Movie: (1959) When a doctor’s fiancee is decapitated, he keeps her head alive in his laboratory and tries to find her a new body.
First shown: 10/30/93
Opening: Mike’s been in training for his first movie
Invention exchange: Mike presents the gutter-bumber-shoot, The Mads demonstrate the dream buster
Host segment 1: Mike tries to get control of the SOL, but nothing doing (that’s not cheese!)
Host segment 2: M&tB first project together: designing hats for Jan in the pan
Host segment 3: Mike, Crow and Tom discuss the movie’s hateful message; Mike shares an embarrassing moment from his past
End: A visit from Jan on the Hexfield; Dr. F. is inspired!
Stinger: “Who’s to tell me to blow if I don’t want to?”
(201 votes, average: 4.47 out of 5)
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• A fair-to-good first show for Mike. Horrible movie, great riffing, but many many changes to the forumla.
• This was one of the two episodes that was first released as singles by Rhino, in April of 2000, their first two MST3K titles.
• References.
• I spent most of October 30, 1993, in Edina, Minn., at the home of a very nice lady named Debbie Tobin, with a lot of oddly dressed people I’d never met before. Thereby hangs a tale.
For the previous two Thanksgivings, Comedy Central had paid Best Brains to create short film segments — called “bumpers” in showbiz lingo — that would link one episode to another in its annual “turkey day” marathon. But in 1993, for reasons that will never be understood, I guess, Comedy Central asked BBI to make the bumpers for free. BBI told CC to pound sand. So, CC was forced to look elsewhere for its bumpers.
Now, at the same time, Debbie, who was a regular poster at MST3K bulletin board on the Prodigy online service, had announced she was throwing a Halloween costume party on the day of Mike’s first episode. Somebody at CC saw her posting and asked her if they could send a video crew to film it and make bumpers out of the footage. Debbie agreed, and was (wisely) told to keep it a secret, and most of the people who showed up had no idea the camera crew was going to be there.
Thus on the appointed day I, and about 35 jolly people from all over the country, were in Debbie’s house, in costume. It was the first time Erhardt and I had met, and there were a couple of other people there who I’m still good friends with all these years later.
(And let me just take time out from this story to say that if you were there at MSTieween, please drop me a line and let me know how your life is going.)
We managed to finish up filming just before 5 p.m. local time, when this episode was to debut. Shouting “movie sign!!” we rushed to the basement and the den, where TVs were set up so we could watch. And that’s where I was when the Mike era began.
• There is a LOT to take in here, right off the bat. New theme song lyrics, a new theme song singer, a new robot roll call and a new door sequence, all in about two minutes. It was breathtaking at the time.
• One of the new doors in the door sequence looks vaguely like a pizza. This was a cute reference to the fact that many fans claimed that one of the Joel-era doors made a sound that sounded like somebody saying “pizza!”
• According to BBI, Gypsy says “I’m not ready!” It sounds to me like “Hi from me!”
• Crow and Tom have been “training” Mike using “The Beast of Yucca Flat” [sic]. I think this is only the second time they mention a movie that they would later riff — the other one being “Marooned.” There’s also a mention of “Night of the Lepus,” a movie they SHOULD have riffed.
• Is Tom wearing a Temple University cap? Sure looks like their “T.”
• Right out of the box, Mike is intentionally different from Joel. In an interview that I did with Jim at about this time, he said (I’m paraphrasing from memory here) “I never quite understood why Joel’s character is so polite and deferential to the Mads. They trapped him in space! Why is he being nice to them?” Thus we have an immediately rebellious Mike, who scoffs at being expected to “hop to.” Radical!
• I love the use of the “Flint phone” sound effect with Dr. F’s invention. The world would later hear it in the Austin Powers movies too.
• Another great “Mike as newbie” moment comes when moviesign arrives — and Mike has no idea what to do. He then fails to carry a humiliated Tom into the theater. Crow explicitly mentions the air grate.
• Segment 1 is our first real taste of interaction between Mike and bots. They seem to be getting along okay, but it’s clear the bots have abandonment issues. Can bots have “issues”?
• I gotta say that this movie is pretty harsh for Mike’s first experiment. It is easily the most misogynist movie they ever did (and that’s saying something). The scene where our “hero” goes trolling for bodies is particularly dark.
• Callback: “Back to the ‘Unearthly’ set.” “Mitchell!!”
• At one point, Tom says: “Not with RADAR!” Huh? We won’t get “Radar Secret Service” for seven episodes. Is it a reference to that? Had the Brains already seen it as part of the selection process? Maybe that was a riff that came from Frank, the previewer.
• Segment 2 is fun, a bit a throwback to season 3, when Joel was forever giving the bots assignments and projects.
• Mike is still wearing the lazy susan hat when when they re-enter the theater.
• Tom does a little Flash Bazbo.
• Segment 3 seizes another opportunity have fun at the new guy’s expense, but also has some wonderful assessments of the movie.
• Great running gag in this one: AHH! I’M IN ANOTHER DIMENSION!!
• Cast and crew roundup: Just one item this time: Makeup man George Fiala also worked on “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.”
• CreditsWatch: Joel’s name comes off the “art direction” credit, leaving Trace and Jef. Skyline Displays Inc. (the company that offered them the space that would become their studio) comes out of the “Special Thanks” credit, as does the credit for Mark Gilbertson. The “Executive Producers: Jim Mallon, Joel Hodgson” credit comes out completely. David Sussman is added to the list of writers for the rest of the season. Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. For the rest of the season, the theme song credit says: lyrics: “The Brains.” Jim Mallon is back in the list of contributing writers (his name was removed in last week’s credits) and will be for the rest of the season. And of course that’s Mary Jo, hilariously depicting Jan in the pan.
• Fave riff: “Hahahaha…have you seen Frankenhooker?” Honorable mentions: “…with a Milwaukee Sawzall.” “If Jack Ruby owned a Denny’s.”
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For a short while, Joe R. Lansdale (one of my favorite writers) wrote a column called Trash Theater for Cemetery Dance magazine in which he reviewed/celebrated/tore down old B-movies. He watched this film as a double feature with an Elvis movie. Lansdale imagined Elvis as the main character of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, strolling Vegas for replacement bodies. But in his re-envisioning, The King, being the practical guy he was, would have just tossed the superfluous head and kept the body alive for…extra curricular activities.
Just wanted to share. This is my first ever post, by the way. Love the site.
My favorite comment in this episode is:
“Contestant number three slipped, and her head fell off.”
“I’ll take her! I’ll take her!”
I didn’t forget Paul, I was just limiting the list to characters who’d changed roles over the years and the people they handed off to. (Although I forgot Gypsy’s voice actors. Mea Culpa. :) )
nonlocal #38 – Cool info. So, am I right that you’re saying that the personal change was really just a “scapegoat” for the several facelifts the show experienced at about the same time? Wild!
Personally, I’m against the whole storyline idea for a show like this because instead of having the entire slate clean, you start with a list of requirements for each show. This is especially noticable when comparing the first “full length” segment of any show from season 4 to any show in season 9. In season 4 Joel was free to do inventions that made whatever statement he wanted and the Mads rebutted in kind. But in season 9 we got Pearl, Bobo, and brain guy in Greece, then in space which took them from the confines of Deep 13 and gave them a much bigger space that they HAD to fill.
Watching it again right now. It’s magnificent, gets better each time I see it.
RPG ( #16 ) re Meow. I just flipped over the DVD and watched the strip club scene from the un-MSTed version and the ‘meow’ is there on the original, yes of course as a reference to the cat fight. Which leads me to opine as follows :
As heinous as this film is in its philosophy and execution, it was made by sentient beings. It’s no Tormented, but it does have some thought behind it. The idea that the serum ( neck juice ) gives JitP a pscyhic connection to Closet Boy is non-trivial. Neither was the idea of Jan going just as psycho in her own way as Dr. McCreepy was in his.
The ‘quality’ of the film is part of what makes the whole episode work.
One word:
Ways.
I came to this episode first after, well, season seven was done and I had a healthy dose of Joel and Mike episodes under my belt, so I didn’t have any of the surprises of seeing The New Guy.
It did seem to me that the Bots were trying a little too hard to puff up Mike in the invention exchange, though, insisting the gutter-bumber-shoot as a good idea, a really good idea, really, no for real, much more than the invention really deserves. It smelled of Informing the audience that the new guy was just as clever and funny as Joel rather than trusting that we’d see it ourselves.
Doctor Forrester’s rejoinder about getting over it seemed like it might be undercutting that and making the Bots’ reactions into a joke about how the new cast member gets way too much support in trying to talk the fans into liking him, although it wasn’t, to me, quite strong enough to have effect.
Mike’s little hat party and the Embarrassing Moment were much better ways to get the new guy across sympathetically to the audience. In fact, the Embarrassing Moment may be one of the strongest-conceived sketches they did, even if it isn’t one of the laugh-out-loud funniest. It still starts with a good observation about the movie and builds from that into a comic little bit that also gives the audience some good reasons to sympathize with or like the New Guy. It’s a good job.
“Is it just me, or does Hollywood After Dark feel like an extended version of Brain’s “hunting for suitable bodies” sequence?—thats exactly the feeling I had when i first saw H.A.D.!! thats why i wish FC had continued down that path–SO much better to make fun of BAD films!! Honestly, rifftrax current theme makes no sense to me whatsoever!!
Mike doing invention exchanges was done as a “comfort” bridge from the Joel episodes to the Mike episodes. This is usually done to ease the audience into a different atmosphere. If you listen to Kevin’s Servo voice in the early episodes of the 2nd season on Comedey Central, you will notice that Kevin is trying to sound like J. Elvis’ Servo. You keep some things familiar to bridge over any troubled waters for an audience that might occur when changes are made.
A non-television example of this is when John Romita, Sr. took over the penciling chores on “The Amazing Spider-Man”, with issue #39, for the departed Steve Ditko. He admitted as such in an interview years ago.
By attempting this, you don’t jar the audience– you ease the audience into the newness.
As for their universe-spanning travels before they settled into Castle Forrester, I enjoyed that. I thought it was a good idea and a delightful change from the way it was done previously, which was good, too. It’s understandable that it is easier to have a static set and to bring smaller elements into it rather than having to build new sets and provide costuming for it. It’s easier and cheaper to keep it static/constant. I enjoyed it.
I am among a percentage of people who didn’t start watching the show until Mike was the host, somewhere around the middle season six. So when I actually saw an episode with Joel I originally thought that Mike left and he replaced him, until a friend of mine set me strait. The point is that I didn’t like him as much because I was used to the other guy, maybe that is the same reason so many viewer had trouble with Mike at first because they were simply used to Joel and the fact is they were both outstanding.
I like this one a lot. Dr Head-Preserver looks at a stripper poster and the riff is “this may be an upgrade.”
From the Howard Hughes legend, I believe this is the movie that when it was boardcast on a Nevada channel late at night, Howard Hughes liked it so much he bought the station that night. If I remember right, it, and other B-movies, were broadcasted again and again and again.
About the episode: I thought it wasn’t one of their best but did enjoy the indoctrination of Mike.
The Joel/Mike Debate: People like what they like. I like them both. Their shows had different tones but that’s what fit each best, and fit best for the people pulling the puppet levers. In the end, to me, the riff’s the thing and all throughout they had that swing!
One– singular sensation, that’s what Mystery Science Theater was ! One– wonderful program, that’s what we had for 10 yeaaaaaaaaaaaaars!
Sampo, you pointed out that they mentioned “Night of the Lepus”, a movie they should have riffed.
Maybe that would be a good idea for a weekend thread – movies that were mentioned on the show, and should’ve been riffed. I haven’t thought about how many of those there might be.
Favorite riff: “Listen lady, I’ve got my girfriend’s head at home in a lasagna pan. I’ve seen it all.” Trace always seemed to get the best line in every movie.
I started watching this show during the Sci-Fi years and originally liked Bill’s Crow the best. It is fun to start near the end and work backwards since it is easier to appreciate what came before than it is to accept the new guy(s). I still prefer Pearl, Bobo and Observer to the “mads” but really love Trace as Crow and Frank in CT. I’m glad I came accross it the way I did as I am a loyalist and resistant to change. I would have missed out on a lot. And yes, I can definitly see, as Ralph C. said, Kevin doing a Josh impersonation on his early episodes.
Here are a few other “future episode” references, as I call them for your consideration:
20: The Last Chase
[ 3m ] Crow: He’s turning into a werewolf!
Servo: He’s turning into Michael Landon!
809: I Was A Teenage Werewolf
112: Untamed Youth
[ 4m ] Joel: I guess we’d best be going too, huh?
Crow: Yeah, let’s get real gone.
Servo: Let’s mosey, Daddy-O.
Possible 307, or they might just be using beatnik lingo.
304: Gamera vs. Barugon
[ 1m ] Joel: Hi, I’m dangerous to myself and others!
Song in 406: Attack of the Giant Leeches
And one of about 8 different references to El Santo prior to ever meeting him in 624:
410: Hercules Against the Moon Men
[ 1m ] Joel: It’s a vision of a Mexican wrestler…
Crow: (as Spanish cop) El Santo, I’m glad you’re here!
I do think they only directly mention the name of a future movie 3 or 4 times though.
Ah, SCG – you just beat me to the El Santo references.
SGC, I mean.
“Had Joel stayed longer than he did, MST still would’ve been cancelled when Herzog got his oily little rat paws on it, and Joel still would have bailed; no way would he have agreed to the changes requested by SciFi.”
That’s assuming they still would have went with SciFi. We don’t really know details on what the other networks were offering. Just that SciFi had more money to offer apparently.
“There’s also a mention of ‘Night of the Lepus,’ a movie they SHOULD have riffed.”
Which reminds me ……….. Can we Mysties have a list of all or most of the movies that MST3K watched as options for MST3K experiments but weren’t chosen? That would be soooooo great … for the Mysties, of course…
This is one of my less favorite episodes. While the riffing is pretty decent, it can’t fully compensate for the icky veneer of sleaze that the movie has. I also thought that most of the host segments were pretty bland.
Although I’ll always slightly prefer Joel, and saw 2 good handfuls of his eps via the MSTHour before my first Mike, I never disliked Mike as a host. Heck, my fondest stretch of the show will always be getting to see season 8 in order the year I started college. But for some reason, whereas Mitchell always leaves me with a great sense of satisfaction at seeing the torch passed to a bold new era, this experiment always depresses the hell out of me. Must be that I can feel the intangible vaccuum left by Joel’s departure. Or maybe it is the movie itself.
One of those PD-DVD multipacks describes ‘The Brain the Wouldn’t Die’ as surprisingly gory for it’s time, but it hadn’t occured to me until I read it here that it was likely one of the goriest experiments the bots ever tackled. On my last day of college, my ‘Critiqueing the Mass Media’ professor had us watch this ep, and several girls in the front expressed their disgust when the good doctor got his neck ripped open at the end.
Ah, that was a great class. Being at Central Michigan University, the riff “A night on the town in Escanaba Michigan!” naturally got the biggest response, equalled only by, “Luke, join me or you’ll star in Corvette Summer…”. Mike’s armchair quip was probably the best, though.
Mike had to fill some pretty huge shoes, and he did a tremendous job with this one; all the riffing is top notch, and the host segments benefited from the story arc. Also, thank goodness the writers played on differences in Joel and Mike’s riffing style off the bat. If I was a MSTie back then, it would’ve made me appreciate the Joel era and the future Mike era even more.
@ fireballil: Yes, director Frank Henenlotter said he was very influenced by The Brain That Wouldn’t Die. He even put that little brain with the eyeball thingie shown in Brain‘s posters into the movie. BTW, would anybody else show a date Frankenhooker over Brain, despite the nudity and exploding prostitutes?
My favorite line – “Neck juice.” That’s classic.
Ya know, Nick (#72), neither of those movies strike me as “date films”. Maybe as the second half of a double feature at the drive-in, but then, in that case, it really doesn’t matter what’s on the screen.
Useless movie trivia:
=Jerry Lewis look-a-like Sammy Petrillo plays one of the photographers. He did it as a favor to the producer and it’s the only film he appeared in that he wasn’t the star of.
=The producer of this film later committed suicide.
=”Frankenhooker” director Frank Hennenlotter paid tribute to “Brain That Wouldn’t Die” by casting Dr. Sleazy himself, Jason “Herb” Evers (or Herb “Jason” Evers, your choice), in “Basket Case 2”.
I like how they tweaked every mainstay of the show to reflect Mike’s newness, from not carrying Tom in (the season one episode that mentions the “heating grid” is “Robot Holocaust”) to reading the letters (“None of these are for me.”) I like the ongoing subtle theme that Servo and Mike hit it off but Crow resents Mike and misses Joel. I think this is really evident in the host segments of 515 (“Can we talk about ‘Mitchell’?”)
Zee: Ah, okay, I haven’t seen that one all the way through. I thought it was a season one ep.
I love both hosts, but I relate to Mike’s dry sense of humor a little more than Joel’s whimsy. This is all moot anyway because I usually skip the host segments and just watch the theater portions.
I love the “trapped in another dimension” and it’s great how it builds to the monster being trapped there as well.
Also, to #48:
“Anybody know if any of the bumpers from that Turkey Day are online?”
=======================
They’re available for download via the Digital Archive Project’s tracker, so if you’re hip to torrents you can go register and download them.
Skyroniter also has all of them on DVD.
I think segment 3 really, more than any of the other segments in this episode, pretty firmly establishes the type of relationship Mike and the bots will have for the rest of the series. Mike reveals a personal moment, and the bots jump on him for it.
I’m not touching the J v. M debate with a 10-foot pole. I like ’em both. Fav riff:
Creepy Doc “Being a surgeon is more than just a carpenter to patch walls or a plumber to drain pipes…”
Crow “Or a muffin baker to bake muffins!” I love it.
Does anyone know why Tom is wearing what looks to be a Texas Rangers baseball cap (other than T for Tom)?
Every time they showed Jan in the Pan in closeup, her lips hovered in the general vicinity of Tom’s head. I was always afraid that she would bite Tom’s head off after a really nasty riff. I wonder if it’s one of Tom’s worst nightmares?
We get one Wizard of Oz reference:
Lab Assistant: “She had a heart, and a brain.”
Tom, speaking like the Cowardly Lion: “And da noive.”
Favorite riff:
Mike: “I guess you could call it a farewell to arm.”
Strong episode for Mike right off the bat. And Trace has some awesome moments, too. I love the goofy voice he puts on during the drugged drink sequence where Crow says, “I LOOOOOVE dis place!” Never fails to crack me up. And the “family heirloom” followup tops it beautifully.
Oh, and:
WAYS.
This is probably one of my favorite episodes. The host segments are kind of clunky (understandable, with a new host and all) but I find the riffing to be particularly strong, especially in the first 10 minutes. Lines like, “You didn’t do magic!” and “He’s only MOSTLY dead!” make me laugh every time.
This episode also has one of my favorite riffs/catchphrases of the entire series: “Well, at least you don’t have delusions of grandeur or anything.” Sadly, I’ve had so many occasions to use it in my everyday life that I’d forgotten where it came from.
To this day, I still wonder why BB chose this movie to start the Mike era off with. This film is disgusting on so many levels…at least “Manos” kept the idea of death on a more palatable level. This movie’s main character, the arrogant genius who thinks he can re-write the laws of science, is someone you just wanna beat over the head with one of his pans he keeps his fiance’s head on. Gross as it was, the sight of him getting his neck chewed out was particularly gratifying…in a very primeval way.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, overall Mike did a very good job with what he had. No one has mentioned this yet, but after Segment 3 is over and they’re back in the theater, Servo whispers to Mike, “Welcome aboard!” Something told me then and there we’d see more of Mike and this show for years to come, even with impending cancellation rumors and the like. Thankfully I was right.
Lots of changes here of course as it’s the first Mike episode, but it’s not a solid outing for the first one. I think it might’ve been better if Teenage Strangler, Alien from LA or Outlaw could’ve been the debut. Again, it’s another dark movie with no real redeeming qualities and thus they don’t have a lot to work with here. Still, this episode didn’t turn me off the series or into a “Mike-hater”. I remember at the time deciding I’d give it the rest of the season to see how things worked out. I’m glad I did, as Mike turned out to be a great replacement for Joel, and while Joel was more likable, Mike was a better actor.
This is strange – on my copy of this (Digital Archive version), throughout all the theater parts, there’s some strange ‘line’ along the left side of the screen silhouetted on the shadowrama… what is that?
My favorite riff in this movie is during the long run to get the head to the pan after the wreck when Mike says: “He’s at the forty, he’s at the twenty, he could go all the way.” Just priceless what with the doctor carrying his fiancee’s head like a football.
uranium it could possibly be the outline of the comedy central logo? maybe i don’t know.
Ya know there is something different about this episode. I just can’t quite place what it is.
A cute little throw away in the opening is when Tom delivers Joel’s “we’ll be right back” and Mike quizzically asks, “Is that my line” and Tom counters with “don’t push it.” Yup, the Bots lets us know right away they don’t intend to let the new guy be in charge.
It is cool the way Mike doesn’t answer the Mad’s call immediately. “Let them wait.” Then he runs his fingers along the buttons. Reminds me a bit of the Star Trek The Next Generation episode “The Ensigns of Command.” Picard had been cut off numerous times when trying to talk to the Sheliak only to have them “hang up” on them and refuse to answer the hails. Near the end of the episode the tables are turned and the Sheliak want to talk to Picard so he is able to hang up on them. He casually walks around the bridge and inspects/dusts the ships commissioning plaque which Mike appears to be aping here before he finally answers the hail of the Sheliak. Since that TNG episode predates this MST episode that action could very well have been stolen.
I’m not sure what to make of the Bot’s patronizing tone as Mike presents the gutter bumper shoot.
Clayton does a callback to himself with the line “it would take a scientist to explain it” during his invention exchange. This same line was used for the slinky train body invention in 202 Sidehackers. Only that time the quote was “It’s much too complicated. It would take a scientist to explain it and I’m simply too mad.”
Okay that Kurt death scene strings out longer than the driving scenes in Manos.
I didn’t remember that Crow spoke the signature Joel line “what do you think sirs” in this episode. I love that line and have the catch phrase t-shirt.
Over all not the best riffing. I only came up with three favorite riffs. Can’t really blame that on the new host. After all the writing room is virtually the same as before. I doubt Joel penned all my favorite riffs.
Favorite Riffs:
[My first favorite Mike riff] A patient dies on the operating table at the movie’s opening. Mike “well, throw him on the pile.”
Dr. Cortner about the dead patient “Now Dad do I have permission to take over and do things my way?” Crow “Ah have at him. We’ll make it a closed casket.”
Jan in the Pan “Hit it again.” All cheer “harder, harder.”
I have seen this episode several times and it never really had any special vibe for me. Sure it was and is really funny and a very memorable episode but no single part stuck with me. Until my last viewing. I was at the doctor’s office a week after i last watched the ep, and sitting in the waiting room several questions popped in my pointy head. ‘what’s taking so long?’ ‘how much is my copay again?’ ‘ what is the deal with that chicks eye?’ and finally ‘ what would the patients of doctor porno think about his odd habits and his buddies ‘lefty’ and ‘zippy?’ time passed and i was soon in the doctors office. i was thinking quietly as he furiously scribbled things in my file, when i glanced up at him and wondered ‘Just what kind of sick games are you into you twisted, old fruit?’ to this day, i’m not sure if i said that aloud or to myself, i do remember him glancing up at me and writing more stuff in my file.
Great start for Mike!….Lots of great riffs here. The film is kinda icky on how it portrays women. I am guessing that’s just how was back then. The guy that plays the closet monster, Eddie Carmel, this is one of two films he appeared in.
Now most mad scientists tend to share several common traits. However, I get a particularly strong Herbert West vibe from Dr. Cortner, what with his chemical-based techniques in animating independent body parts.
I’m guessing none of the Brains had actually seen Beast of Yucca Flats when they wrote this episode. I can certainly accept arguments that Brain that Wouldn’t Die is the more painful experience. But claiming that Beast is a cakewalk in comparison is a laughably naive statement.
Was it just me, or was someone else doing Jan’s voice when they were in the car? She sounded to me as if her voice was at a higher-pitch than normal.
This has always been one of my very favourite episodes, perhaps because it was one of the very first I saw. Of course, the movie is repulsive (and it only gets worse with repeat viewings), but our stereotypical mad scientist’s expressions and mannerisms are hilarious.
I like Mike every bit as much as I like Joel. (And thinking about the endless debate related to the two I’m reminded of a great line from the show: “you see, crackers and hicks can get along.”)
Favourite riff: “I just thought about what I did, that was really gross.”
>>>>“I never quite understood why Joel’s character is so polite and deferential to the Mads. They trapped him in space! Why is he being nice to them?”
Uh, because he’s just a naturally nice guy who’s instinctively polite unless he’s in a bad mood?
Plus there’s the whole electric shock/control his oxygen/etc thing.
I’m not sure I see how this movie is any more repulsive than any number of other horror movies involving mad sciencetriness.
I thought the deal was that he only used DEAD parts (which goes back to “Frankenstein” and maybe further) until he wanted a living body for Jan (live head + dead body = ENNH wrong answer). At least he only wanted to kill ONE person, so he wasn’t an aspiring SERIAL killer.
It could’ve been way worse, is what I’m saying.
#27 Any halfway reasonable person would’ve dumped Jan in the pan for one of the whole women with half a brain.
How many halfway reasonable people get engaged to begin with? ;-)
Of course, it’s debatable whether Dr. Bill was motivated by love for Jan or by the desire to carry out his experiment. Probably some of both, plus guilt that he was driving so recklessly. Meanwhile, Jan mentally encourages (or whatever) the patchwork guy to kill the man she supposedly LOVES in order to save the life of a TOTAL STRANGER. Gee, Jan, if you hate your body-less existence so much, why don’t you just get patchwork guy to outright kill YOU (instead of leaving you to die in a fire) and Bill will have no REASON to want to kill the total stranger? Well, Jan had a lot on her mind, I guess.
So, at the end, the patchwork guy walks off with the unconscious scarred woman in his arms. A sequel-ready open ending if I ever saw one.
While not the first disembodied head movie, and not the last, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is undoubtedly the most offbeat and entertaining of its ilk. Filmed in thirteen days in 1959 (but not released until 1962 by American International Pictures), the New York lensed movie remains a treasured guilty pleasure for many a Horror/SF aficionado. “Heading” up the cast was actress Virginia Leith, a dark haired beauty born on October 15, 1932 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. After her parents moved the family to Los Angeles she met director Stanley Kubrick, who cast her in Fear and Desire (1953). Following a stint as a fashion model, Leith signed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox, for whom she did several pictures.
Favorite lines:
[Body on operating table] Just a normal Tuesday for Cher.
I’m gonna go get my Eggo out of the toaster oven, anybody want one?
License plate, a boot, tricycle wheel—this man was a bottom feeder.
He’s got a canvas skull. A heavy rain would kill him.
[Darth Vader voice] Luke, join me or you’ll star in Corvette Summer.
Come on, give me the keys to the morgue, Dad.
Sylvia Plath, RN.
You’ll enjoy the tight suspension of the Mercury Comet.
Diarrhea is like a storm raging inside you…well he shouldn’t have eaten at Jack in the Box.
He’s either going to win the Nobel Prize or the Heisman Trophy.
This will give my Pinot Noir the tawny nose I’ve been looking for.
They saved Sister Bertrille’s brain.
She won’t be able to do any heavy lifting for a while.
“…like my arm, withered and deformed.” His left hand is pretty bad too.
“Keep it locked!” And keep the litter box clean.
[of cardboard cutout of stripper] It’s nice and all, but I want something sleazy.
If Jack Ruby owned a Denny’s.
Hi, I’m just curious, what size collar do you wear?
Welcome to the Diane Arbus café. [Note: she photographed Eddie Carmel]
The 1958 Floozy.
“You getting nervous? I’m over 21.” 21, she’s over 41.
Lucy Arnez is back and she’s pissed.
[hookers fighting] Yes, Danny Bonaduce in the fight of his life.
“There is a horror beyond yours and it’s in there.” It’s Pauly Shore.
“That’s what he’s been doing up here, where no one could see his work.” That and whoring at the Moulin Rouge.
[Body Beautiful Contest] It sounds like there’s a horse in there. He’s the discriminating shopper. Contestant #3 slipped and her head fell off—I’ll take her, I’ll take her.
“I carry the memory around with me.” That’s the last time I get in a car with Monty Cliff, I’ll tell you that.
“I have been knocked around so many times.” She must have lived with Ike Turner.
“Can your horror match mine?” We’ll find out on Match That Horror.
No, he feeds it Science Diet.
“Kill him.” I can’t he’s tearing my arm off.
“I’ll be right back.” With a Milwaukee Sawzall.
Final Thought: I saw this movie when I was about nine or ten and found it disturbing, as an adult, I know why. I give this one 5 out of 5 stars.
touches no one’s life, then leaves: I find it repulsive because of its portrayal of women (I find Jan incredibly irritating and limited well before she ends up in the pan), although I certainly wouldn’t say it’s more repulsive than other similar movies out there. And overall I find it more cheesy than repulsive. The cheese salvages it.
Okay, I’ve just referred to a character as if she were a character (like a character in a real movie). That’s sad.
# 50
As a Sci-Fi Mistie I’d like to be part of that conversation. I know my own perceptions were formed from the Mike years and looking backward through the MST3K history.
Really, is this movie that bad in regards to being repulsive? i can think of alot of scenes from other movies that give the old gag reflex a work out.
I’m not sure of the length between Mitchell being shown and this one premiering but I always have the impression that it was a length of time between the two. Serendipity being what it is, I first saw MST3k “Amazing Collossal Man” at my paternal grandparents house that inducted me into the MST universe. So it was fitting, that that’s where I was when I first saw Mike’s first episode and the new direction the show would take.
Changes were everywhere. My brother swore off the show in the first five minutes and never came back (the CLOD!!) however, I stayed and am glad I did. Mike isn’t Joel; he’s Mike, and Mike is a very funny guy. I thought the episode, in looking back, was extremely well executed. The soon to be ended Invention Exchange showing how the two humans were different. Segment 1 lamenting the loss of Joel for the fans who were following suit and reminding everyone that Joel, while gone, would never be forgotten. Segment 2: a little nod to the days gone past with another project. Segment 3: as stated by many others, the start of the dynamic between Mike and the bots.
All of that wrapped around a truly warped movie and Mike couldn’t fail. I loved every minute of it and still do. The changes were jarring and the credit of creating the show would forever serve as a reminder of the loss of an important pillar but, I believe Mike, though never would replace Joel, succeeded him beautifully and the next five and a half years would bear witness to that.
Favorite riff of this ep belonged to MIke: He’s at the 40, the 30, he could go all the way!