The Man Without a Body (1957) User Reviews

Nostradamus: "I predict that you will all be firing your agents soon."

[AlsExGal · 4/10 · 18 February 2023]

This is an American/British co-production that sees US business magnate George Coulouris learning that he has an inoperable brain tumor. He travels to the UK to see scientist Robert Hutton, who keeps a small monkey's head alive on a table. You know, for science and stuff. This gives Coulouris the brilliant idea to travel to France, dig up the body of Nostradamus, steal his head, and then bring it back to Hutton so he can revive it. Which he does (for science), after which Nostradamus moans a bit and blathers on about being "against nature" and giving out stock tips.

Meanwhile, Coulouris' much younger girlfriend Nadja Regin has been having an affair with Hutton's assistant (Sheldon Lawrence), which makes the increasingly unstable Coulouris act out. Also featuring Julia Arnall as a woman who inexplicably has romantic feelings for Robert Hutton, perhaps the film's most horrifying idea. This is a lot duller than it sounds, but the ending gets more and more ridiculous, almost making it worth it to see Robert Hutton.

Eyeballs on the wall

[BILLYBOY-10 · 5/10 · 7 November 2010]

Karl is an egotistical wealthy rich guy who's got a terminal brain tumor so he goes to London to see Dr. Phil who's been doing some stuff with monkey heads so Karl figures he can do a brain transplant on him but he's gotta find a real brainy brain to train into his brain when it's transplanted into his noggin. Got that? Good. One day he's in Madame Toussad's wax museum, sees and hears about Nostradamus and decides thats whose brain he wants. He pops off to France, hires a boozy Dr. And has him cut off Nostra's head and brings it back to London, hidden in a plaster bust of his no-good, two-timing girl friend who the customs inspector refers to as " your daughter". She's a tad younger than Karl and is playing footsie with Dr. Phil's assistant.

Cut to Nostradamus' head on a table in Dr. Phil's laboratory filled with dials and gages, tubes, wires, a pumpy thing and other assorted mad but likable scientist pseudo Dr. Frank N. Stein. Naturally, Nostra comes alive and begins talking. Karl is excited, he has a stroke, but he

still wants Nostra's brain, Then he kills his cheatin' girlfriend and her lover, Dr. Phil's assistant, too. So then Dr. Phil cuts off his killed assistant's head, sews Nostra's head on his body. Nostra head wakes up confused, is violent, escapes and the townsfolk chase him with torches into a building with stairs that lead up an up and up to a belfry. Karl chases him and takes a dive, splat, onto the floor below; the Nostra body sails to the floor too, only Nostra's head is attached to the rope of the bell 'cause he wrapped it around the rope so it was torn from the body. Then the movie is over.

That head down in the basement we know who's it is!

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 8 December 2014]

***SPOILERS*** Greedy and unscrupulous financial investment/banker Karl Brussard, George Coulouris, learns from his doctor Phil Merritt, Robert Hutton, that he has a terminal brain tumor that will end up killing him within a year. Refusing to accept the enviable Brussard seeing that he's experimenting with the brains of dead monkeys and bringing them, the live monkeys that he's experimenting with, back to life Brussard convinces Dr. Merritt to do the same for him.

The rub in all this is that in Dr. Merritt's mind is that doing the same experiments with a human being is unethical and even worse, for Brussard, who's brain does he want to replace that of his his own? Thinking big in the brain he wants to have Brussard goes to France to check out the mausoleum when the great seer and philosopher Nostradamus, Michael Gordon, is in-terned in. Brussard plans to have his head surgically removed and have it brought back to life by the very reluctant, in not knowing who's head it is, Dr. Merritt. It's the sneaky Brussard who's planing to use Nostradamus' brain to predict future stock markets moves and thus profit from them. But the great Nostradamus knowing what a creep that Brussard is has plans of his own that in the end , by Brussard flowing his bad advice, will end up bankrupting him!

You don't quite understand, unless he's insane, Brussard's plans to become the richest man in the world by using Nostradamus' future stock predictions to do it since he hasn't long to live anyway to enjoy it? As Brussard is losing his money in the fake stock predictions that Nostradamus is giving him he's slowly losing his life from the terminal brain tumor that's killing him. With both his money and life on the verge of expiring Brussard really loses it and in an attempt to get back at Nostradamus tries to kidnap his head and destroy it!

***SPOILERS*** This total insane action on Brussard's part has the head, that's Nostradamus, re-unite with the body, that of someone else, and keep the by now completely out of it Karl Brussard from his attempt to destroy it! By the time the movie is finally over Nostradamus loses his head for the second time but unlike the first this time it really counted. That by him putting and end to Brussard's crazy plans to rule the world of finance by using his head to do it!

Poor

[Michael_Elliott · 11 March 2008]

Man Without a Body, The (1957)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A wealthy businessman learns he has a brain tumor but thankfully he's met a doctor who's doing experiments on head transplants. The rich man decides to steal the head of Nostradamus and put on his body. There are a few interesting ideas scattered throughout the film but the poor direction and screenplay doesn't allow anything good to happen. I think a better screenplay could have made this one of the better horror films of its era but what we end up with is nothing more than a disappointment. The film is way too slow and overly long, which is never good for a horror film.

One of the worst ever, but so creative

[bijoudog · 2/10 · 5 July 1999]

Absolutely incredible! Not only are there head grafts, but they manage to graft Nostradamus' intact head onto a person's body! Imagine his confusion. Terrible movie, but mercifully short, and so unbelievable it's worth a stare.

the movie without a point

[JoeB131 · 1/10 · 5 August 2023]

Well, what to say about this movie that will fill out the requisite 600 characters? You have a millionaire who is a genuinely nasty person, to his trophy wife his employees and his doctor, who finds out that he has a brain tumor.

He meets a mad scientist who has discovered a way to transplant the head of a dead monkey onto a live monkey. Not sure how this helps the rich guy, but he gets the brilliant idea to steal the head of 16th Century fraud ... er Prophet Nostradamus and resurrects it using this method.

He immediately asks old Nosty for stock tips, which fail miserably because Nostradamus was a fraud when he was alive. After he loses his fortune, he goes on a rampage against his wife, her lover and everyone else.

This movie is cheap, dull and disjointed and not worth your time.

My brain! It's alive!

[matthewmercy · 2/10 · 4 September 2017]

Hilariously, profoundly awful, The Man Without a Body (1957) really does need to be seen to be believed. A cheap-as-can-be sci-fi / horror B-movie, produced in Britain but certainly bearing marks of American-made drive-in flick influences, it stars George Coulouris as a volatile, bad-tempered industrial mogul who discovers he has a malignant brain tumour; consulting with experimental scientist Robert Hutton, he discovers the only way to save his own life is to undergo a brain transplant, so with an admirable 'aim high' mentality, he decides the only brain that will do the job is that of the four hundred years-dead French seer Nostradamus. Following a spot of grave-robbing and an unclear laboratory process whereby the long-decayed tissues of Nostradamus' head are totally re-generated ready for grafting onto Coulouris' shoulders, the lusty carryings-on of his unfaithful mistress (From Russia With Love's Nadja Regin) and the crafty disembodied head's own plan to bankrupt the businessman result in the death of Hutton's assistant Sheldon Lawrence, after which his body becomes the recipient of the psychic's bonce and goes on perhaps the most uneventful monster rampage in film history. Nostradamus might have been able to see into the future, but I bet even he didn't predict his eventual fate would be to have his severed noodle swinging from the bell ropes of a Twickenham church tower…

One of the first attempts by a different production company to capitalise on the nascent UK horror boom spearheaded by Hammer's The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), this totally barmy film has far more in common with US-made trash like Frankenstein's Daughter (1958), in that it is completely impossible to take seriously. Written by somebody called William Grote (given that this individual has no other credits at all, I would assume the name is an alias of some collection of random contributors) and supposedly co-directed by Billy Wilder's brother W. Lee and the unsung Charles Saunders (Tawny Pipit), the legend is that Saunders actually had no hand in this mess at all, and was merely hired to be present on set to satisfy quota regulations ensuring a certain number of films made in the UK were actually employing Brits. Coulouris, a respected actor and colleague of Orson Welles who had appeared in Citizen Kane (1941) and whose filmography contains a sprinkling of other classics, must have wondered what the hell he had got involved in with this shocker; in terms of special effects and scare-value it makes its sister film Womaneater (1958), from the same stable and again starring Coulouris, look like The Thing (1982) by comparison. The veteran actor gives it his all, and Regin's nympho routine is convincing enough, but they were never going to carry the film; I mean Raging Bull-era DeNiro couldn't have made this insanity fly all by himself.

This is well worth a watch if you want to pee yourself laughing, though; The Man Without a Body is unsurprisingly not available on DVD, though it is on YouTube in a poor-quality upload.

Goofy! Deranged! Makes No Sense! I Loved It!

[Scott_Mercer · 7/10 · 15 January 2012]

It's been a little while now, maybe a few months, since I saw this obscure title thanks to Netflix. I've been searching out goofball old movies like this for some years, and even I had not heard of this one, that's how obscure it is.

I had seen a few films previously by the director, W. Lee Wilder, the much less talented brother of Billy Wilder. These included Phantom From Space and The Snow Creature, both of which I thought had a lovable, shaggy-mutt quality of boisterous genre thrills on a rock bottom budget. But still, those films, as ridiculous and low-rent as they were, made some kind of sense.

This film makes hardly any sense AT ALL.

Too many weirdnesses in the story and strange plot holes to even begin listing them. But the overall effect is like Ed Wood at his most hallucinatory.

The movie feels like a sweat-drenched fever dream glimpsed obliquely through an oppressive cloak of madness draped over and blocking out the everyday world you and I inhabit.

When a filmmaker, or any kind of artist, can achieve an effect like that on his audience, well, this is an artist that one cannot just dismiss wholesale. As ludicrous as this film is, it will make you sit up and take notice, even if it is only to groan "What am I LOOKING AT????"

If you are an Ed Wood fan, and you appreciate his type of skewed reverie, this is a must-view. Even for those casually interested based on this review and the others listed here, I would encourage you to check it out. May not be a life-changing experience, but it is a loopy, way-out way to spend 80 minutes of your life.

Dedicated to all the wealthy men who need a new brain.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 25 October 2018]

Some have a tumor; others are just plain crazy. In the case of George Coulouris, he suffers from both a brain tumor and insanity, willing to kill just so he can live with a simple operation called a head transplant. Somehow, he ends up with the head and brain of Nostradamus, head hooked up to wires just like the woman in "The Thing That Wouldn't Die", learning of how his predictions have come true. Coulouris gets more and more murderous as he gets more desperate, resorting to shocking steps to get the procedure started. Robert Hutton is the young doctor Coulouris manipulates, risking his own reputation and freedom as the law investigates the gruesome killings.

Michael Golden has a tough job as for most of the film, he simply sits with his head stuck through a table, and as the operation goes into process, just looks ridiculous with his head now on a body surrounded by what looks like Lon Chaney's mummy wrap giving him a TV sized noggin (3-D TV, to be detailed). This is talky, often dull, humorless in spite of the silly looking poses Golden must act in. It also goes on far too long. I'd recommend this simply for bits and pieces of some memorable segments here and there (perfect for montages of sci-fi film history, but not much else.

Engaging Nonsense

[telegonus · 7/10 · 23 July 2002]

This is an engagingly nonsensical film about a businessman with a brain tumor, the head of Nostradamus, and a number of other issues; it is extremely well photographed and designed, resembling a spy movie more than a science fiction or horror film. There's a kind of shabby cosmopolitanism to the picture. As it features the excellent George Coulouris in the lead, as well as several other decent actors, it has a way of seeming on occasion better than it is. It just goes to show what talented people can do with a lousy script.

Curious Mix of Sci-Fi, Grave-Robbing, and "Mad Doctor" Movies

[mrb1980 · 2/10 · 11 July 2008]

George Coulouris generally played character roles and occasionally second leads. In "The Man Without a Body", he gets his "big chance" to play the lead role in a movie. He should have passed—the movie is so ridiculous that it's laughable.

Coulouris played a long line of rich and stuffy businessmen or industrialists, and here he's at it again. Unfortunately, his character is diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor and told to go home and die. Coulouris has a different idea, however: he schemes to exhume and steal the head of 16th-century philosopher Nostradamus, and implant that purloined brain in his skull. His new brain, Coulouris reasons, will have visions of the future, so it'll be great for business! Geez, why didn't I think of that?

Coulouris travels to France, makes off with Nostradamus' head (which had been buried for 400 years), and smuggles the head back to the U.S., where he enlists the help of the local mad doctor, Robert Hutton. Somehow, Hutton is able to "activate" Nostradamus' head, so the good doctor and Coulouris can have some pretty interesting conversations with Nostradamus about his prophecies. Hutton's assistant is killed, so Hutton—apparently not wanting to waste a perfectly good 400-year-old head—transplants Nostradamus' head onto the assistant's body. The Nostradamus/assistant transplant guy naturally gets loose and goes for a stroll, falling to his death after a few preposterous scenes.

I certainly hope Coulouris and Hutton were well-paid for this mess, because the film truly is dreadful. Imaginative? Yes. Good? Not at all. However, the animated conversations with a Nostradamus' old, old head are sort of entertaining, even if they're entertaining in the wrong way. You've been warned.

An Absolute Cult Classic!!!

[drmality-1 · 8/10 · 24 May 2012]

I defy anyone to find a 1950's film more off the wall and unpredictable than this. Even Nostradamus himself wouldn't be able to do it! Calling this campy trash is taking the easy way out. The film has more original ideas than a dozen big budget Hollywood films from the same period that cost a hundred times as much. If you have never seen "Man Without A Body" before, find it on Youtube, where it is presented in complete and pristine form. Then sit back and get ready to be amazed by the entertaining absurdity of it all.

To cover the basics of the plot, an egomaniacal millionaire in the vein of Charles Foster Kane and Howard Hughes is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor after he has head pains and starts answering phantom phone calls. Veteran actor George Coulouris plays Karl Brussard with lots of vigor. Of course Brussard cannot contemplate his own end, so he hooks up with renegade scientist Dr. Merritt, who has found a method of keeping long dead monkey heads alive and in perfect condition.The crazed Brussard has the idea to imprint his mind and personality upon the head of the greatest man who ever lived...the French prophet Nostradamus! After a grave-robbing expedition, the dessicated head of Nostradamus is brought back to life and asks Dr. Merritt and company: "Have they burned all my books?" Despite the cheesy effects, there is something quite eerie about the ease with which Nostradamus adapts to his new situation, saying "I have always lived in the future". Soon Brussard tries to brainwash Nostradamus into thinking he's Brussard, leading to one of the craziest scenes ever filmed.

Meanwhile, there's a lot more going on. Brussard's sexy nymphomaniac mistress Odette, whom he treats like an annoying pet, has hatched a plot to murder the old man with the help of Merritt's assistant Lou. At the same time, Merritt's female assistant Jean tries to get this frosty egghead to thaw out and return her advances. Finally, in an amazing scene, Nostradamus is transformed into a Frankenstein-like monster with a giant paper mache blob encasing his head. This crazy creature goes on the rampage in search of the now-fugitive Brussard, whose company has been ruined due to false stock market advice given by the prophet.

The ending is very abrupt, yet quite appropriate. It seems Nostradamus had foreseen everything all along, resulting in a satisfactory resolution where everybody gets their due.

Despite the cheapness of the production, "The Man Without A Body" holds you in a spell from the get go, with better direction than you would think. This film is begging to be discovered! I wonder if the real Nostradamus could have ever foreseen his participation in a movie like this?

Surprisingly not bad.

[benjgross-185-910837 · 7/10 · 6 December 2020]

Good story, adequate performances. If you look past the terrible costume design in the last few minutes, quite enjoyable.

More Fun to Talk About Than Actually Watch

[richardchatten · 2/10 · 17 May 2017]

One of the reasons I love low budget sci-fi movies is that the requirement of the genre to come up with at least something reasonably out of the ordinary results in them occasionally having to rush into realms of strangeness where better movies would fear to tread; and I particularly love OLD sci-fi movies because of their occasional interesting imagery and considerable period charm (cameraman Brendan Stafford duly delivers on both counts with this potboiler shot in 50's London). Unfortunately contemplation of the simple existence of 'The Man Without a Body' is far more appealing than actually having to sit through it.

Veteran exploitation producer Guido Coen presumably decided that it was time to try his hand at a sci-fi quickie, but 'The Man Without a Body' still looks and feels more like one of his cheap crime pictures, with a reanimated head grafted on to the plot the way Dr. Philip Merritt eventually grafts one on to his hapless assistant Dr Waldenhouse - which provides the film with its funniest scene as his new creation lumbers out on to the streets. ("You know it's remarkable it's alive, this head mounted on your assistant's body" nonchalantly observes Dr. Alexander (Norman Shelley). "That was quick thinking on your part, doctor, I must admit.")

Presumably based on a nodding acquaintance with old Frankenstein movies, screenwriter William Grote (probably a pseudonym, since it's his sole film credit) introduces one truly original idea to this otherwise entirely derivative mishmash by coming up with the astonishing idea of resurrecting the head of that old sixteenth century fraud Nostradamus to provide bullying millionaire Karl Brussard (George Coulouris) with his final desperate bid for longevity; although "original" is probably not quite the word to describe it. Separated from Nostradamus's body at Brussard's behest by a drunken, struck-off surgeon (Tony Quinn) who sneaks into his crypt, Brussard then smuggles the head through customs back to London in a hatbox. As played by Michael Golden, Nostradamus conveniently speaks English, and Coulouris's attempt to employ his brain as a sort of high-definition VHS tape by browbeating him into accepting that his memories and personality are now those of Brussard is what makes this film one of a kind.

It took two credited directors - one American - to bring this shambles to the screen, and in addition to Robert Hutton as the inevitable American leading man, 'The Man Without a Body' also manages to have two foreign-accented leading ladies: good girl Julia Arnall from Austria and bad girl Nadja Regin from Serbia.

Even Nostradamus could not have predicted this mess.

[scsu1975 · 2/10 · 16 November 2022]

Also known as "The Movie Without An Actor," "The Film Without a Plot," and "The Screenwriter Without a Clue."

Hilariously bad brain-transplant movie. George Coulouris plays a rich scumball who is dying of a brain tumor. He gets wind of some novel experiments being conducted by a brain surgeon, played in mind-numbingly dull fashion by Robert Hutton. After visiting Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum (where the rest of the cast apparently was found), Coulouris hits on the idea of digging up Nostradamus' head and making use of the prognosticator's brain.

Coulouris manages to get the head through customs. If it had been 12 ounces of toothpaste, he would have been wrestled to the ground. Hutton is curious about the head's identity. However, that doesn't seem to deter him, or his two assistants Jean and Lew (their real names are unimportant), from trying to restore the brain to life. This is one of the many flaws (I lost count) in this movie. These medical people are absolutely sane, calm, dedicated, and see nothing odd about what they are doing. They have a monkey's head and a floating eye in their lab. Meanwhile, the audience is screaming, "HEY, ARE ALL YOU PEOPLE NUTS?"

In a typical subplot, Lew takes up with Coulouris' French tart, Odette, who wants to see her sugar daddy offed so she can cash in. Will Lew cave? What do you think?

From here on, the film becomes a collection of badly edited scenes, where people just seem to appear out of nowhere and do crazy things. Meanwhile, Nostradamus' beard is growing, and his head introduces himself to Hutton in perfect English. I suppose if you can buy the idea that Nostradamus' head is alive, then you'll swallow anything that follows (I'd suggest cyanide).

In the finale, Nostradamus' head gets transplanted onto Lew's body and the creature wanders around the streets for a few minutes. The authorities see nothing unusual in this. Eventually, Coulouris catches up with "it." I won't give away the ending, but let's just say Coulouris takes the fall, while Nostradamus and Lew go their "separate" ways.

The only interesting part of this film, besides the French tart, is when Nostradamus' head gets onto Coulouris (figuratively) and decides to wreck his financial empire. Seeing Coulouris in an undershirt also provides some camp value. This could have been a decent piece of schlock, but no.

Why did this film need two directors? Because while one held the megaphone and yelled "Action!" the other held his barf bag.

"It's Alive! My Brain! It's Alive!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 12 October 2021]

When ill-tempered zillionaire Karl Brussard (George Coulouris) discovers that he has terminal brain cancer, he enlists the help of his doctor who is experimenting with brain transplants. For reasons known only to the makers of this movie, Brussard decides to track down, dig up, and use the brain of Nostradamus in place of his own.

What could possibly go wrong?

THE MAN WITHOUT A BODY is a gleefully absurd sci-fi horror film that dares to revel in its own nonsense, making it all the more enjoyable. There's also a nice, vengeful twist at the end.

BEST BITS: #1- The doctor's lab, complete with a functioning, disembodied eyeball and a living monkey head! #2- The gloomy, chattering Nostradamus dome!

Waste no time in procuring this movie!...

Unbelievably bad taste Fifties shocker defies analysis

[mlraymond · 2/10 · 24 December 2006]

I have only seen this movie once, in the early Seventies. It was on a Friday night horror show program, and I have never seen it since. All I really remember are a few scenes, including one of obnoxious millionaire George Couloris being told his mistress is threatening to kill herself, and he basically says he's too busy to be bothered with it. I remember the grave robbing scenes, but the one image that really sticks with me is a couple of scientists conversing with the head of Nostradamus, and the head nodding and expressing interest in all the new developments of the Twentieth Century. It seemed to me at the time a terrible movie, which has, perhaps not surprisingly, disappeared from circulation.

Not one of the better disembodied head films I've seen!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 30 May 2011]

George Coulouris was well cast in this film, as he almost always played morally bankrupt and selfish roles. Here, he plays a dying rich man--and he is determined to do anything to stay alive despite his brain tumor. His quest leads him to a scientist (Robert Hutton) who is doing weird experiments with monkeys. He's able to actually keep their heads alive using all sorts of machinery--and inexplicably, Coulouris likes this as a way to stay alive (yuck). And the researchers even seem to be able to revive heads that have been dead for some time--and Coulouris has the idea of reviving some of the great minds of history in order to put his consciousness into them or take advantage of them or I dunno--and I saw the film! Confusing? Yep...this is no ordinary transplantation film.

It's amazing when you think about it, but this is actually a VERY familiar plot! It's about the 10th film I've seen involving scientists with disembodied heads and most, incidentally, involve rich guys wanting to cheat death! "Donovan's Brain", "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", "The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant" and "The Frozen Dead" are just a few of the films like "The Man Without a Body" I can think of just off the top of my head--but there are plenty more. A few of these films are pretty good and most are pretty dumb. So what about this particular film--is it among the good head-transplant films or the bad? Considering that it's really not clear EXACTLY what Coulouris or the doctors' plans are with this bizarre technology, that's one strike against the film already. I much more straight forward head transplantation plot would have probably worked a lot better than this confusing plot. Also, not having Nostradamus' head come SOMEWHAT to life and talk would have been a good thing--it came off as pretty dumb--even for a transplant film. In fact, aside from a good premise, the whole film just seemed muddled and like a wasted opportunity. Why Coulouris ran amok near the end was beyond me and the ending was really, really dumb. As a result, the film ranks among the lower echelon of disembodied head films (a dubious distinction indeed).

By the way, why did they pick a lady for the film who barely spoke intelligible English? Someone thought the Hungarian lady in the fame was a good idea. It wasn't.

How did the wise cracking robots miss this one?

[rickmacnamara · 7/10 · 14 April 2024]

This is probably the silliest sci-fi movie ever made. I'm not even sure I understand what I just watched. So a sick rich guy asks a scientist with a bunch of deconstructed living monkey parts to keep him alive, or at least keep his brain alive...so far, the movie makes sense, sort of... But then the rich guy gets this strange idea to steal the head of Renaissance prognosticator Nostradamus and bring it to the scientist to bring back to life, omitting the fact that it's Nostradamus head,,as if that would make any difference... So the scientist brings Nostradamus head back to life and he starts talking up a storm in perfect modern English and eventually the scientist tries to kill the head, but Nostradamus,puts his head inside a sort of life support box that he puts on a headless body and starts stalking around killing people. But the rich guy dies trying to stop him from climbing up a church bell,tower and Nostradamus also falls and dies. But it's another of those so bad you just have to watch movies. That's why I gave it seven stars.

My style of Sci-fi Horror

[discoralphie-56361 · 3/10 · 10 November 2018]

Brings me back to my childhood, where I still to this moment love this flick, gives me pleasant nostalgic goosebumps

The Man Without a Body

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 22 December 2023]

As preposterous sci-fi movies go, this one takes some beating. George Coulouris is the millionaire "Brussard" whose doctors tell him he has a tumour in his head and isn't long for the world. He refuses to admit defeat and concludes that some sort of transplant is probably his best plan. Allied with the inventive "Dr. Merritt" (Robert Hutton) who has been experimenting for ages on prolonging the life of a brain by sewing the head of one monkey onto the body of another, he procures that of Nostradamus (looks more like Rasputin to me, but anyway...) with a view to using his mathematical genius to capitalise on his already extensive fortune. Thing is, the headless body is a little narked at being decapitated and plumbed into some bubbling test tubes on a formica table, and so sets about wreaking a very static, but effective, revenge on his rapidly declining patron. What happens next? Well that doesn't really matter. By now the film has reached the depths of silly science backed up with some very dizzying visual effects and a few gadgets plundered from the school lab. The ending is fun, but in a ridi-colouloris sort of fashion. Not very good, sorry.

Satirical Sci Fi at its best!

[wcpag7-2 · 10/10 · 24 June 2004]

One of the best in the classic science fiction cinema library of tales where a simple idea becomes a complex twist of monkey business.

You'll love the ending of this film after watching its eerie plot unfold as Quartemass and the Pit and Frankenstien unfolded. Beware of trusting the man who would steal the head of Michele de Nostradame a famous french prophet who wrote the centuries.

As he betrays the scientist with the stock market predictions a struggle between what is morally right and wrong takes place. Nostradamus finally has the last laugh.

Having this classic in your sci fi library is a must! My favorite scene was when the head awakens and the climactic debate begins between Nostradamus and his captor. I don't want to give the ending away but at the end of this film, Nostradamus is hanging around with a big smile on his face.

A Fantastic Blend of Science Fiction and Headless Monkeys

[gavin6942 · 9 October 2011]

A wealthy business man discovers he has a brain tumor and seeks medical help. The business man finds a scientist experimenting with transplanting monkey heads on different monkey bodies.

How can you go wrong when Billy Wilder's brother directs? You simply cannot. Especially when he has a nice scene that acts as free advertising for Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

What I find most interesting about this film is that it implies the French have discovered the secret to keeping corpses fresh. You would think that after a few hundred years, Nostradamus' head would be nothing more than a skull (if that). Yet, he is hardly rotten at all and even has his vocal cords in working order.