MST3K Review

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513 - THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE (RHINO DVD & VHS)

Genre: Low Budget ’60s Horror/Sleaze (1959/1962, B&W)

Don’s Synopsis: Bill is a brain surgeon who legally practices with his Dad, but who also illegally experiments on body parts with his one good arm-ed assistant, Kurt, out at the country house (where the fresh country air and tranquil outdoors really helps facilitate the Mad Scientist experiments). We then meet Bill’s fiancée Jan, body and all still intact, who is going away with him for the weekend. However, first Bill must rush over to the country house due to an urgent message from Kurt. So Bill drives like a madman – oh, that’s right, he’s already is a madman! – to the country house, but he wrecks the car and decapitates his fiancée Jan… and also roasts her body in the process. Bill retrieves her head, takes it back to the lab and puts in a pan of some dark liquid stuff, which somehow not only keeps her head alive, but allows her to talk without either vocal cords or lungs. Now in need of an uncooked body, Bill hits the town looking for a victim, I mean unwitting volunteer, to donate her sleazy body to his fiancée’s head. (And he needs to hurry because the invitations have already been sent, so it’s too late to call off the wedding now!) Bill meets two large strippers – one blonde, the other brunette (I hope their large bodies aren’t too big for Jan’s little head!) – but the scene with them soon devolves into a catfight (not exactly an unexpected development in THIS movie), so Bill moves on. Meanwhile, back at the country lab, Jan-the-Head is making friends with the mutant thing in the closet, while Kurt the Assistant wanders around in circles in the next room. Mad Scientist Bill is still cruising for a body, so he picks up another Blonde and another Brunette, both much smaller than the last two, and takes them to watch a bathing suit contest. While there, the Blonde tells Bill about an acquaintance who is scarred on her face… but who has a hot body. (Wow, she’s perfect!) So Bill dumps these two and hurries over to Miss Hot-Body-Scarface’s place to pick her up. Back at the lab, Jan-the-Head and her freaky closet friend are busy disarming – literally! – Bill’s assistant Kurt, who dies a long and messy death. Bill returns to the country house with his victim – uh, volunteer, that is – in tow. He finds his dead assistant downstairs (note to self: after transplanting head, need to place a “Help Wanted” ad for a new assistant), and then does the first step in his plans to mickey-finn Miss Scarface and cut off her head. But Ugly Freak Closet Guy grabs Bill, who’s stupidly standing directly in front of the closet, and breaks out, killing the Mad Scientist. A fire breaks out in the lab and Ugly Freak Closet Guy carries Miss Scarface to safety, while Jan the fiancée head does an “I told you so” to the dead Bill. (She’s just nag, nag, nag – even when he’s dead!)

Host Segments:

Prologue: Mike’s in training for being on the SOL (training movies that he has watched include Night of the Lepus and Beast of Yucca Flats!)
Segment One (Invention Exchange): Mike invents the “Gutter-Bumber-Shoot” for channeling water from an umbrella; the Mads invent the “Dream Buster” for popping the balloons of a kid (played by Frank) from up to 60 yards away
Segment Two: Mike is trying to escape by overriding control of the SOL, but runs into silly string instead
Segment Three: M&tBs design hats for the disembodied lady in the movie
Segment Four: M&tBs discuss the dark, untrustworthy nature of the movie, so the ’Bots assure Mike that he can trust them with his secrets (but after telling them his secret, he finds out that isn’t the case)
Segment Five (End): No letters for Mike; Jan-in-a-Pan shows up on the Hexfield, a visit which goes well until Mike kills the mood; Dr. F sizes Frank’s head up for putting into a pan

Stinger: One of the potential volunteer/victim women says, “Who’s to tell me to blow, if I don’t want to?”

Don’s Review: This is an awful movie, one of the worst ever made. However, I think it’s a less-than-ideal MST3K feature because this movie really needed more cheese and less sleaze to be an out-of-the-park, home run episode. This is also the episode that I received the most requests asking me to give it another chance because my first review was so negative. And I will say that I liked it better this time than I did the first time... however, I still don’t understand why this is considered to be such a great episode. I found it to be a good episode, but firmly in the middle of the pack as far as the show goes because I think there are simply too many episodes that are a lot better than this one. This episode is historic for MST in that it is Mike’s first as host of the show. And Mike does do a good job in the theater riffing the movie, but the stylistic differences that distinguish him from Joel already stand out in this episode. To me, the riffing with Joel seemed more paced to flow with the movie and set up jokes like punch lines; while, with Mike, the riffs tend to get thrown out more rapidly and a bit more randomly, with some sticking, some not. It’s still very funny, but it’s definitely a different style and it’s understandable why some MST fans didn’t adapt to the change and stopped watching the show when this changeover happened. As for the host segments, Mike seems a little uncomfortable in his new role, which is understandable at this early point, and so most of the segments are just fair, at best. The funniest host segment is the visit from Jan-in-a-Pan, played by Mary Jo Pehl, who is surprisingly good in this role. (It may arguably be her funniest appearance in any host segment, because she’s better here than in her Pearl persona.) So, overall, I think that this is a good, run-of-the-mill episode, but not the great one that it’s frequently proclaimed to be (...though a lot of MiSTies will continue to disagree with me on this ;-).
Trivia Note: One riff mentioning radar seems to be a reference to Radar Secret Service, an episode that didn’t premiere until much later in the season.

Don’s Rating:

Forrest’s Review: This episode, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, is on my Top-10 all-time favorite episodes. This is also a historic MST episode because it features Mike in his first outing as host. As Don mentions, the difference in riffing between Joel and Mike already shows in this episode. For better or for worse, whichever way you look at it, I like Mike’s style more. Believe me, I loved Joel’s style, but Mike’s I find to be more appealing. One thing you may notice in some of Mike’s episodes, is that in the theater, Mike and the bots laugh more, whether it be at each other’s jokes, or at the movie itself, they seem to be having a good time, where as Joel and the bots seemed to be riffing the movie just to get their minds off just how hideous the movie is. Plus Mike is more of a big brother to Crow and Tom Servo, where Joel was the father. Mike’s chemistry with the bots is much different, it’s like Mike is just friends with the bots making fun of movies. Joel’s is more like he built the bots to keep him occupied and to actually get him through the movies. But are great in their own different ways, and I truly like Joel and Mike on an equal level, and both styles of riffing make me laugh just as hard, but it’s a preference of the style, neither one is truly better than the other.
As for The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, this was the episode that got me into MST3K. True, Pod People was my first episode, but I stopped watching the show for a long time until I saw The Brain That Wouldn’t Die back during its initial run in Season Five and from then on, I was hooked. The movie, while it was filled with sleaze, I disagree with Don, and say it had mostly cheese. The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is one of the worst movies ever made, and yet some individuals think that it’s sorta a classic. A classic?! How!? The jokes in this episode are fantastic, and while Mike doesn’t seem to be as comfortable with his role as he will be later, he does a very good job. In my opinion, the host segments are very good. The inept invention exchange called the Gutter-Bumber-Shoot is so bad, that it is hilarious, and already shows that Mike’s invention exchange career would be short-lived. The other host segments are good, as they mostly introduce Mike to the SOL, plus the one where Mike tells his story about his walk-a-thon is very funny. The riffing is great, while not as good as many of Mike’s later episodes, the surprisingly high-quality riffing in this experiment is amazing considering this is Mike’s first episode as Dr. Forrester’s test subject.
This episode is one of those rare ones that has a unique charm that makes it stand out among the rest. I also think this is a very good introductory episode to someone who hasn’t seen Mystery Science theater 3000 before. While this episode still wasn’t as good as the previous episode, Mitchell, Mike quickly catches up to Joel’s very best within the next few shows.

Forrest’s Rating: