They Saved Hitler's Brain
by David Bradley
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Audrey Caire, Carlos Rivas, John Holland, Marshall Reed, Walter StockerDirector: David Bradley
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-08-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Rhino Theatrical
Movie Reviews of They Saved Hitler's Brain
Movie Review: So Three Aging Nazis And The Head Of Hitler In A Bell Jar Are Going To Take Over The World?
Summary: 5 Stars
"They Saved Hitler's Brain" is a cinematic travesty made over a decade or so by two different sets of people, starring two different sets of actors. What could possibly go wrong? The basis for the film is the very short 1963 feature "The Madmen of Mandoras", which was apparently shot years earlier and shelved for a while. In the late 1960s (1968 seems the most agreed upon date), some television brain trust wanted to broadcast "The Madmen of Mandoras", but it was too short to fit in a traditional movie time slot. They hired some film school students to shoot additional wraparound footage to boost the running time. The result is one of the most jarring viewing experiences in cinema history, and ranks up there with the very best of Ed Wood or Ray Dennis Steckler for enjoyable camp viewing.
The film opens with the newly shot footage of a smarmy male and a voluptuous female CID agent arguing and engaging in possibly the worst banter in film history. The acting and writing will both make you cringe; the good news is you frequently can't hear what's being said over the loud background music. It seems that the CID is investigating the death of a scientist who was working of the G-Gas project. The dead scientist knew of the antidote, and they discover that Dr. John Coleman, another brilliant scientist, has been kidnapped and taken to the South American country of Mandoras.
The G-Gas plot sort of devolves into a "Wild, Wild World of Batwoman" pursuit of evildoers, with the movie going on to feature crazy Nazis planning to take over the world, Hitler's head in a jar (who the cast refers to as "Mr. H") yelling orders in German, a brain dead kidnapping and murder subplot, lots of stock footage, a supremely annoying and pathetic romance subplot, ridiculously inept car chases, doublecrosses, gunplay, explosions, a fire, and Hitler's head melting. Everything is here but the kitchen sink, and that may be here too, just too grainy and out of focus to see.
For someone who adores nonsensical B-movies, "They Saved Hitler's Brain" is a film to marvel at, and I particularly recommend it as a double feature with "The Thing With Two Heads".
Summary of They Saved Hitler's Brain
Connoisseurs of bad movies rank this execration as an all-time favorite, rivaling Ed Wood's infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space as the worst film of all time. The trouble began in the early 1950s when a film called Madmen of Mandoras was shot and shelved for no mysterious reason at all. The film boasted the great cinematographer, Stanley Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons), whose gorgeously evocative photography makes a startling contrast to the inexplicable plot with which it seems to coexist. But that wasn't bad enough, so in the early 1960s some UCLA film students shot additional footage, somewhat differently styled (think Mod Squad meets cinéma vérité porno), and intercut it with the original film as if the two were meant for each other. The resultant jumble concerns a pair of modish CID agents on the trail of a kidnapped scientist, Nerve Gas-G, an antidote, the resurgence of the Fourth Reich on the Caribbean island of Mandoras, and Hitler's severed head barking orders from a jar. Here are but a few of the absurdities awaiting you: The swastika is backward, one obtuse character has to pull the car over to discover that her partner was shot even though she was present at the event, and when Hitler's head bites the big one, it melts. Critic J. Hoberman, in his seminal article, Bad Movies, observed that this film fairly makes the brain explode with ideas. Not only that, but aneurysms. You'll be screaming, "Mein Kopf! Mein Kopf!" just as Hitler's head should have, if only there had been the budget for that. --Jim GaySimilar DVD Movies
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