The Brain That Wouldn't Die

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

Runtime: 82 minutes

Directed by: Joseph Green

Starring: Jason Evers, Virginia Leith, Anthony La Penna, Adele Lamont, Bonnie Sharrie

From: AIP

I've known of Virginia Leath's disembodied head on the table for years; about time I finally saw The Brain That Wouldn't Die.

We open with a pair of doctors arguing with each other over a patient dying on the operating table. A few minutes later, we discover they are father & son! The son (Bill) is possessed w/ the desire to reanimate the dead & keeping body parts alive. Wouldn't you know it, he is in a convertible with his fiancee Jan and a lethal crash occurs... well, he saves Jan's decapitated head and revives it on a table. Jan is NOT happy with this arrangement and wishes for her brain to die, but Bill refuses. That is utterly horrifying.

Despite the multiple voices of reason, Bill's quest to find a new body won't be reasoned with. If the viewer didn't already loathe Bill, he not only visits “seedy joints”-one of which has an amazing painting on the wall of clothed dogs sitting upright on chairs drinking beer!-and constantly leers at young ladies to find the right bod, Bill also has a “failed experiment” literally locked in a room, portrayed by giant actor Eddie Carmel.

Of course the movie's outlandish, but in this ghoulish tale, it does comment on the autonomy of a woman-going against his love's desire to die-and other creepy plot points that unfortunately are still relevant in 2026. It's mostly competent in a B-movie fashion while attempting to explain how the mad doctor could medically succeed, while uttering dialogue sometimes more thoughtful than expected, while a jazzy score plays throughout.

Leith was quite sympathetic, and delivered a pretty good performance while we mostly only saw her cranium. The Brain That Wouldn't Die was bloodier, more graphic, and yes, sleazier than expected. Don't let its MST3K status make you automatically think the movie's utter tripe.