“Let me die… Let me die…”

This AIP ”decapitation drama” is a surprisingly inventive affair – one in which the old adage “the head rules the heart” is taken literally, to unsettling ends…

Unlike the pulpy nonsense that Sam Z. Arkoff‘s company was so want to churn out through the late 50′s and early 60′s in order to make a quick buck at the Drive-In, Joseph Green‘s “heady” Horror benefits from an noirish, indie vibe that helps to distinguish it from other “brainsploitation” B Movies from the period – The Braineaters is fun, for instance, but fundamentally throwaway. The Brain that Wouldn’t Die, on the other hand, is genuinely creepy and hard to forget in a hurry…

Dr Bill (Jason Evers) is a young(ish) brilliant doctor obsessively working away on illicit transplant experiments. But when his poor fiancee, Jan (Virginia Leith) quite literally loses her head in a rather daftly done motor accident sequence, and when most normal people would call for an ambulance, he takes her noggins home, reanimates it in a liquid filled tray and sets to work on finding it a new, nubile, body. The problem is, his beau has developed a malevolent telekinetic power, as well as a pact with the deformed-experiment-gone-wrong that’s hidden away in the laboratory cellar, and soon enough the pair begin to plot their horrible revenge on the doctor…

Dr Bill’s driven madness and twisted genius is plain for all to see right from the off, but the manner in which he sets to work finding a new body for Jan relates to his own self interests rather than a quest for scientific advancement, or indeed, the rescue of his damsel. After a spot of kerb crawling, Bill makes his way to a seedy burlesque club and then a Body Beautiful pageant in search of the best possible pair of tits and arse for Jan’s new figure. The lip licking and wistful gazes as he sucks on his cigarettes and contemplates the theft of a body in the strip club are all we need to know that Bill has more than just “cosmetic surgery” on his mind… These impressive, almost Weegee style, low lit, seedy Jazz assisted sequences are what set The Brain that Wouldn’t Die apart from its peers and they highlight a battle between lust, science and eventually even the concept of the corrupted soul that bubbles thematically beneath the surface of Green’s film.

Performances from all involved are of a decent standard, so far as independent productions from the 50s could allow for at least, but Virginia Leith is especially impressive – particularly given she spends practically all of her screen time sat under a table with only her bandaged head on show. Her delivery is excellent; cold, detached (boom boom!) and fuelled by unnerving pathos.

Ok, so the deformed-experiment-gone-wrong, when he eventually bursts out of the cellar to do Jan’s bidding, does look a lot like Sloth from The Goonies, but the Hammer-ific ending, as Leith joyously croaks in flames “I told you to let me die!”, the unusually graphic limb tearing death scene of Kurt, the already withered handed lab assistant, as well as the cheeky remarks that pepper the films cute script (“Oh Bill, every time you touch me I go out of my mind…”) all come together and elevate The Brain that Wouldn’t Die out of the cinematic “trash” can and into the lofty realms of B-Movie-made-good-ness. This is a must see movie and as a Public Domain title, there is simply no excuse if you haven’t done so already…