They Saved Hitler's Brain (1968 TV Movie) User Reviews

Deliriously Daffy Plan to Gas the World's Population

[mrb1980 · 2/10 · 2 May 2008]

"Disembodied Head Movies" are a strange lot. A head is removed for some reason, such as execution ("The Thing that Couldn't Die"), medical reasons ("The Thing With Two Heads"), experimentation ("The Incredible Two Headed Transplant"), or accident ("The Brain that Wouldn't Die"). No matter the reason for decapitation, the living head is generally in a pretty foul mood and makes life miserable for just about everyone. Here, Hitler's head is removed so the Führer can dictate again another day. So…you're a group of Nazis who have successfully removed Hitler's head and secretly taken it to a South American island. You're hanging around on the island, so what's your next move? It's to poison the world with "Nerve Gas G", of course!

This movie is actually two spliced-together ones, each with completely different actors and locations. The earlier footage, from the 1950s or early 1960s, is actually very well photographed and atmospheric in spots. The latter, late 1960s footage is extremely shoddily and cheaply made. The plot concerns Nazis living on the island of Mandoras and their plan to conquer the world by gassing everyone, then taking over. They test the nerve gas on a poor elephant, and then kidnap an American scientist to accomplish their goal. The scientist's daughter follows his trail to Mandoras, whereupon her good-guy accomplices attack and defeat the Nazis before they can release the deadly gas, finally annihilating them on a beach with explosives. Hitler (shown as a plastic head) satisfyingly burns up at the film's ridiculous climax.

This picture should have been entitled "They Saved Hitler's Head and Shoulders", because that's what you see hooked up to ominous-looking life-support machinery. Bill Freed (who plays Hitler) keeps a straight face while sitting under a glass dome and barking orders to his Nazi underlings. Actor Carlos Rivas provides the funniest parts of the film, grimly describing in flashback how the head of "Mr. H" was removed for posterity and secreted out of Germany. No matter how you look at it, this film is a one-of-a-kind movie with a plot that's very unlikely to be reused anytime soon. It's good for some remarkable belly laughs and some rather jaw-dropping scenes.

They Shouldn't Have Saved This Movie!

[Scott_Mercer · 1/10 · 16 December 2006]

Getting that awful joke out of the way, let me explain.

This film exists in two forms. THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN is the much worse of the two. Avoid at all costs.

But, MADMEN OF MANDORAS is a hilarious little sci-fi/exploitation B-movie, well worth your time. Please see my more extensive review under that title.

The film was released as MADMEN OF MANDORAS in 1963 and did play in theaters. Posters and lobby cards were made. It probably played in drive-in theaters and ratty city grindhouses on the bottom of double bills.

Around 1972, additional footage was added and the movie released again (probably to television) as THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN. I guess to sell it to TV the movie needed to be a little longer. What a mess. The two different groups of footage do NOT mesh together at all.

But MADMEN OF MANDORAS, recently released by BCI in their Starlite Drive-In Theater series of DVDs, (from the original negative!) is worth getting for fans of schlocky 60's grade-Z trash. Sure, the plot is insane, the film is loaded with every cliché about Latin America that ever came out of Poverty Row Hollywood, and the Hitler head in a jar (not just brain, entire head; it actually even speaks and yells a little) isn't even remotely scary, it's just hilarious.

Fans of Ed Wood films and similar low budget trash will be in heaven here with the stilted dialog, mind-boggling plot machinations and perfunctory grade-B acting, with plenty of phony Spanish accents. MADMEN OF MANDORAS sits on my shelf with pride, right alongside Plan Nine, Robot Monster and Mesa of Lost Women. Quaff a few adult beverages, and enjoy.

They Saved Hitler's Brain: One Star

Madmen of Mandoras: Nine Stars! Get it!

This is the absolute worst I've yet seen... Ouch!

[jbar19 · 1/10 · 2 May 2003]

I am a B Movie Whore. I get perverse pleasure out of really bad movies. Plus, you can learn a lot about movie making by observing other people's mistakes. Some of my favorite Bad movies include "Teenage Zombies", "Plan 9", "The Beast of Yucca Flats" and "Shriek of the Mutilated".

But nothing prepared me for "They Saved Hitler's Brain". This is a disjointed mess, with mismatching scenes (which were filmed over 10 years apart) laughable special effects and abysmal acting.

This movie was originally made in the 1950s and then some acting students purchased it and added some new scenes. But the students forget to dress as if they were in the fifties. Consequently, there are sixites hairstyles and cars in one scene, and then fifties styles and cars in another. Totally bizarre.

The special effects look as if they were created by 8 year olds for a 3rd grade school play. The scenes with Hitler's head in a glass tube are unforgettably absurd. The plot lacks any sort of coherence.

Now, some bad movies are fun to watch because you can laugh at them. But this movie just makes you stare at it with your mouth open, in stunned confusion and utter disbelief.

The scenes with Hitlers Head in the jar, especially when he is riding in the front seat of his henchman's car, are so wacky and silly, that they alone are worth suffering through this mess.

But be forewarned. This one is tough to watch. So far, it is the worst movie I have ever seen.

When the thing was filmed (for anyone who cares)

[Goldwyn · 9 December 2003]

The movie is indeed a pastiche of two separate films with separate casts, shot years apart. However, I take issue with Leonard Maltin and the others who refer to the Stanley Cortez footage (the latter part of the film) as being from the 1950s. The actors are dancing The Twist in the Dos Palabras club in one Cortez scene. The Twist became a craze in the Fall of 1960, and remained all the rage for the next couple of years. The original Madmen of Mandoras was released in 1963 (I have a 22X28 poster, complete set of lobby cards, and some stills from this flick). All this is consistent with an early '60s (probably '62 or '63) filming of the Cortez footage.

The el cheapo additional footage (the first part of the film) was probably shot sometime between 1972-1976. The "liner notes" to the Drive-In Cult Classics 2 DVD says the modification of the old Crown International Pictures for TV release began in 1972, and the first mention of "They Saved Hitler's Brain" in a TV listing was in December, 1976.

BTW, StanleyCortez was a distinguished cinematographer who was nominated for an academy award - Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons; he also photographed Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter. The professionally photographed latter part of the film compared with the totally amateurish photography in the first part of the film makes the hodgepodge all the more evident.

Brainless but still entertaining

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 28 September 2003]

It seemed that towards the end of the Second World War the Nazi's not only came up with a game plan to escape from the advancing allies to a South American country named Mandoras to regroup their forces and wait until the time was right to launch their second attempt to take over the world. They had a far more deadlier and sinister plan in how to do it then the use of any Atomic or Hydrogen bomb. The Nazis dreamed up a most intriguing idea of how they can take their leader, Adolf Hitler, along with them by putting his head, well really his brain, in a sealed and vacuumed-packed jar and have it, the brain's, super intelligence direct and guide them to total victory.

You would wonder why his brain? or even his head? why not Hitler's whole body? A movie that has to be seen to be believed with footage taken from two totally different films spliced together to try to make some sense to what the story is all about. With the results of the movie starting out like a porno flick,without any sex, and ending up like a bunch of out-takes of a very bad imitation of "Mission Impossible".

We have Hitler's head popping up all over the movie like some jack-in-the-box giving orders to his Nazi henchmen and evilly smirking every time someone gets beaten, shot or killed by them.

It had to be a miracle of science that they could have Hitler's head severed from his body and not only live but be able to communicate with them and instruct them on how to conquer the entire world. All this when he was not able to do so when he was still in one piece during the war before he was smuggled out of Germany by them. Did somehow by him becoming bodiless make Hitler smarter?

The plot also revolves around something called G-gas being released into the air and thus making it possible for the Nazi's hair brain plan of world domination to become a reality. Theirs only one hitch to their evil scheme, they have to stop a US scientist who's working on an antidote to the G-gas that would short-circuit their entire operation.

You know what, that after all these years since the release of "They Saved Hitler's Brain' I can't for the life of me see why Hollywood hasn't made a sequel.

Another Manic Movie!!

[fantasticdoug · 5/10 · 11 October 2008]

I don't think this movie is as bad as a lot of people seem to think. It actually has a little bit of charm all its own. Of course,you see that I said "a little bit". But it was enough to keep me interested to watch the entire film. It was a blast from the past. The clothes,the cars,the gun play,the black and white grainy film,and the bad acting! It is a genre that is long since gone with the wind. And the extra footage was a real riot!! Night scenes shot(I mean filmed)in broad daylight reminded me of another flick in this genre,"Plan 9 From Outer Space". You might say that "...Hitler's Brain" is so bad that it's good. Then again,you might not. I plan on watching this movie several more times and savor all the crazy antics again and again. It is no "Indiana Jones" but it may just provide a laugh or two on a dark winters night with the wind howling outside your door. Turn the lights down low,lock your doors and windows,and pop the movie in your DVD. You'll laugh,you'll cry,and you'll kiss 92 minutes good-by!!!

Well the first half has some excellent editing...

[Vigilante-407 · 5/10 · 19 June 2001]

I assume everyone knows that They Saved Hitler's Brain is basically two bad movies crushed together as one. The first 20-30 minutes were produced in the mid-sixties, and the rest was produced in the late fifties...a fact that really comes through in the production values.

I actually prefer the first half of the movie, and do have at least one good thing to say about this film...the editing in in the first half is excellent. The chase and crash footage from Thunder Road is edited in rather seemlessly...if I hadn't seen Thunder Road first, I would have never recognized it or realized it was stock footage.

Of course, all the characters introduced in the first ten minutes are dead by the halfway point, and the fifties-half of the movie begins, which actually takes you down to South America (or at least San Diego) to meet Mr. H, his goons, and his inane plan for immortality. We go from bad but moderately interesting sixties film to bad and boring fifties sci-fi/nazi movie.

Not as Fun as it Sounds

[Mr. Pulse · 2/10 · 12 January 2001]

I assure you, as great as a movie entitled "They Saved Hitler's Brain" sounds, it does not live up to that title. It doesn't even live up to the title "They." It's just disappointing.

The plot in general is a little difficult to follow, but as I understand it, well, they saved Hitler's brain. And given that a brain is really no good without a head, they also saved Hitler's head, and a bit of a neck. That way he could live in a big glass jar and bark orders in German.

Sure it sounds fun, but we only see Hitler Head for about 5 minutes out of the 90 total. The rest of the time winds through confusing kidnapping plots, and government scientist, and formulas, and lots of boring people who speak in unnecessary Spanish accents. I never quite understood who was the main character (They sort of shift back and forth), or who was the villain (Hitler I guess, but really his role is more of a cameo). Until they get to the wacky Nazis, it's all rather unfunny, and generally uninteresting.

The movie is poorly made, and that keeps it from being a complete snooze, but with a title like "They Saved Hitler's Brain" I really expected better. Disappointing.

AYE

[13Funbags · 1/10 · 4 April 2020]

Thank goodness for IMDb. It explained two very important things that were confusing me. The first 30 minutes were not originally a part of this movie and this was made for tv. That explains so much. I really wish they could have explained the giant backwards swastika too. I love that the imaginary South American country is decorated by sombreros hanging on walls. It would be like America being decorated by tukes. Only watch this if you are looking to make fun of a movie.

The brain was saved, the movie wasn't

[15231 · 1/10 · 21 February 2004]

I honestly started watching this movie with no idea of its plot (aside from that given by the title) and expected it to be some sort of cheap B movie from the fifties requiring me to suspend all reality of biology, physics, etc. as is necessary to watch so many sci-fi B movies of that era. I normally get a kick out with those movies because everyone knows they were made just for escapist fun . This one, sadly, wasted so much time on irrelevant subplots and secret agent chases added in the late sixties, that I fell asleep before getting to the original, early sixties movie.

The part of the film made in the early sixties has some fun in it (if one can suspend all belief in science and accept the head itself) and has the really bad/silly plot, over acting, melodrama and effects that made B movies what we expect them to be. It rambles along to its 'climax' (with the head reacting to fire as no real human head ever could). The jarringly 'mod' new story (with the car chase scene that can't seem to decide if it takes place during the day or in the middle of the night) added to the beginning almost is reminiscent of the silly cheesiness of The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes - except this was intended to be serious and thus seems a little pathetic.

Overall, the final film is just bad – and not in a good way. Unless you want a good cure for insomnia, avoid this one.

THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN--FOR THIS?!!!

[mmthos · 4/10 · 22 November 2020]

Definitely B, or should it be D grade sci-fi noir in the old style with an out-there ridiculous premise that audiences are bound to be curious whether it can be pulled off. and how.

A model of a trite script with corny humor that includes all the most tired, overused lines from any and all generic police flicks that have gone before, with a few implied "zieg heils" thrown in as a lazy attempt to distinguish it. There's one bright spot in the cast, seen too infrequently, a hip,contrary little sister of the principal female lead's character who wants nothing to do with all the solemnities, just a girl who wants to have fun, and she livens things for the short time she's on screen. Also fun is Hitler's head in a jar barking indistinguishably what doesn't sound like real German, then melts in the final conflagration

Amusing in the so-bad-it's good way.

A really amusing and entertaining Grade Z schlock camp hoot

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 29 April 2007]

Professor John Coleman (nicely played by John Holland) gets abducted by a group of evil Nazis. Coleman's decent, morally upright son-in-law Phil (likable Walter Stocker) and his sweet wife Kathy (lovely Audrey Claire) go to the South American country of Mandoras to save him. They discover the living disembodied head of none other than Adolph Hitler (a hilariously manic portrayal by Bill Freed), who plans on taking over the world with a deadly nerve gas that only Professor Coleman knows the antidote to. David Bradley's competent direction maintains a steady pace throughout and effectively develops a colorful south-of-the-border atmosphere. The acting is generally solid, with especially stand-out turns by Nestor Paiva as polite, friendly, cigar-puffing police chief Alaniz and the delightful Dani Lynn as wacky slang-slinging beatnik hipster chick Suzanne. Film noir veteran Stanley Cortez's gorgeously sharp'n'slick cinematography gives the movie an attractive glossy look. The booming'n'bombastic stock library score is pretty funny. Ditto the priceless scene where a dead body falls out of a phone booth. Although a bit slow and talky, this notorious Grade Z schlock camp classic nonetheless radiates a certain cruddy charm that's both amusing and entertaining in equal measure. The BCI Eclipse DVD offers both the superior and more coherent original picture along with the extremely muddled and dreadful alternate version "They Saved Hitler's Brain."

One of the best of the worst.

[Melllvar · 6/10 · 6 February 2001]

If you loved Eegah and Plan 9 From Outer Space you will love this movie.This film is classic "bad" as bad was meant to be. In this film there is a kidnapped scientist,a misguided businessman and hidden Nazis with a master plan.This movie also presents a female federal agent over two decades before Dana Scully on X-Files. Progressive or lousy,its your call. I gave it a 6.

The horror...

[ericstevenson · 1/10 · 25 July 2016]

When watching this movie, I seriously thought there was something I missed. A lot of movies come off as incomprehensible to me, but this seemed even more so than usual. I really was trying hard to figure the plot out and I was confused seeing as how from one source I heard this movie was twenty minutes shorter. I now realize I was watching an even worse extended version filmed years after the original ended. This is one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen in my entire life. When watching this movie, I couldn't tell who was who and what anyone was even doing. Again, it's mostly because of the horrible filming. "They Saved Hitler's Brain" is even WORSE than it sounds.

Speaking of filming, the camera work in this movie is among the worst I've ever seen. A lot of the pictures come off as really stilted and slanted for some reason. I don't even know if it was intentional, or some mistake with the camera crew. A lot of times the scenes just wobble around, literally. It's some of the worst editing I've ever seen and it's just unpleasant to even look at. The characters in this movie say some of the dumbest lines I've ever heard. One guy says, "With a wife like that, who needs a girlfriend?". What does that even mean? Seriously? Later, an obnoxious woman says, "They were really nice. They pulled a gun on me!". Yes, that's more or less exactly what she said. Who would say that? There's even a scene where the wife's sister makes out with her husband over and over and nobody cares. Or maybe that wasn't the husband? Was it some other character? Who cares? Hitler's brain doesn't even appear until over two thirds in the movie and has only a few minutes of screen time.

This doesn't even work well as a B-movie. They could have had this goofy Hitler head but even the head does practically nothing. There's not even any reason to have him. The Nazis could have done just fine. There's one scene where they mention that everyone was eliminated and then say that someone lived. What? On another occasion, they claim that the Nazis have been working for 18 years. World War II ended in 1945, but they would have worked on it for 23 years. Can these people not even count? Maybe there was something I was missing with all this dialogue, but I didn't care at all. They defeat Hitler by throwing bombs at him and you see three shots of his face melting. I couldn't even tell who was dead or alive at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if this was featured on the first episode of the new "Mystery Science Theater 3000". It's boring, stupid, pointless, and every other bad plot point I can think of. This gets zero stars now and forever.

geez, it wasn't THAT bad

[CatTales · 6 April 2001]

"Is this a bad joke?!" utters a character when the plot is explained. In all fairness, I can't see how anyone would elevate this to ANY list, good or bad; mediocre but not Ed Woodian or as as bad as "Mesa of Lost Women." The oddity of the film is that some 1970's people added some footage at the beginning, which doesn't advance the plot but does highlight that the ORIGINAL, in contrast, had higher production values which viewers dismiss. Why they added more is a mystery: to finish the film? to change its politics (women's lib)? Given the fact that it was probably too expensive to replicate the "look" of the original footage, it was probably a money-making scheme. The original was on a par with other low-budget films like "Beatniks," "Teenagers from outer space", etc., with a few recognizable actors. Add to that it's intentionally funny moments (husband-wife banter, a beatnik sister, an improbable marriage at the climax) makes this NOT a topper for movie Baddom. What would have been interesting was if the amateur 1970's filmmakers had disassembled the film, like Steve Martin's "Dead men don't wear plaid" or Woody Allen's dubbed spy movie "What's up tigerlily"(surely the granddaddy of MST3K). As for the misnamed title, 2 other 'head' films also avoid using "head": "Brain that wouldn't die"(though they change the movie title at the end from brain to head) and "Thing that couldn't die." I guess "head" just doesn't sound scary. And the other complaint that 'Mr. H'(aka Hitler) doesn't say anything, well, it's not the Biography Channel; besides, what else would he say?: "Will someone PLEASE scratch my nose?!" For this invasion he's literally just a figurehead/paperweight (one of the characters alludes to this), and his head without a body aptly metaphors the Nazi totalitarian society where noone must feel anything (what would Nazis do on a Saturday night?). As Mr. H's plans backfire again, you'd think he'd learn from history: two wrongs don't make a Reich.

Bad, but not even a "good" bad film

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 18 August 2007]

In its original form, this was called THE MADMEN OF MANDORAS, but shown in the States it was retitled THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN and some additional footage was added. The story is about a group of Nazis who decided to cut off Hitler's head and shove it in a pickle jar until they could later re-attach it to another body and create a 4th Reich. To show us how bad Hitler was, before cutting off his head he screamed and ranted like someone who THINKS they are talented and can pretend to speak in German. Then, inside the jar, you see a head that looks like wax and yet can somehow speak--yelling "macht schnell!" again and again. I just kept thinking to myself "if they can smuggle Hitler's head out of Germany, then WHY cut off the head--can't they just take ALL of him?!".

While this might not technically be the worst film ever made, it is very close--and totally inept throughout. However, unfortunately, it is NOT timeless like bad films like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE because unlike PLAN 9, THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN is a very dull film. You know, the sort of film that is bad but not fun to watch with friends to laugh at how bad it was. Take my advice, for a bad but fun film try PLAN 9 or TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE or ATTACK OF THE KILLER SHREWS--this film is just boring and not worth your time.

It's a shame IMDB doesn't let us rate something as '0'

[johnrp-1 · 1/10 · 3 October 2002]

Horrible acting. Horrible writing. Horrible props. Horrible storyline. Horrible effects. Horrible everything!

This is it, the one and only truly most horrible film ever produced by the human race. I'd recommend burning it, but even that would be a waste of good oxygen.

Mein koph!

[jamesrupert2014 · 3/10 · 6 November 2018]

This low-budget neoNazi fever dream (with one of the all-time great movie titles) brings us a group of unrepentant übermensch plotting world conquest from their lair in the fictional Latin-American country of Mandoras. Their führer is none other than the disembodied head of Adolf Hitler (or "Mr. H." as he is occasionally referred to), which was removed and spirited out of Berlin in the last days of the Third Reich. Key to the nefarious Nazi renaissance is the deployment of "G-gas", a potent nerve agent, and the plot revolves around their attempts to ensure that no one else has the antidote to the apocalyptic weapon. Not surprisingly, the film's only highlights are the scenes featuring the eye-rolling überhead, especially when he's leering at some act of brutality. "They Saved Hitler's Brain" is a padded version of "The Madmen of Mandoras" (1963), with extra amateur-looking and anachronistic footage added in the late '60s/early '70s to increase running time. You will lose nothing and save 16 minutes of your life if you watch the original film rather than the more evocatively titled TV-version, plus, the fiery climax is longer and more gruesome in the original.

i've Got This Old Film in the Basement

[Hitchcoc · 1/10 · 31 March 2018]

Having done a bit of reading about this, we are made aware that a movie was made decades ago. Rather than just let it go with the trash, the director decided to make a new film, run it to a certain place, and the stick the rotten old footage in. But he did in reverse. Don't ask me to explain. The movie itself is about the efforts to use the Fuhrer's brain to create a new, living breathing horror which will eventually take over for the original. Let's face it. This is pretty awful.

New footage shot 10 years after the fact makes a good "bad" movie into a bad bad movie. Avoid this and see the original

[dbborroughs · 2/10 · 18 August 2009]

Longer version of Madman of Mandoras (which correctly has its own entry) was created by taking on 20 minutes of new footage concerning CID men trying to run down people interested in a new nerve gas (The plot has a group of Nazi's with the living head of Hitler hoping to use the gas to take over the world). The new footage, clearly shot some ten years after the fact, doesn't match the older footage in film grain, clothing style or anything else and is just awful. The idea was to take Madmen, which was too short for TV airing and fill it out. In all honesty the new footage takes what's a good bad movie and turns it into a bad bad movie. I was trying to see the two versions of the film essentially back to back and after watching Madmen, I put They Saved on and found that I was unable to really watch any of the new footage. Worse it took the watchable good bad film that this Frankenstein monster of a film was created from and turned it into a turkey that is not worth seeing. Somehow the new footage strips away any possible good will and throws it into the toilet. Given the choice (which you'll probably have since most DVDs out there now have both versions) I'd avoid this longer cut and watch the shorter original one.

The Funniest Unintentional Comedy of All Time!

[arthur_tafero · 1/10 · 8 August 2018]

This is it; this is the one you have been waiting for.

Because there are so few good comedies these days, I amuse myself with the worst possible films I can find to review. There is no shortage of these, but there are some turkeys that are bigger than others. They Saved Hitler's Brain is one of the champion turkeys of films that are unintentionally funny. Lets begin with the director; he apparently was busy doing something else. The film score is easily the WORST IN THE HISTORY OF FILM! During a semi-dramatic car chase, the music is playing picking daisies in the field songs. The first 30 minutes of the movie has absolutely nothing to do with the last hour of the film, other than keeping alive Dr. Coleman, his daughter and her husband. The hilarious spy of the first 30 minutes is killed off (mercifully) along with his airhead blond assistant (who survives three bullets shot into her at point blank range, and still has the energy to save the airhead spy until he falls asleep at the wheel of his escaping car, and kills himself in a crash). I expected both of them to reenter the movie at a later time despite their untimely demise. I was literally on the floor laughing at this film after 30 minutes. I have seen better student videos. The trip to Monduras (the clever screenwriter combined Mexico with Honduras, and somehow came up with an imaginary country to go along with the imaginary plot). The actors and actresses in the film are very funny; but they think they are really acting. After arriving in Monduras, the last two of the Marx Brothers....I mean the last two characters left alive after the combover professor and the two inept US spies bite the dust, go looking for Professor Coleman. Finally, in a sleazy Mexican hotel, we find out after forty minutes, what happened to Hitler at the end of the war. His brain was saved (or most of it, anyway), and transported to Moduras , where it would have easily have been the biggest tourist attraction for the only hotel in the country (the actor actually says it is the only hotel in the country). Add a Texas oilman (so slimy), and the President of Monduras, EL Presidente Stunod (that means stupid in Italian), After an hour, you have 2 brand spanking new Nazis added to this stew of silliness. I half expected to see Charlie Chaplin bouncing the world in one of these bunkers. The two Nazis fall for a bluff (they are not good at Texas holdem), and show the prisoners Hitler's head. Yep, old Adolph is still alive. What a gas. El Presidente Stunod, is not as dumb as he seems; he helps everyone escape from the Nazis (the two scientists easily overpowered the two large Nazis because they were secretly taking Karate classes at night), During the escape, while being hotly pursued by the Nazis, the scientists and El Presidente have a discussion about which cars they will go in, and whether or not the Mets can win it all. Then they get into the car and make a getaway. Back at Hitler's digs, the Texas oil man finally comes to the realization that he is a complete idiot. The music in the movie magically improves after they fired the guy from the first 30 minutes. The removal of Hitler's head is the highlight of the film. Marty (Scorsese), you have to preserve this film; it is PRECIOUS. One last logical scene: a nazi has a loaded guy, and one of the escapees has an empty guy. The nazi somehow gets shot. That makes three incompetent Nazis in hand to hand combat and weapons usage. Thought this was finished? NOOOOO. It goes on and on. The Texas oil guy and his son come to their senses.....TOO LATE! The grinning Hitler Head watches them get eliminated. Time for Hitler and the Nazis to take a plane out of Monduras and go back to Jersey City. Will Adolph escape? Will he live to see the Producers? I will not reveal the ending, but it is aHEAD of its time.

Crummy old movie padded with crummy new footage

[michaeldouglas1 · 4/10 · 12 November 2017]

Okay, I give it a '4' rating strictly for it's camp value. My understanding of the history is that "Madman of Mandoras" was released in 1963, and was definitely "B" material even then. It quickly sank from view and was forgotten, like so many other "Grade-Z" pics of the era. But with growing popularity, local TV stations were running their own movies, usually with a host, and often specialized in schlocky horror and sci-fi from the 1950s & early 60s.

Where I grew up we had "Fright Night" hosted by the immortal Larry "Seymour" Vincent on KHJ-TV Channel 9 (later he moved to KTLA Channel 5). The cheaper and cheesier the movie, the better for the host to make fun of. Seymour wasn't the first by any means (Vampira, Jeepers Creepers, Ghoulita, Shrimpenstein), but he was the absolute master of the comic put-down, paving the way for Elvira and others, and crappy junk-movies were his 'stock in trade'. So lots of old, forgotten movies were being dug out of the vaults and put into syndication packages for these local TV stations. "Madman of Mandoras" was perfect material, in that it was cheap and unintentionally funny... except that it had barely 70 minutes of running time -- not enough to fill the local channel's movie slot, even with commercials (back then, commercial breaks were much shorter affairs... thank goodness!).

So as I understand it, one of the big distributors of old movies took the movie to the UCLA School of Film, and asked them to film some extra scenes that could be melded into the original "Madmen" footage to pad it out so they could include it in their syndication packages. So basically the new footage was film-student written, acted, and produced (and looks it). Also explains why you'll never see these actors in anything else! Most sources give this project's date as 1968, but I strongly believe that to be in error. I have seen several sources that have it as 1973, and from the looks of the "new" footage, it really does appear more "early-to-mid Seventies" than 1968.

I suppose they did about as good as could be expected, plot-wise, with the new footage. They give us a "Doctor Bernard" (long hair) who steals a formula from a safe at the beginning, but his car blows up when he turns the ignition. Then we find out that what Dr. Bernard stole was actually the antidote to the dreaded "G-Gas" (real cleaver name for the stuff, eh?). The Nazis simply wanted it destroyed since they already possess G-Gas. They manage to work in the kidnapping of Dr. Coleman into the new story-line and characters fairly well (though much of it is supposed to take place at night, yet it's obviously filmed in broad daylight!) Unfortunately the film itself is of different quality, so the changes between old and new are obvious -- even without seeing the "mod' hair and clothes styles!

Also, the "new" CID agent Toni is certainly a product of the Women's Liberation Movement, which was in full swing in 1973. The banter between her and fellow agent Vic (long hair and porn-star mustache) is so very "period" -- when women were first struggling to be taken seriously and accepted as equals in a "man's world"; for anyone who lived thru that time, we've seen variations of their mini "battle of the sexes" way too often. Naturally neither Toni or Vic are even remotely akin to real CIA or FBI agents. (Toni tools around in a little putt-putt VW Beetle. Is that standard secret agent issue? Bond had his gadget- & weapon-laden Aston Martin; while Toni's got her Bug that can't outrun anything enemy agents would drive).

But then again, "fellow" CID Agent Phil Day of the old footage doesn't come off as much more believable. He and his wife's story-line practically begins like a "Father Knows Best" episode... her the dutiful housewife ready when he gets off work with martinis and romantic music on the Hi-Fi. I half-expected Ward & June Cleaver to drop by for dinner. And what in the world is Phil's wife tagging along with him to Mandoras in South America, anyways? Okay, we get that her father was the Professor Coleman who was kidnapped, but is that 'standard operating procedure' for CID agents to take their wives along on missions? Then, in the tiny nation of Mandoras, they happen to bump into her sister, of all people, who's unaware that daddy has even been kidnapped! For such a small, off-the-beaten-path little country like Mandoras (where the Nazis can quietly go about their plotting) they sure get a lot of tourists (including the stereotypical loud-mouth Texas oilman. Where's JR Ewing when you need him?).

I won't delve into later absurdities such as laughable plot, stupid dialog, and the Fuhrer-In-A-Pickle-Jar; others have more than adequately covered those! All and all, while the new footage was pretty desperate, it really doesn't 'pull down' the old "Madman of Mandoras" -- simply because that movie was pretty wretched all by itself!

Genius Terrific Hitler brain film

[lorenzoestevez · 9/10 · 16 February 2018]

Screw what others think - this film is completely brilliant - an indulgence of campy silly garbage that is hilarious and totally enjoyable .... i love it!

Keep in mind

[JoeB131 · 2/10 · 11 March 2010]

If you want to understand the actual film made, you should probably watch "Madmen from Mandoras", the film that makes up 90% of this flick. If you see this under the title, "They Saved Hitler's Brain", you will be treated to about 20 minutes of preamble with UCLA Film School students trying to shoe-horn themselves into the script.

The disparities are amusing. Most of the film was made in 1963, but the drop ins were made in the 1970's, and the differences in sets, acting competency, haircuts and production values are obvious. (Seriously, the 1970's add-ins have the dialog values of a pornographic film. Except the leading lady never takes her clothes off, and given how fat she was, that's probably a good thing.)

The meat and potatoes plot is that at the end of World War II, Hitler's head was preserved in a jar and spirited away to South America. Because his leadership had been so effective, really. I understand that the GOP is going to put George W. Bush's head in a jar to lead them back, too!

There is a whole plot involving a gas and an antidote and a small south American country that has been taken over by Nazis. (Again, this was a few years after Adolf Eichman was captured in South America for the crime of still wanting to be known as "Adolf". )

This movie is laughable in the extreme. I guess it has to be considered in the context of its time. And even then, it's still laughable.

The movie it was based on was laughable, but the attempt to stretch it out into a longer movie just added to the hilarity.

It's not supposed to be a comedy?

[bgrubb · 28 February 2003]

The acting and special effects in this film are so bad as to be funny. The lack of any meaningful (or at least coherent) plot is equally hysterical. I was laughing so hard in some scenes that I had trouble getting my breath. As far as a serious horror film is concerned this is disaster but as far as a comedy is concerned it is smash hit.