The Man Without a Body * (1957, Robert Hutton, George Coulouris, Julia Arnall, Nadja Regin, Michael Golden) – Classic Movie Review 12,591

‘A diabolical dream come true! Who is his next victim?’ screamed the posters about the ridiculous 1957 low budget British horror film The Man Without a Body, starring George Coulouris and Robert Hutton. 

‘A diabolical dream come true! Who is his next victim?’ screamed the posters about directors W Lee Wilder and Charles Saunders’s ridiculous 1957 low budget British horror chiller film The Man Without a Body. It stars George Coulouris and Robert Hutton, along with Julia Arnall, Nadja Regin, Michael Golden, Norman Shelley, Tony Quinn, Peter Copely, and Sheldon Lawrence.

George Coulouris plays wealthy, vain New York City businessman Karl Brussard, a dying mogul suffering from a malignant growth on his brain, who wants to get a head and scientists have revived Nostradamus (Michael Golden)’s bearded bonce, which can make true predictions. Brussard plans to replace his brain with Nostradamus’s.

This silly premise sparks an amusingly terrible British horror flick with an over-ripe script by William Grote and some fairly putrid performances.

Also in the cast are Julia Arnall, Nadja Regin, Michael Golden, Norman Shelley, Tony Quinn, Peter Copley, Sheldon Lawrence, William Sherwood, Ernest Baker, Edwin Ellis, Frank Forsythe, Donald Morley, Kim Parker, and Stanley Van Beers.

It is produced by Guido Coen on a shoestring budget of £20,000 but allowed his Filmways Ltd to be established as the production company, though it turned out to be the only film credited to them.

It was partly financed by the National Film Finance Corporation so the directing credit was shared between American director  Wilder and English director  Saunders to ensure funding from the Eady levy.

Shooting took place over three weeks in 1956. Twickenham Studios was able to be booked, with location filming around London including the interior of Madame Tussaud’s wax museum.

It was released an X-certificate in the UK in May 1957 with the Japanese film Half-Human (1958). And in the US January 1958 with Fright (1956).

The 40s American leading man Robert Hutton found work in Britain in the late 50s/ early 60s in such movies. Robert Hutton recalled Saunders ‘being on the set all the time and not doing anything. To satisfy the union, they had to hire an English director because of the rules’

George Coulouris once acted in Citizen Kane, and he went on to star in producer Guido Coen’s Womaneater.

W Lee Wilder is the brother of Billy.

The cast are Robert Hutton as Dr Phil R. Merritt, George Coulouris as Karl Brussard, Julia Arnall as Jean Cramer, Nadja Regin as Odette Vernet, Sheldon Lawrence as Dr Lew Waldenhouse, Peter Copley as Leslie, Michael Golden as Michel de Notre Dame (Nostradamus), Norman Shelley as Dr. Alexander, Stanley Van Beers as Madame Tussaud’s Guide, Tony Quinn as Dr. Brandon, Maurice Kaufmann as Chauffeur, William Sherwood as Dr Charot, Edwin Ellis as Publican, Donald Morley as stockbroker, Frank Forsyth as Detective, Kim Parker as maid Suzanne, and Ernest Bale as Custom’s Officer.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,591

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