Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

Some science fiction films are so bad that they're good; this one is so boring that is just plain bad. Infecting human corpses and other living men into doing their nefarious deeds by brutally murdering those responsible for the breakup of a crime ring years before. The murders may be gruesome, but the explanatory scenes in between are sleep inducing. Made at the height of the atom film craze, this lacks serious suspense and continues to rely on annoying clichés that go back 20 years.Hideously bad acting by the bad guys giving orders to the walking dead, this adds more idiotic clichés by giving leading man Richard Denning a typically boring domestic situation. The only scene I found amusing was when Denning's boss, turned into a monster by the evil scientists, destroys Denning's cloying little girl's dolly, giving me laughs for all the wrong reasons. While the swarm of approaching zombie like atom men march together, they remind me of an army of For Johnson's, but without the unintentional laughs and camp value of "Plan Nine From Outer Space". If the first 69 minutes of this turkey didn't make me gag, the final scene sure did.

It feels very much like a precursor to Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985), even though the original stories that was based on predates Creature by at least 30 years.Still, with a luminous serum, and re-animated corpses, it would be like if you had Dr. Hill funding Dr. Herbert West from the beginning and what would follow in their wake (anybody that knows Re-Animator knows that West couldn't stomach the idea of someone controlling his research, but let's say that he put up with it. This feels like that what if scenario playing out, which of course, is fun for someone like me).In the place of Dr. West is the ex Nazi scientist, Dr Chet Walker and in place of the Hill character is the mob boss, Frank Buchanan. Chet does the re-animating, and Frank controls the corpses with some kind of communicator (sound familiar?) for them to basically do his bidding. He not only sends them out to kill select targets, but also to terrorize the town. The final act involves a big blow out showdown with the corpses rising, facing off with the cops.Hot on their trail are police detectives trying to track them down and stop them. And other than the series of assassinations via animated corpse, the film focuses a lot on the investigation, rather than the Dr. Chet/Frank characters (they get a fair amount of screen time, enough for this film). While on the other side of the spectrum, Re-Animator focuses on the character who would pretty much get wrapped up into assisting Dr. West in his experiments and Dr. West himself and the rivalry between West and Hill becomes a key plot point as well. Also, in Re-Animator, West and Hill are both so much more alive and wonderfully over the top, and therefor, far more watchable than the Chet/Frank characters of Creature (which is why focusing less on these characters in Creature isn't such a downside. They're not bad, just not as entertaining, but they do a sufficient job).Re-Animator is also a much smaller film, sticking to a few key specific indoor locations (including its really awesome finale in the hospital morgue) and characters, while Creature is much more broad, expansive, with plenty of outdoor sequences (including the final epic showdown) and tons of characters floating around. So, the films are very different storywise and feel very different, but have some really key similarities that make it fun watching and comparing them.In the end, Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is the better film, but Creature With the Atom Brain is still a lot of fun, even if slower paced (which is not to say slower paced is a bad thing at all, but just to give a heads up to those who might consider watching this), and the final moments with what the girl names her dolly and how she feels about it just makes me smile for no real reason associated directly with anything else that goes on in the film.I could totally see these two films as an awesome double bill, maybe at a drive in theater. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

From what I understand, writer Curt Siodmak basically hacked this story out, as opposed to the more careful,serious novels and stories he built his reputation on. Even so, and even with some of the more carelessly thrown together elements of the movie, the strength of the story comes through. As a fried of mine who watched the movie with me commented,you can almost always tell when a real writer had a hand in the story.I've also heard that this director was something of a minor talent, but he tended to rise or fall to meet the level of quality of the story he was telling. He keeps things moving briskly here. Aside from a few obvious filler sequences involving driving or necessary exposition, there isn't really any dead space in the movie...so the viewer doesn't get a chance to really think about the absurdity of the premises or some of the unwise story choices that might otherwise detract from enjoying the movie.I've always enjoyed watching Richard Denning in various roles in and out of movies and TV - he can give a smart, humane, energetic feel to his heroes and seems instantly likable as an actor. The actor who plays the gangster Buchanan and the hapless Captain who gets zombified are also quite good at what they do and in the way they play their characters.I'm still not sure why a gangster who had control of a small army of atomic powered zombies would waste his energy and time on revenge when he could have his minions rob any bank in the city and use terrorist tactics to make millions, but we'll skip right over that, and over the part where the heroes neglect to inform the army detachment that backs them up that the zombies are essentially immune to anything but head shots...and over the facts that both the gangster and the professor who aids him should be long dead of radiation poisoning before the final events of the movie (the professor steps out for a beer, and it is discovered that everything he has touched is hotter than a pistol.) Good move, great fun. If I had been 10 years old when I first saw it, I am pretty sure I would have thought it was better than "Gone With The Wind".

This is a pretty weird sci-fi/cop film, but because it is well written and carried off very well, it works. However, with such a strange plot, it could have easily just been a grade-z film.The film begins with a robbery and murder. How the perpetrator was able to so easily snap the neck of the victim stumps the cops as well as the strange glowing trail left following the attack. A short time later, another man is killed in a similar manner. With the second murder, a pattern has emerged. Both men had testified years earlier in a trial of a mobster--who has since been deported to Europe. When a third man, also involved with this trial, is killed, it's certain why the killings are occurring--but how?! The police have a crazy idea that dead men are being reanimated using atomic power--making them robotic zombies!! As I said, it sure sounds like a plot that COULD have made for a dumb film.Here are some of the reasons for the film working. First and foremost, the idea works because the writing is crisp and works well. Second, while the actors in the film are mostly unknowns (with only Richard Denning being recognizable to only a few discerning viewers), they did a great job--and the director did a good job eliciting good performances from all, though I must admit that the little girl in the film was a bit of a weak point--not terrible but not particularly good. Another minor problem is that the reanimated folks talk just like robots BUT no one seems to notice this!! After all, this is a dead giveaway that something is amiss, but time and again none of the living seem to notice! Overall, this is a great film for lovers of 1950s sci-fi/horror/cop films. The rest may just find it all a bit silly, but if you give it a chance you might be surprised to see it's pretty good. It sure ain't Shakespeare...but it is entertaining.