Movie titles can be deceiving. No, it isn't about a giant brain in a jar with eyes and legs trying to take over small villages. Mrs March, an elderly lady who has misplaced her scruples, wants what we've all dreamed about at one point or another. Eternal life... of sorts.
With an endless stockpile of cash, Mrs March has employed the services of Doctor Frank. A scientific outcast, pioneering the atomic procedures necessary to transplant brains between victims... I mean, patients.
These experiments, carried out on the freshly deceased, are grave-robbed by the doctor and Hans. Hans is one of Dr. Frank's failed attempts at brain transfer, and sports wolfman-like side burns and a horrendously fanged underbite. He spends most of his time outside, as his table manners are something to be desired. His other failure is a young zombified girl that he lets roam around the lab in a sheet.
Now, the problem with swapping out the brain of a cat with a cadaver's, is that the damage is to great by the time you get them into the Cyclotron. The Cyclotron is the key piece of equipment that re-animates the newly brained host. You need a radiation suit to enter the machine, but you can take your helmet off on the way out.
So, to continue his work, and to keep Mrs March's patience appeased and money flowing, they decide to test out the basement's lab equipment on the living. In this case, one of three young girls. If successful, Mrs March can start again in a fresh body. Hopefully before her current one keels over.
Replying to a 'Housemaid wanted' ad, three young women in their early 20's from different parts of the world, find themselves being picked up at the airport by Victor - Mrs March's puppet, that can't wait to get his hands on one of the, soon to be re-brained, girls. Victor is a bit of a sad case. Strung along by Mrs March and promised the wealth of her fortune, but ultimately treated like a doormat, Victor is essentially a slave to her will.
Victor
After an examination of each one by the Doctor, supervised by a slightly pervy Victor, the lucky winner is discovered. As a result, Beatrice's list of chores is reduced to zero, and she is given a nice bedroom to kick off her shoes in. She is told later by Mrs March not to run up and down the stairs, as it will produce ugly leg muscles. As for the other two, Anita gets a bed in the basement, and Nina gets a small room elsewhere in the house. Suspicious that something isn't quite right, the girls offer their resignation almost immediately.
Before the March-Beatrice brain swap, Dr. Frank tests his apparatus out on Anita - caught snooping about the mansion - and the house cat. He succeeds. Anita spends the rest of the movie hissing and hunting mice before scratching out one of Beatrice's eyes, and falling off the roof to her death.
To the horror of Mrs March, Beatrice's disfigured face and missing eyeball - now kept alive by one of Dr. Frank's other machines - is no longer acceptable, and Nina is bumped up to first place.
Mrs March's plan was this. Leave the sizable fortune to Nina, jump into her body and claim the inheritance back. Not a bad idea really.
Finally realising that he was being lead on for so long, and would be abandoned once the brain transfer had taken place, Victor decides to help the remaining girls escape. He pays for it by getting a size 20 knitting needle in the back at the hands of Mrs March.
At this point, Dr. Frank seems to be questioning the morality of his and the old lady's work. With Nina and Mrs March prepped on gurneys, and Beatrice imobilised, he begins to have a change of heart. Although, he does say that in order to keep his grant money for research coming, he'll have to think of a way of keeping the newly bodied Mrs March around.
In struggling to remain on the moral high-ground, he puts Mrs March's brain into the cat - which would have been holding Anita's brain, but this was overlooked - and spares Nina.
Not happy with her feline situation, Mrs March traps Dr. Frank in the Cyclotron with a wave of her paws over the door latch, and presses the self destruct button. In a shower of sparks, the doctor is reduced to a skeleton, which gives Nina her chance to escape. Beatrice is accidentally electrocuted and killed in the commotion.
Free and running scared through the grounds, Nina looks back toward the burning mansion, while the narrator explains that the cat-bodied Mrs March will continue to hunt and follow Nina where ever she goes to retrieve her wealth.
Interestingly, the IMDB entry for this film lists it as being called, "Monstrosity", which is much more fitting. It's goes on to say in the 'trivia' section, that it was shot in ten days.
Gadgetry: "The Cyclotron" that provides the mind melding atomic fission required to swap the brain of a cat, with that of a house maid. The Doc also has a perspex box that can keep human tissue - or Beatrice's eyeball - alive by way of "electric vibrations."
Favorite quote: "I to, fight to preserve life..." Dr. Frank, the most believable character. His diatribe of justification is brilliant.
Inversely, the prize for worse line goes to the narrator:
"Victor wondered which one Mrs March would pick. The little Mexican, the girl from Vienna, or the buxom blond? Victor knew his pick, but he still felt uneasy, making love to an 80 year old woman in the body of a 20 year old girl..."
Favorite bit: It's only 64 minutes. Plus there's a few nice classic cars on the highway on the drive back from the airport.
Bottom line: Apart from the title getting my hopes up. The film doesn't break much new ground in the way of mad science. It's not terrible, but the endless narration at the start is.
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