''Creature with the Atom Brain'' is a 1955 American

zombie A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...

horror science fiction film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring

Richard Denning Richard Denning (March 27, 1914 – October 11, 1998) was an American actor who starred in science fiction films of the 1950s, including '' Unknown Island'' (1948), '' Creature from the Black Lagoon'' ( 1954), '' Target Earth'' (1954), '' Day ...

. American gangster Frank Buchanan (

Michael Granger Michael Granger (May 14, 1923 – October 22, 1981) was an American actor. Born Milton Grossman in Kansas City, MO, Granger, he appeared in ''The Big Heat'' and in B movies such as '' Creature With The Atom Brain'', as well as on TV shows includ ...

) forces former

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

scientist Wilhelm Steigg (

Gregory Gaye Gregory Gaye (born Grigoriy Grigoryevich Ge; October 10, 1900 – August 23, 1993) was a Russian-American character actor. The son of an actor, he was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was the uncle of actor George Gaynes. He was a cade ...

) to create

s by resurrecting corpses through

atomic radiation Ionizing radiation (or ionising radiation), including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some particles can travel ...

in order to help him exact revenge on his enemies. ''Creature with the Atom Brain'' was released as the bottom half of a double feature with ''

It Came from Beneath the Sea ''It Came from Beneath the Sea'' is a 1955 American science fiction monster film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer, directed by Robert Gordon, that stars Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, and Donald Curtis. The ...

''.

Plot

A hulking zombie breaks into a mansion and kills a gangster named Hennesy. The bloodstains left behind at the crime scene are radioactive, and the killer's fingerprints are of a man who had died days before the murder; the police are baffled. Crime boss Frank Buchanan, who had been forced to flee the United States before he was deported, was betrayed by his own underworld gang members. While traveling in Europe, he finds ex-Nazi scientist Wilhelm Steigg (Gaye) trying to reanimate the dead to provide a menial labor pool that is easily exploited. Buchanan funds the research and brings the scientist to America with the unstated goal of sending Steigg's zombies out to murder those who ousted him; one by one, they are killed in the same fashion. The police eventually discover the common connection between the murdered gang members and Buchanan. They try to put the remaining three into protective custody, but Buchanan uses a reanimated dead cop to kill one of them and a reanimated dead police captain to kill the remaining two. When the zombie captain is captured, police doctor Dr. Chet Walker (Denning) discovers an atomic-powered remote control brain implant and deduces what has been going on. When the zombie captain returns to Buchanan's hideout, they follow him. When the police and army troops converge on Buchanan's lead-lined mansion, he kills Steigg and then sends out his unkillable zombies to battle them. Walker, however, is able to get into the mansion, but Buchanan attacks Walker and tries to shoot him. The still-animated zombie police captain breaks in and grabs and strangles Buchanan before he can fire a shot. Walker then smashes the atomic-powered equipment that controls the zombies; after doing so, they all collapse.

Cast

as Dr. Chet Walker *

Angela Stevens Angela Stevens (born Ann Evelyn Allen, May 8, 1925 – March 17, 2016) was an American film actress and singer. Biography Stevens was born in Eagle Rock, California. She appeared in several Three Stooges films, such as '' He Cooked His Goose'', ...

as Joyce Walker * S. John Launer as Capt. Dave Harris *

as Frank Buchanan *

as Dr. Wilhelm Steigg (as Gregory Gay) * Linda Bennett as Penny Walker * Tristram Coffin as District Atty. McGraw *

Harry Lauter Herman Arthur "Harry" Lauter (June 19, 1914 – October 30, 1990) was an American character actor. Early years Lauter was born in White Plains, New York. He worked as a model for a professional photographer and was a rodeo rider before m ...

as Reporter #1 * Larry J. Blake as Reporter #2 (as Larry Blake) * Charles Evans as Chief Camden * Pierre Watkin as Mayor Bremer *

Lane Chandler Lane Chandler (born Robert Clinton Oakes, June 4, 1899 – September 14, 1972) was an American actor specializing mainly in Westerns. Biography Early life Chandler was raised on a ranch near Culbertson, Montana, the son of a horse ra ...

as Gen. Saunders (uncredited)

Production

The film was made by Sam Katzman's Clover Productions for Columbia Pictures Corp.

Reception

In ''The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia'', academic

Peter Dendle Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, Old and Middle English (language and literature), and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and s ...

wrote, "Good '50s fun abounds, with all the twisted

gender ideology The anti-gender movement is an international movement which opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology", " gender theory" or "genderism". The concepts cover a variety of issues and have no coherent definition. Members of the anti-gender mov ...

and antiseptic social ideals that that implies, packed in a tightly-wrought action film with strong (if entertainingly dated) conceptual support". David Maine of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' rated it 6 out of 10 stars and called it "a thoroughly enjoyable, noir-ish SF chiller, if you can get past the dingbat wife and cutie-pie kid".

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Region 1 DVD in October 2007 as part of the two-disc, four-film set, ''Icons of Horror Collection: Sam Katzman'', which also included these Katzman-produced films: '' The Werewolf'', ''

The Giant Claw ''The Giant Claw'' is a 1957 American monster film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Sam Katzman, directed by Fred F. Sears, that stars Jeff Morrow and Mara Corday. Both Sears and Katzman were well known as low-budget B film genre filmmakers. ...

'', and ''

Zombies of Mora Tau ''Zombies of Mora Tau'' (also known as ''The Dead That Walk'') is a 1957 black-and-white zombie horror film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Gregg Palmer, Allison Hayes and Autumn Russel. Distributed by Columbia Pictures, it was produced by ...

''. Shown on the

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

show

Svengoolie ''Svengoolie'' is an American hosted horror movie television program. The show features horror and science fiction films and is hosted by the eponymous character Svengoolie, who was originally played by Jerry G. Bishop from 1970 to 1973, before ...

on Dec 10, 2022.

Influence

Roky Erickson and the Aliens, a band whose lyrics often riffed on old horror and science fiction movies, recorded a song titled "Creature with the Atom Brain" in 1980. This song, in turn, became the namesake of the Belgian rock band Creature with the Atom Brain. In addition,

The Celibate Rifles The Celibate Rifles were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with a line-up that included mainstays Dave Morris on rhythm guitar and Kent Steedman on lead guitar, within a year they were joined by Damien Lovelock on lead vocals. T ...

released a song titled "Return of the Creature with the Atom Brain". Director Cahn would go on to make '' Invisible Invaders'' (1959) using the same basic concept (in the later film, invading aliens inhabit the reanimated corpses of humans).

References

Bibliography

* Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties'', 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009 (First Edition 1982). .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Creature With The Atom Brain (1955 Film) 1955 films American black-and-white films 1950s science fiction horror films 1955 horror films Films directed by Edward L. Cahn Films with screenplays by Curt Siodmak Columbia Pictures films American films about revenge American science fiction horror films American zombie films Nazi zombie films 1950s English-language films American exploitation films 1950s American films