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Monster Movies
Nov. 30th, 2011 12:06 amRe-watched _Creature With the Atomic Brain_ tonight for the first time in years. I noticed a few things which - checking afterwards online - others had also noticed. Scriptwriter Curt Siodmak apparently included some deliberately funny moments which I didn't catch as a kid, many of them parodying both the tropes of similar movies and the popular image of modern life in the America of the mid-Fifties. I actually laughed at what appeared to be a pipe-smoking contest between the main character and a medical consultant.
The basic premise is pretty interesting. Deported gangster returns to the US with German (Nazi?) scientist to get revenge on those who sent him away. The method is to steal freshly-dead bodies, wire them with radio controls and animate them with synthetic blood containing nutrients, stimulants and radioactive materials. Yes, there is some clumsy terminology and weird science. Yes, Richard Denning can't pronounce "selenium." It's still a fun movie. The first line spoken by the blank-gazed zombie who breaks into the rival gangster's office is quite effective, especially spoken as it is in a mechanical near-monotone: I told you I'd come back.
Hmmm... A modern remake could be quite effective, if played straight. (Or mostly straight... some humor would work, especially early on, before the characters realize just how serious things are.)
The basic premise is pretty interesting. Deported gangster returns to the US with German (Nazi?) scientist to get revenge on those who sent him away. The method is to steal freshly-dead bodies, wire them with radio controls and animate them with synthetic blood containing nutrients, stimulants and radioactive materials. Yes, there is some clumsy terminology and weird science. Yes, Richard Denning can't pronounce "selenium." It's still a fun movie. The first line spoken by the blank-gazed zombie who breaks into the rival gangster's office is quite effective, especially spoken as it is in a mechanical near-monotone: I told you I'd come back.
Hmmm... A modern remake could be quite effective, if played straight. (Or mostly straight... some humor would work, especially early on, before the characters realize just how serious things are.)
