Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
THANK YOU TIP JAR CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN FEO AMANTE THEATER CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN - 1955 USA Release: June 22, 1955 Clover Productions, Columbia Pictures Rating: USA: N/A

Let's get a few things out of the way here.

This movie is called CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN.

Not -

CREATURE WITH THE ATOMIC BRAIN

Or -

CREATURE WITH AN ATOMIC BRAIN

No.

It's CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN.

Before there was the horribly mangled Horror movie title, THE DEVIL'S RAIN, there was this. And yet, this is not a movie about a creature with only one atom for a brain.

Yet despite the sloppy title, this is also not a bad movie.

It's a horribly bad movie!

BUT WAIT!

In this movie featuring an entire city, there are only two gals: A woman and a child. The woman is Joyce Walker (Angela Stevens) and her daughter is Penny (Linda Bennet). Throughout this movie they do little more than provide entertainment for husband and father, Dr. Chet Walker (Richard Denning: LADY AT MIDNIGHT, UNKNOWN ISLAND, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, TARGET EARTH, THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED, THE BLACK SCORPION): Crime lab cop!

While Chet Walker is out there trying to figure out the latest homicides, he frequently takes a break from all that footwork and heavy thinking to go home, where his wife Joyce whips him up a martini! Or maybe she's cooking dinner! Oh now Joyce is cleaning house or making a cake from scratch!

Joyce has her day full at home being a full time domesticated housepet who also provides sex and takes care of the precocious child.

She never devles too deeply into what her husband does because, well, it's just too terrible. She shouldn't have to worry about such things.

Okay, so what is Chet up to these days?

The movie begins with a dead-eyed man the size of a large gorilla busting through a window into a private gambling casino. We see almost right away that he's being controlled by some guy who is watching what's going on, on a TV set, through the eyes of the creature, and talking to his victim through the varmint mouth, with a microphone.

As part of his apparent revenge he tells his victim that his name is Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger: THE MAGNETIC MONSTER, ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO). Then the creature grabs his victim, lifts him over its head, and breaks him in two.

Bullets can't stop the creature and it can bend iron bars with its bare hands.

And when the creature is done? the bad guy implores them to "Come back home. Come back home." The atomic androids want to go home!

That's just adorable!

When Dr. Chet Walker arrives later, he's surprised at the story, more surprised at the evidence, and startled that the creature seems to have "bled" a highly radioactive goo!

Obviously there is going to be a line of victims before this creature is stopped so let me jump to the highlights,

One of the many victims - and I do mean Many - is District Attorney McGraw! This character is played by actor Tristam Coffin (DICK TRACY'S G-MEN, THE FATAL HOUR, DOOMED TO DIE, MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN, THE CORPSE VANISHES, THE BRUTE MAN, KING OF THE ROCKET MEN, FLIGHT TO MARS, THE CRAWLING HAND, THE RESURRECTION OF ZACHARY WHEELER, NIGHT CALL NURSES). Now, if you are going to be in Horror movies, that is one hell of a great name!

Another character in this movie is Dick Cutting.

DICK CUTTING!

And the actor who plays him is named Richard Cutting (BLACK WIDOW, THE NIGHT RUNNER, ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, THE MONOLITH MONSTERS, MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS). Bloody hell!

So you'd think this movie would be fun and it is!

It's fun despite drawing stereotyped 1950s gals so broadly that today it can only be taken as ridiculous satire (it probably wasn't then, but that was then).

Chet's pal on the force, Captain Dave Harris (S. John Launer: THE WEREWOLF [1956], I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, THE TWILIGHT ZONE [TV 1959-1964], MARNIE, PENDULUM, TRAPPED BENEATH THE SEA), is older than Chet, kinda dumpy, and the script goes to the well a few too many times about how he is single and why doesn't he get married? Every time he's asked, Captain Harris looks at the floor and mumbles a response, all of which, seen from today, makes him appear like a closeted gay man.

And who wouldn't be gay in a city - a whole city - with only one adult woman? The whole town is a freaking sausage party waiting to erupt!

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN is fun despite -

1. It's an all white town
2. The motivations of the bad guy are preposterously low. Even he realizes he's on to something far bigger than what he is using it for, but insists on settling old scores first.
3. The movie cannabalizes itself, repeating over and again the exact same shots of the Creatures walking up to the camera to attack.
4. The most linear movie I've ever seen. It goes from point A straight to point B without a single subplot.

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN is fun because -
1. The Mad scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gaye: CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA, SEVEN DOORS TO DEATH, I LOVE A MYSTERY, BLACK MAGIC, COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHALL OF THE UNIVERSE [TV], BATMAN [1966], TOPAZ, METEOR) who is killing live people, destroying their brains, and turning them into radioactive android mass murderers, is a NAZI in hiding.
2. Despite the fact that the Murderous Mad Scientist is a NAZI in hiding, despite him using his creatures to kill thousands, he really wants his research to help humanity! He's an emotionally conflicted and ethically compromised NAZI with a heart of gol! But, by Hitler that won't stop him from doing his job!

This movie is f'n insane!

However, one thing it never is, is boring!

That's partially thanks to director Edward L. Cahn (AFRAID TO TALK, THE SHE-CREATURE, VOODOO WOMAN, ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN, THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE, INVISIBLE INVADERS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) who was so prolific, he once directed 11 feature films in a single year!

However, this movie had a prolific star writer and that was best selling novelist turned screen writer Curt Siodmak (THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, BLACK FRIDAY, THE APE, THE WOLF MAN [1941], I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, THE MANTRAP, FALSE FACES, SON OF DRACULA, THE LADY AND THE MONSTER, THE CLIMAX, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, THE MAGNETIC MONSTER, DONOVAN'S BRAIN, RIDERS TO THE STARS, EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, CURUCU: BEAST OF THE AMAZON, TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN, 13 DEMON STREET [TV], THE BRAIN, THE WOLFMAN [2010]). As with all Curt Siodmak stories, they shoot off like a missile and fly until they hit.

Murder, Mobsters, Military, Mad Science, Cops, and Radioactive Androids! And all played preposterously straight! CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN is so far off the wall it floats in space!

Three Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 2022 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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