The Brain That Wouldn't Die

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

Alive... without a body... fed by an unspeakable horror from hell!

Dr. Bill Cortner and his fiancée, Jan Compton, are driving to his lab when they get into a horrible car accident. Compton is decapitated. But Cortner is not fazed by this seemingly insurmountable hurdle. His expertise is in transplants, and he is excited to perform the first head transplant. Keeping Compton's head alive in his lab, Cortner plans the groundbreaking yet unorthodox surgery. First, however, he needs a body.

Date of release
1962-02-25
TMDB
4.7 / 10 (150)
Runtime
1h 22m
Genres
Horror, Science Fiction
Director
Joseph Green

Casting

Interesting facts

The Brain That Wouldn't Die is a 1962 American science fiction horror film directed by Joseph Green and starring Jason Evers and Virginia Leith. It was written by Green and Rex Carlton. The film was completed in 1959 under the working title The Black Door but was not theatrically released until May 3, 1962, as a double feature with Invasion of the Star Creatures.

Production

The film was shot independently around Tarrytown, New York, in 1959 under the working title The Black Door. Producer Rex Carlton suggested calling the film I Was a Teenage Brain Surgeon in the style of the similar titles of the time. The title was later changed to The Head That Wouldn't Die. Some prints of the film use both the opening title The Brain That Wouldn't Die and the closing title The Head That Wouldn't Die.

The monster in the closet was played, in his first cinematic role, by Eddie Carmel, a well-known Mandatory Palestine-born circus performer, who worked under the name "The Jewish Giant". He was the subject of a photograph by Diane Arbus, titled "The Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y., 1970".

The main theme, titled "The Web", was composed by Abe Baker and Tony Restaino and was noted for creating a sinister mood.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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