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!!..
I like both Neil Young and those De-evolutioned guys a lot, so when I got my grubby little mitts on "Human Highway" a couple of years ago, I was ecstatic to say the least, and believe me, if you really like music, you'll want to see this movie!
Unfortunately with the recent death, destruction, and upheaval in Japan, anything to do with out of control radiation isn't funny, and even though this film is very anti-nuclear, I just find it kind of distasteful to show the Spud Boys in their glowing jumpsuits right now, so I'll just move on.
The basic storyline is simple enough, Neil Young as Lionel Switch is a mechanic in a garage next to a roadside diner out in the desert somewhere in between L.A. and Vegas near a leaking nuclear power plant! He's joined here by his best pal, Russ Tamblyn as Fred, on his way to work! You will recognize Russ Tamblyn from his "Tom Thumb," "West Side Story," "The War of the Gargantuas," and "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" days! Russ's brother Larry was the singer and organist in that awesome 60's "Dirty Water," "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" band, The Standells!!
The truly amazing Dean Stockwell is Otto Quartz, the guy who inherited the diner from his recently deceased father, Old Otto. Dean Stockwell was "The Boy With The Green Hair" in 1948, "The Werewolf Of Washington" in 1973, Duke Nukem in 9 episodes of "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" in the early 90's, and shortly after that, Admiral Al Calavicci in 97 episodes of "Quantum Leap," and that just scratches the surface. He also co-wrote and co-directed "The Human Highway!"
Otto realizes the diner is a loser and decides to torch it for the insurance money, but in the meantime, he's gotta lay off somebody, because Fred's going to work for him for free! The sign on the door says, "Come In, We're Closed!" The Dinettes are Sally Kirkland as Kathryn(Sally was in a 1965 flick called "13 Beautiful Women" as a 'beautiful woman' and if that ain't enough, Sally is still very active, and has a bunch of stuff in production today), Charlotte Stewart as Charlotte (Charlotte somehow managed to segue from Mary X in "Eraserhead" to 45 episodes of "Little House On The Prairie" as Eva Beadle Simms), and Geraldine Baron("Targets") as Irene! They're joined by the cook named Cracker played by the infamous Dennis Hopper! Dennis had dual roles and also appeared as Stranger! What a cast!!
Along with various license plates, Lionel has his garage decorated with a poster of his musical hero Frankie Fontaine! Lionel believes that he himself, could really be a musician someday if he wanted to!
The luck of the gods brings Frankie Fontaine's limo to Lionel's garage for some emergency repairs, and Lionel is beside himself!!
There is a great exchange between Lionel and Frankie through the car window! The part of Frankie Fontaine "alive and in person" is played by Bernard Shakey, aka Neil Young, and Neil does such a mind-boggling job, I'm still not sure if I believe it's really him! 
The music plays on and is a very cool, but twisted version of "Mr. Soul!"
Fred helps Lionel get situated underneath the limo, and then Lionel knocks himself out with a wrench while he's laying on the creeper removing the drain plug which induces a real shift in the gears of that transmission and.........
............a krazy psych-o-delicatatonic dream where Lionel is a rock star! Hey, this movie is just getting warmed up! Check out the headlines!
Buffalo Springfield, Devo, and Pearl Jam, who else but Neil Young could bridge those kind of gaps?
I admit it, I didn't know completely what the Hell was going on half the time, and especially during the dream sequence, it was just like some kind of a wacky music video!
Cut to Neil and Devo and my favorite part of the whole film, playing an insane 8 minute live version of "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)" with Mark Mothersbaugh as the "Booji Boy" doing the vocals!
I think it just might be one of movie rock and roll's finest moments, and just like everything else in "Human Highway," you can bet your sweet bippy that it's no coincidence that Neil Young is wearing a "Never Mind The Bullocks" tee shirt!
The Spud Boys really kick it up a notch, and give "Hey Hey, My My" a new vitality, and a brilliant combination of new and old!!
I think these three shots epitomize what's going on here, and as far as I know this is the only time that Devo and Neil Young recorded anything together, and it's a good one!!
The dream goes on for 15 or 20 minutes, but Lionel was only out for a few seconds, and when he comes to.........
.......it's time for the big "A Worried Man" whole cast ensemble dance number to usher out the end of the world as we know it, with nuclear weapons! "A Worried Man" was originally recorded by The Kingston Trio in 1962! The Kingston Trio were so popular, they had 5 number one albums, and 14 top ten albums, and I'll bet a lot of them were stashed in fallout shelters!
Last but not least, Frankie Fontaine gives his humble opinion!
I don't know, I guess just put your head between your legs and kiss your ass good-bye! It was fun while it lasted!
