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Creature with the Atom Brain
USA 1955
produced by Sam Katzman for Clover Productions/Columbia
directed by Edward L. Cahn
starring Richard Denning, Angela Stevens, S. John Launer, Michael Granger, Gregory Gaye, Linda Bennett, Tristram Coffin, Harry Lauter, Larry J. Blake, Charles Evans, Pierre Watkin, Lane Chandler, Edward Coch, Richard H. Cutting, Karl 'Killer' Davis, Eddie Foster, Terry Frost, Don C. Harvey, Paul Hoffman, Nelson Leigh, Michael Ross, Dick Crockett, George Bruggeman, Charles Horvath, Boyd 'Red' Morgan
story and screenplay by Curt Siodmak
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Two men coming from different corners of the legal spectrum, a casino
owner with ties to the underworld and a district attorney, are murdered
under mysterious circumstances, both by men considered dead who crushed
their heads with superhuman strength and left traces of radioactivity on
the scenes of crime. Police scientist Dr. Walker (Richard Denning), who
also happens to be the investigating detective Harris's (S. John Launer)
soon comes up with an idea to fantastic to be true, that someone has found
a way to reanimate the dead using nuclear power and to control them
remotely - and of course he's right, but nobody believes him at first. But
he and Harris also come up with a suspect, mobster Buchanan (Michael
Granger), who was deported several years back, and has vowed his revenge
on all those instrumental in his deportation. So the rest of this bunch
are rounded up and offered police protection - but all turn down the offer
until one of them turns up murdered like those above ... and this is when
Walker's theories become mainstream, and catch the attention of Buchanan,
who's indeed hiding out in town, and has teamed up with a Nazi scientist,
Dr. Steigg (Gregory Gaye), who's responsible for the scientific part of
raising the dead, while the revenge part's all Buchanan's doing. Buchanan
tries to lure Walker into a trap, but accidently he catches Harris
instead, whom he soon turns into a mind-controlled corpse to go after
Walker. This doesn't only fail but by performing autopsy on Harris, Walker
finds out how Buchanan and Steigg's principle to control the dead works,
and searching the area with Geiger counters they can soon find a trail to
Buchanan's hideout. Thing is, cornered, Buchanan releases all the corpses
in his possession, who can't be shot or otherwise destroyed and who might
just be an unstoppable force against all humankind ... It's
safe to say one can't really expect a masterpiece watching a Sam Katzman
movie, as he has always been a very budget conscious producer keen on
jumping any bandwagon there is. But that out of the way, Creature with
the Atomic Brain is by no means a bad piece of Cold War sci-fi horror,
it's solidly directed by veteran Edward L. Cahn, and likewise solidly
scripted by Curt Siodmak, another genre veteran, while the ensemble cast
ably carry the thing. That said, sure, the science part of science fiction
is very far-fetched, and in terms of spectacle the film might be a bit
underwhelming, but as a grenre thriller with shades of paranoia, this
works as a very entertaining time capsule nevertheless.
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