Creature with the Atom Brain ** (1955, Richard Denning, Angela Stevens, S John Launer, Gregory Gaye, Michael Granger) – Classic Movie Review 3728

Richard Denning stars as police doctor Chet Walker, who uncovers atomic-powered zombies, in the jaw-droppingly bizarre 1955 crime, sci-fi horror film Creature with the Atom Brain. 

Richard Denning stars as police doctor Dr Chet Walker, who uncovers atomic-powered zombies when a scary Creature breaks into a gambling parlour and kills the owner, in director Edward Cahn’s jaw-droppingly bizarre 1955 crime, sci-fi horror shocker film Creature with the Atom Brain.

Gregory Gaye co-stars as Dr Wilhelm Steigg, an ex-Nazi mad scientist who is using the radio-controlled zombies to help exiled American gangster Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger) return to power.

The story and screenplay are written by Curt Siodmak, but, unfortunately, Siodmak’s admired name does not turn out to be a guarantee of quality and not surprisingly his screenplay has some considerable difficulty mixing gangsters, Nazis and radiation effects.

Creature with the Atom Brain can be judged as acceptable nonsense if it is looked at like a vintage comic book. However, the acting is sloppy, the direction is plodding, the production cheap and tatty, and it’s all hardly what you would expect from a major studio like Columbia Pictures.

It is the first of director Edward Cahn’s horror movies, and allegedly the first mass atomic-zombie attack movie. Creatures are played by Karl Davis and Charles Horvath.

Also in the cast are Tristam Coffin, S John Launer, Linda Bennett, Harry Lauter, Charles Evans, Pierre Watkin, Larry J Blake, Lane R Chandler, Nelson Leigh, Don C Harvey, Paul Hoffman and Franchot Edward Coch.

To keep the budget low, Cahn shoots the film with as few breaks and edits as possible. It is one of the first films to use squibs to simulate gunshot wounds. It was shot on the Columbia Ranch back lot in Burbank, now named the Warner Brothers Ranch.

It was released in a double bill with It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) in the US.

It is made by producer Sam Katzman’s Clover Productions for Columbia Pictures.

Cahn must have liked it because he later made Invisible Invaders (1959) with a similar concept except invading aliens inhabit reanimated human corpses.

Other people must have liked it too. It inspired the name of a Belgian rock band and a 1980 Roky Erickson & The Aliens song, as well as The Celibate Rifles’ song Return of the Creature with the Atom Brain about George W Bush.

It was released on Region 1 DVD in October 2007 on Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s two-disc, four-film set, Icons of Horror Collection: Sam Katzman, along with producer Katzman’s The Werewolf, The Giant Claw and Zombies of Mora Tau.

It was shown on the MeTV show Svengoolie on 10 December 2022. So, it is both influential and current!

Creature with the Atom Brain is directed by Edward L Cahn, runs 69 minutes, is made by Clover Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Curt Siodmak, is shot in black and white by Fred Jackman Jr, is produced by Sam Katzman, is scored by Mischa Bakaleinikoff, and designed by Paul Palmentola.

The cast are Richard Denning as Dr Chet Walker, Angela Stevens as Joyce Walker, S John Launer as Captain Dave Harris, Michael Granger as Frank Buchanan, Gregory Gaye as Dr Wilhelm Steigg, Linda Bennett as Penny Walker, Tristram Coffin as District Attorney McGraw, Harry Lauter as Reporter #1, Larry J. Blake as Reporter #2, Charles Evans as Chief Camden, Pierre Watkin as Mayor Bremer, Lane R Chandler as General Saunders, Nelson Leigh, Don C Harvey, Paul Hoffman and Franchot Edward Coch.

The Russian American character actor Gregory Gaye (born Grigoriy Grigoryevich Ge; 10 October 1900 – 23 August 1993) may have been surprised to have found himself billed here as Gregory Gay.

Born in St Petersburg, Russia, he had a theatre career in Europe and in the East before arriving in the US after the Russian Revolution in 1923. The uncle of actor George Gaynes, he appeared in small roles in more than 100 movies.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3728

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