But The Arrangement Is Pretty Special

I am totally blown away that there is not a standing message for this movie, because it certainly rates it.

This is one of those rare odditites that I can watch again and again and still enjoy time after time. Let's just say it holds a strange fascination for me and that it is greater than the sum of its parts.

Bad movie? No doubt about it. In many areas, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (hereafter referred to as TBTWD), is substandard. The sound recording quality at times is really murky (like it was "recorded in an empty warehouse", as one IMDb commenter described it). It has its continuity errors (witness the gloved hand of the brunette stripper soothing her freshly slapped cheek when in the frames before she had just removed said glove). You can even find a misplaced or twice-read line or two (review Doris' initial conversation with Dr. Bill, re: "the memory").

And of course there is the unbelievable dialog -- particularly between Kurt and Jan-In-The-Pan.

But you put all these things together, glued with that sleazily haunting jazz theme, and you get an addicting little brew.

At this point, I have probably watched this movie in excess of 50 times ---

and still come back for more.

There are so many little things that have struck me over time. I just wanted a place to unload them all, and to see if any of you out there feel the same way about the charms of this "Golden Turkey".

-- What is it that the background singers are verbalizing behind what my wife and I have come to call the "Hunting Theme", the call to sleazemeisters everywhere that plays over the strip club scene? I have seen some who interpret it as the phrase "Dig it!" -- maybe. I personally think they are saying "Gigi" in a hip, syncopated way. My favorite interpretation is "jiggy", but that is a bit anachronistic, wouldn't ya say? Anybody got a different idea?

-- The two ladies who play the strippers in TBTWD, Paula Maurice (the brunette) and Bonnie Sharee (the blonde), have intrigued me to the point that I have tried to find some site on the Internet that has more info on them. They evidently had no other screen experience, and one wonders if they were in fact exotic dancers that Joe Green picked up at local joints in the Tarrytown area. But, alas, I can find nothing. If anyone has a line on bio for these two "actresses", please give me a clue.

-- Having come up in the 50's and had a fixation on the wonderful cars of the last half of the decade, I have loved seeing the 1959 (the year the film was made) makes of Mercury and Ford in this film. Dr. Bill's black (well, it looks black in the movie) convertible Ford is really sweet.

-- For a movie made before the sixties, it really pushes the edge on sexy dialogue. There are some real beauts in it. Love it when Donna (the blonde Dr. Bill picks up on the street) says "I'll take whatever you perscribe." Through less than perfect teeth.

-- Virginia Leith, you gotta love her. Did she go into this with open eyes or what? It is to her credit that even after realizing what she had gotten into, she still gave it her all. What a great head she was. What a great portrayal of bitterness and genteel hostility.

-- Do ya think Eddie Carmel (playing the Pinhead in the Closet) was a little nervous in his big scene? He is noticeably shaking as he removes the little chunk of Dr. Bill's neck and after brief examination, tosses it to the floor. He was great though! Do you suppose he did the voice for the creature as well? Remember the scene where Dr. Bill complies with Kurt's plea to "look in the closet"?

-- One thing ya gotta say about Dr. Bill, he knows how to pick 'em. I personally thought Doris, played by Adele Lamont, was a knockout. Dark eyes and black hair, and a totally swell body! Yesirree.

-- Kurt's dying scene. Incredible! It takes him about two minutes to finally give it up, and he only figures out in the last few seconds that he could get his revenge and give Jan a good poke with his withered hand, but it's all too late. He should have been spurting blood like a lawn sprinkler from his "free" shoulder, but all you get in the atrium is a smudge on the front door. Check it out because when Doris starts wobbling around the set, the camera pans over the door in the exact plane that contains the smudge. And there should have been a pint of blood on the chair she plops down into.

-- The car crash scene is the height of economy. You don't see the car make contact with the guardrail and flip over for a couple of rolls, as it should have, but you see Jason Evers roll down the knoll apparently after-the-fact. Now exactly how, at least in this universe, could this have occured? But I thought the little package of broken glass, twisted metal, and unidentified but organic-looking liquid was quite effective in its cheesy way for portraying the wrecked car.

Well, hey, that's just a little to get us started. There is much more, but I will save it for later posts.

Anybody who would like to respond, I welcome. Are there others out there that are hooked on this like low-budget gem?

Well, let's hear from you!