Zombies Given Atomic Brains by Nazi Doctor!

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955)
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Starring:
Richard Denning as Dr. Chet Walker
Angela Stevens as Joyce Walker
S. John Launer as Capt. Dave Harris
Michael Granger as Frank Buchanan
Gregory Gaye as Dr. Wilhelm Steigg

This is one of the wonderful "Clover Productions" produced my Sam Katzman during the 1950s, after the legendary film maker left Monogram. The Clover cycle of pictures done for Columbia during this period were Katzman's finest work, and there are a few reasons why I consider this picture his most memorable.

First and foremost, a Katzman picture always had a humdinger of a story concept, something guaranteed to put "butts in the buckets." With this picture, he deserved to be very proud of himself. Ready? Are you sitting down? Okay . . . American gangster, Frank Buchanan, is deported to his native Italy after associates testify against him. While in Italy, Frank runs into a an ex-Nazi doctor in hiding who, as luck would have it, has developed a process in which he can re-animate corpses. The good doctor can produce voice-activated zombies powered with atomic brains.

The problem is, the process is very expensive and his work has all but been abandoned. Frank has a ton of money, though, and it's a match made in heaven! Frank drags the old Nazi back to America with him, looking for a little payback with a gang of atom-brained zombies (let me say right now, if you are reading this with a contemptuous sniff, leave this blog immediately and go google Francois Truffaut).

Another thing that makes this film rank high in the Katzman cannon is story writer, Curt Siodmak, who also wrote the script for The Wolf Man and Donovan's Brain. Siodmak was born in Dresden, Germany, but ran quick like a bunny to England after hearing Joseph Geobbels give one of his patented "I'm crazy as a shithouse rat" tirades against the Jews. Siodmak also wrote the script for several sci-fi classics, which will be covered in this blog, among them Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers and I Walked With A Zombie.

After a murder or two, enter Dr. Chet Walker. Helping the police, Dr. Walker discovers, just as he suspected, the "so-called blood" found at the scene of the crime is, in fact, radioactive! Chet Walker is played with his usual professional polish by Richard Denning, who was the go-to-guy for many a sci-fi "B" picture. An actor of great range, he could be a convincing, pipe-smoking domestic, as in this picture, or a has-been drunk looking for one last shot at redemption, as he was in the 1948 forgotten but great Unknown Island (filmed in Cinecolor!). Angela Stevens as Joyce Walker is on board as the token, stone-cold-fox, 1950s eye-candy, but is given very little to do other than represent "wife." Katzman and Director Edward Cahn have given us a sort of symbolic domesticity, something to contrast with the evil rot of the atom-powered dead men and Nazi men of science. Yet we don't linger with Joyce long because, well, domestic bliss never kept them eating popcorn through a double feature.

There is a tactile, gritty quality to the effects, a feel of reality to certain moments, that are sure to produce grimaces or grins, depending on your temperment. Take, for instance, the first murder, seen in shadow, where an atomic-brained zombie lifts a victim over his head and snaps his back like a stalk of celery (with appropriate sound effects); or the great scene where Nazi doctor, in full radiation suit, lifts a dripping atomic brain from a large beaker (it looks like a softshell crab with stiff legs). There is also a norish quality to the film, shadows and light doing much mood work.

Throughout the film there is a terror and angst over the very concept of anything atomic. It is a terrible, un-natural force, giving a surreal, soulless life to the dead without any hint of divine spark. Once these corpses get stuffed with a Dr. Steigg atomic noodle, they become supermen; bending steel bars, snapping spines, walking through bullets (a nice scene has a cop's service revolver punching holes in one of the zombies' suit coat). They stare straight head, walk with a shuffle, and can only speak if Chambers speaks through them remotely, watching them on a large, fancy TV set. Ultimately, despite the fact that the Nazi doctor and American gangster wear radiation suits every time they pop a dome, "radiation sickness" becomes a real factor.

The message is loud and clear: atomic power cannot be harnessed for anything good. It represents decay, death, life without God, insanity and self destruction. Now that makes great Radiation Cinema and a two popcorn-bucket good time!

In this film, art is a gruesome mirror of life: After WWII, American authorities recruited many German scientists (who had been if not worked for Nazis to the States to development America's space program; and in this Katzman classic, an American gangster brings an ex-Nazi madman/scientist to our shores, financing his horrible experiments to further his plans of revenge. Soidmak must have loved that.

Without doubt, Sam Katzman was one of the heroes of Radiation Cinema. Not only did he invent the term "beatnik," he also imployed actors and directors of the Hollywood blacklist consistantly through the era when few had that kind of chutzpah. 'Nuff said.

This classic is a movie treat. See it. Love it. WATCH THE TRAILER BELOW!