Monstrosity (1963)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

We are introduced to Dr. Frank (Frank Gerstle), who is busy transplanting an animal brain into a human body. It's his favorite hobby. We then meet the dog-man, one of Dr. Frank's experiments gone wrong. The two are out gathering corpses for Dr. Frank's laboratory in the basement of a stately mansion. Frank works for an elderly woman named Mrs. March (Marjorie Eaton), who wants him to plop her brain into the head of a beautiful young woman. Three such women have just arrived, answering an ad to work as "housekeepers" for Mrs. March! They have no idea that the old woman has other plans for one of them. What does that mean for the other two? Of course, they should probably have been instantly suspicious upon arrival, when Mrs. March demanded to see them naked! Just what sort of "housekeeper" is she looking for? Madness, murder, and unholy transplants ensue! MONSTROSITY (aka: THE ATOMIC BRAIN) is hyper-schlock as God intended it to be! EXTRA POINTS FOR: The cat-brained-girl, who hisses, growls, eats mice, and goes up on the roof and won't come down! Perrrrfect...

Monstrosity (1963) * 1/2 (out of 4)An elderly woman (Marjorie Eaton) funds the scientific projects of Dr. Frank (Frank Gerstle) but it's not out of the kindness of her heart. No, she funds his atomic experiments in hopes that the doctor will be willing to put her brain into the body of a young hot model. You see, she's never known love from a man so she wants to be young again and good looking.MONSTROSITY, also known under the title of THE ATOMIC BRAIN, is considered by many to be one of the worst films ever made. If you discuss bad movies with people then someone will usually bring this one up but I must admit that I've never really hated this movie because it's really so bad that you can find yourself being entertained by it.There's really not anything good you can say about this thing. It's cheaply made, which is to be expected but it's clear that the director didn't know how to make, frame or shoot a movie. He certainly wasn't able to tell a story because this thing rarely makes too much sense and takes way too long for its main story to get going. The performances are downright awful and especially those playing the models because their various accents come and go throughout the picture and often times throughout a sentence. There are some really campy moments including the "cat woman" and there's a hilarious scene where she's trying to catch a mouse. There's also a rather strange factor of having the elderly woman constantly drooling over the young women. Other silly things include every second of the ending, which I certainly won't spoil here but it's quite funny. Obviously, MONSTROSITY isn't meant to be taken serious and it's a poorly made but campy movie.

This horror about electrical vibrations is clumsy, derisory and boring, _unendearing. THE ATOMIC BRAIN, directed by Mascelli, scored by Kauer, and played by Erika Peters, Judy Bamber and Lisa Lang, whose names alone should suffice to recommend a movie, a ghoulish script mixing radioactivity and body—snatching, crazy science and stern warnings …. Warm—hearted fun masquerading as a warning, absolutely dis-respectable as to the required movie craft. Curious about how could one use a cyclotron for transplanting human brains? It begins in full Gothic—with a body—snatching …. It has a certain sense of the necessary elements of such a grim tale (the crazy scientist; the villain—here, an old lady; the graveyard; the mutants; the murders; the corpses; the creepy mansion; the senile gigolo)—all, to derisory, risible results. A rich old broad finances the researches of an encyclopedic scientist, _atomist and biologist at once, one of those marvelously learned people blessed with complete scientific and technological autonomy, by their own efforts towards an all—encompassing knowledge, who uses the cyclotron to transplant animal organs on stolen human corpses, in order to find a method of securing the rich hag with a new human body as a host for her old brain. She finances him to experiment; to steal girl corpses and transplant on them various animal organs. The flick is made _charmlessly and clumsily, though with some attempts at cinematographic ingeniousness and as a matter of fact, a bit better paced than other Z horrors of the age. At least it has some tones and suggestions of timid _sexploitation. Not that it might pervert your children. Be merry!

"An elderly woman has invested a fortune on a scientist's research which, if successful, will allow him to transfer her brain into the body of a young woman. Needing a host body for her brain and subjects to experiment upon, the elderly woman advertises for a housekeeper in hopes of securing what the scientist needs, human guinea pigs. Three unlucky women are selected by the elderly woman as the choices and are unaware of the true motives behind their employment…" according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Re-titled "The Atomic Brain", the toothy "Monstrosity" referred to in the title is the fusion of a "live dog to a dead human body." He is the one of the mistakes mad doctor Frank Gerstle (as Otto Frank) has made. The body-snatching doctor is funded by haggish, but wealthy Marjorie Eaton (as Hetty March). The elderly Ms. Eaton wants her brain transplanted into a younger woman's body.Fortunately, Eaton has good taste in the female form - she and gigolo Frank Fowler (as Victor) help arrange for the arrival of three fresh young female bodies: enticing Erika Peters (as Nina Rhodes), shapely Judy Bamber (as Beatrice Mullins), and lovely Lisa Lang (as Anita Gonzalez). Described as "firm and nicely-rounded," Otto's Angels think they've been hired as servants… If you like good bad movies, by all means, check out this "Monstrosity"; it sinks quickly into awful, but slowly rises up the "so-bad-it's-good" meter. In his only directorial credit, James Mascelli gets in some nice shots, for the budget. The young women are fun to watch - all, coincidently, have "Monstrosity" as their last acting credit. There is a strong erotic undercurrent - think of petting pretty, brain-dead women in captivity...**** Monstrosity (1964) James Mascelli ~ Marjorie Eaton, Frank Gerstle, Erika Peters