Columbia [1955] 69′
country: United States
director: EDWARD L. CAHN
cast: RICHARD DENNING, ANGELA STEVENS
cast: S. JOHN LAUNER, MICHAEL GRANGER
A car speeds towards a mansion in the night – a hulking man with stitches on his forehead emerges, breaks into the home, and gruesomely kills the man he finds inside. Several others burst in on the murder and fire their guns at the murderer to no effect, and are unable to stop him as he enters the car again and escapes. Similar murders occur, leaving investigators Dr. Chet Walker and Captain Dave Harris stumped, particularly when the murder suspects turn out to be men who were already dead at the time of the murders! But soon, evidence is mounting up – Dr. Walker, after examining the murder scenes for radioactivity and testing the blood of the murderers, comes to the conclusion that creatures powered by atomic rays are perpetrating the grisly killings.
This being a Sam Katzman produced horror programmer – he’s right! Disgruntled ex-gangster Frank Buchanan, having been extradited to Italy some years before thanks to the diligent work of prosecutors and a couple dozen pairs of loose lipped comrades, has come back to town with vengeance on his mind. What’s more, he’s got ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Steigg under his thumb, having financed the furthering of his atomic mind-control experiments. With Steigg’s help, Buchanan amasses a small army of atomic zombies, remotely controlled from Steigg’s laboratory, with which to settle his old scores.
As the murders continue, Buchanan’s thirst for blood grows – soon he’s targeting the investigators and even committing acts of terrorism. Eventually the location of Buchanan’s laboratory is uncovered and the local police, augmented with national guardsmen, surround it. But can they, armed with the outdated weapons of the past, possibly stand up against a science-bred army of undead atomic super-men!?
Clocking in at a brisk 69 minutes, CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN originally occupied the lower end of a double bill with IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA, another ridiculous Sam Katzman cheapie remembered predominantly for Ray Harryhausen’s fine stop-motion work. I first caught up with it through its infrequent television airings in the early 1990′s – I still remember the monumental night in which I caught not only this, but two other Edward L. Cahn shockers [IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and THE INVISIBLE INVADERS] as well. I lived for this stuff when I was growing up – an aspect of my personality that hasn’t changed a whole hell of a lot since since then.
Penned by Curt Siodmak [of DONOVAN'S BRAIN and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE fame] with frugally-minded direction by Cahn [best known for OUR GANG films and other short subjects and a number of genre efforts for various low-budget production houses], CREATURE is a patently ridiculous affair. Siodmak’s script offers a number of wonderful camp moments, like Dr. Chet [and a number of lesser characters] failing to notice the gaping scar across his best friend’s forehead until it becomes necessary to the story. Stock shots are inserted regularly in the final reels to augment the action, but rarely, if ever, match the newly shot footage while barely dressed sets and editing [or the lack thereof - a number of shots linger for whole minutes without a cut] show up the budgetary shortcomings of this barely-feature at every turn.
Cahn is a long way from his work on the Oscar-nominated 1943 short PLAN FOR DESTRUCTION here – any real suspense that the story could, potentially, have had is muted by the revelation of the creatures’ origins during the opening scene, but perhaps that’s more a problem that should be heaped on Siodmak’s pile. Given the lightning schedule this production must have had [Cahn would helm 7 features between 1955 and 1956] it’s something of a marvel that everything is in focus and that there are no glaring technical gaffs. The cast, stocked with serial regulars and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON alumnus Richard Denning, works professionally through line after line of ridiculous dialogue ["You want the truth? Alright then - according to the evidence, Hennesy was murdered by a creature with atomic rays of super-human strength" or "Huh - frog legs! I don't see the parallel"] but won’t be convincing anyone over the age of 8 of the credibility of the film they inhabit.
Still, CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN retains real shock potential for the kids in the audience. I remember being entirely convinced by the then-graphic violence – a man’s spine cracked witnessed as a shadow on the wall, a number of off-screen neck snappings, and a multitude of on-screen gunshots. The big showdown between the military and the atomic zombies was frighteningly effective seen through my 7-year-old eyes, a sentiment of which at least a hint remains now, even if I can see it for the no-budget backyard mayhem that it is. Then there are moments better appreciated as an adult, like Denning leering at wife Angela Stevens’ rear as she bends over to pick up the morning paper. It seems that THE GIANT CLAW wasn’t the only Katzman production to provide its leading couple with a kinky sexual undercurrent.
By this point you should already know if you’ll like CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN or not – not to mention where I stand on the subject. Pulp trash at best, CREATURE manages a certain wholesome charm not shared by the down-and-dirty exploitation put out by American International Pictures and other independents around the same time – it’s also a hell of a lot of fun. Once a staple of the bootleg video market, Sony saw fit to release the title in a fine open-matte transfer as part of the ICONS OF HORROR COLLECTION: SAM KATZMAN in October of 2007 along with the other and arguably more ridiculous Cahn-directed undead opus ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU. Schlock cinema aficionados should definitely do themselves a favor and pick that DVD set up if they haven’t already.
