to a flavor you didn't like, you could fly them like frisbees at your unsuspecting victims! They were even more effective from the balcony!!

What can we say about this super flip flick that hasn't already been covered?.. Well, you might be surprised!

The music is great, sooo sleazy, the best! It's by those two guys in the credits there for 'The Web' theme, by permission of Laurel Records... Nuf said?

Now it's time to bring in our littlest Dungeon helper, Rufus The Gnat! Rufus always pushes the big red 'GO' button on Mondays, and starts our Eariffic Earclip rolling along. Push the button now, Rufus! Here's... THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE!

Jason Evers plays Dr. Bill Cortner, he had his first bit part in a war movie from 1943, GUADALCANAL, and, was in a TV episode of BELIEVE IT OR NOT from 1950. Anywho, check out this photo of the experimental surgery the doc is performing and see if something seems amiss, I'll be back in 30 seconds...

dum de dum... Okay, there's no skull!!

In 1962, I sent in a letter to the letter dept. of FAMOUS MONSTERS and they printed it in issue #22, shown above!! It was a (bad) review of this very movie. Since I have sold my copy, I can't remember the entire content, but, it was a little lengthy. Check it out if you have access to that issue.


Bill ignores the curve sign, crashes his car and then has to pull the severed head of his fiancée off the seat! I could never understand why there wasn't an inquiry by the cops, since he just left the car burning there on the side of the road with a decapitated body in it, and, registered to him!.. Weird.

The doc shows his helper, Kurt, how far his experimentation has advanced. That's Virginia Leith as The Head. Looks like she's got a little gas!

Here's a quote from Kurt, and, from what his hand looks like, makes him an expert on the subject... "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"

Bill takes a peek to check the progress of his latest screw up, and, gags at the sight!!

Bill goes out prowling for bodies. Wait, where's the gal in the poster?!

The doc has it all, good looks, coolness and a new convertible! And, he has a hot tip on a hot body to boot!

Hubba hubba... Adele Lamont... Make Tabonga come unglued! There's a joke there.

I love this shot of Bill, he's kinda impressed by her deadly mental handywork!

Lookit the size of that mitt! The Head sets up Kurt by warning the monster in the closet when to strike thru mental communication!

No doubt about it, the monster, played by Eddie Carmel, was shocking! Reminds me of the twisted-up victims 3 years later in THE CURSE OF THE FLY. Lots of blood, too! Eddie was in one other flick, something called 50,000 B.C. (Before Clothing)! He was an uncanny 7' 6-3/4" tall, wow! Also, Sammy Petrillo is the only actor to not get a credit in this film!

And, finally, Bill gets a taste of his own medicine!

I ended my review in FM with something like... I guess that the lady and the monster went and got married!

And, to top it all off, here's a rare publicity photo from the shoot, must of been a hoot!! I censored it, just to make sure we don't offend.

And, and... Here's a shot of Sammy Petrillo as one of the pervs with a camera (on the right). Another special request insert for Prof. Grewbeard.

And, and, and!.. Since Eegah!! took the time to write out my original review from FM #22 in the comments section, we're going to add it here at the very end of the post. In my original letter I used Herb Ever's name, they changed it to 'hero' when published, out of courtesy to Herb/Jason I suppose! Anyway, here's the entire review from FM #22's letters page, I was 14 years old and had monster fever.

THE PAIN THAT WOULDN"T DIE....

"Yesterday I saw THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN"T DIE. It was the most ridiculous picture since PHANTOM PLANET. The acting was the worst yet, not to mention the unspecial special effects. It was terrible from the start when the leading man saved a man's life by pinching the victim's brain with a pair of tweezers. To get to the victim's brain, he cut & pulled back a layer of skin that was about 100th of an inch thick. I didn't think this was so bad until I realized that he had no skull. It would be awful hard to have facial features without a skull but I guess he was one of the lucky ones. I didn't think the picture could get much worse but I was wrong. When he took the head of the woman he loved from the wreck, it was already cut off for him so that he wouldn't have to go back to the hospital to get a scalpel. Of course his serum kept the head alive. All thru the picture there was a mutilated creature in the closet. Hero was ready to take the body of a woman when the creature broke out. My friends and I cracked up. The creature had the worst make-up job since the pop-eyed men in KILLERS FROM SPACE. The creature took the woman & left after he accidently knocked over some chemicals & started the lab on fire. Hero and the brain were left to die. The creature & the woman most likely got married."

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..