I regret to inform you that, despite the title, no brains are eaten during this film. Taken over, yes, and dissolved, but not eaten.
Tagline: “Crawling Slimy Things Terror-Bent on Destroying the World!”
WTF Factor: ***
Notable Quote:
Walter K. Powers: “I can do without the double talk. I don’t like to push you, Kettering, but you science boys tend to get all wrapped up in your test tubes and the obvious things escape your attention. I’ve got to have something to report. I want action, not theories!”
Synopsis: The movie is narrated by Glenn Cameron (Alan Frost), son of the mayor of Riverdale, Illinois, and a product of the Joe Friday School of Wooden Delivery. Returning home one night with his fiancée Elaine, there’s a big explosion. Investigating, they find many dead animals and what appears to be a spaceship cone.
Washington is notified and Senator Walter K. Powers (Cornelius Keefe, billed as Jack Hill) comes to the town to discredit the report.
There have been several murders in town and the mayor is missing. Doctors Kettering (Edwin Nelson) and Wyler (David Hughes) are investigating the cone; the ship is virtually indestructible. Secretary Alice Summers (Joanna Lee) is taking notes. Kettering crawls inside but finds nothing inside except spiraling passages; he comes out the same place he went in.
The mayor reappears in his office but he’s under some sort of mind control and tries unsuccessfully to kill himself. Along comes Walter K. Powers with our merry band of science folks! The mayor orders Kettering and company to leave town. Kettering notices a pulsating blob on the back of his neck under his shirt, looking like a kitten got loose back there. The mayor pulls a gun and Kettering slaps the blob. The mayor goes berserk, fighting and shooting the floor several times. The mayor is then shot real good by the Sheriff and deputy.
An autopsy shows a parasite with two piercing prongs on the back of his neck. Kettering concludes that people are no longer human while the parasite is attached. When removed, the prongs release acid to destroy the central nervous system. People are acting as a fast transportation vehicle for the slow moving parasites. How Kettering got all that from the autopsy is a mystery.
The Sheriff gets gotten by parasite zombies with a glowing globe containing a parasite. Kettering and Alice investigate the mayor’s blob and Kettering is attacked, but he burns the parasite from his arm. My scientist self is screaming about drinking Bunsen burner coffee during a gooey alien autopsy, all the while making moves on Alice.
The gang goes back to the cone, which Wyler figures is only a fuel section of a bigger rocket. The parasites are intelligent, and they pick targets carefully. That’s why they chose the mayor. Walter K. Powers now believes the story and calls the Sheriff, who is too twitchy to answer. Uh oh.
Naturally the investigators split up to search in the dark, after the men threaten to take the “girls” back to town, which, no. They search for the rest of the rocket and nearly get what they deserve.
Walter K. Powers tries to warn the governor but the telegraph agent is controlled by the parasites. When they get back to the mayor’s office, they find a whole set of jars with parasites. Kettering sums up the situation well:
“Well, we’ve all had an object lesson on how not to conduct a search.”
That night, the Sheriff and fellow parasite zombies bring a parasite to Alice, who maybe needs a screen on her bedroom window. She now wanders off in a flimsy nightdress and high heels with the Sheriff. Kettering is not pleased.
A Professor Helsingen [who?] crawls out of the cone, dying of a heart attack and rejected by his parasite. The gang questions him vigorously.
Notable Dialogue:
Glenn: “Will he live?”
Kettering: “No, but he’s going to, at least as long as science can make him.”
Turns out Helsingen and a Professor Cole ran a scientific expedition that disappeared five years before. Helsingen says the parasites come from within the earth from the Carboniferous Age, then he dies. The group attempts to contact the outside world; after all, it’s Walter K. Powers, but they are cut off by parasitized operators. Powers goes to the radio station and tries to announce his presence (“This is Walter K. Powers!”), but no signal is going out.
Kettering, Glenn, Elaine, Powers, and Wiley returned to the ship. The guards attack, but are shot by Kettering real good after all the men pull out their guns. Kettering and Glenn enter the cone and find Cole, an old guru type who is one of the creatures and speaks in Leonard Nimoy’s voice. They have come to eliminate strife on earth, forcibly if necessary. The ship is full of parasites (but apparently not the original spirals).
Kettering has a plan to electrocute the parasites in the cone by shooting a harpoon at high tension wires. Alice comes out of the cone and Kettering tries to save her, but she shoots him. Glenn connects the wires and saves the world; Kettering, Alice, and the brain eaters cook. So what about all the parasite zombies in town?
“We’ll get them or you don’t know Walter K. Powers.”
You almost believe him. The end.
Thoughts: This movie is worth 61 minutes as a group watch. It’s a mostly bland bunch of characters, but Walter K. Powers (Jack Hill, elsewhere known as Cornelius Keefe) is an officious delight. You could make a pro-level drinking game with a shot every time he refers to himself as “Walter K. Powers” (to distinguish himself from the other Senator Walter Powers, I guess). If you want to walk away from the viewing, however, maybe you could just down one every time he says “I want action!”
The movie was directed by Bruno VeSota, who also directed Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962) and has a long list of television and movie acting credits. He is probably best known as Yvette Vickers’ jealous husband in Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959). The movie is generally competent (especially for a six day shooting schedule) with a few flourishes. VeSota films the scene in the mayor’s office with Dutch angles and uses a “monster-cam” point of view when the parasite is creeping up on a sleeping Alice. There are serious day-for-night problems; most of the outdoor scenes look like daylight, while the stage sets look like nighttime, but those are probably just film processing flaws.
The plot does bear a significant resemblance to Robert Heinlein’s novel The Puppet Masters; enough so that Heinlein sued. The case was settled for a nominal sum and an agreement that Heinlein would NOT receive screen credit, at Heinlein’s request. Heh.
Notable Credit: Recorded by TV RECORDERS
Random bits:
- Poor Leonard Nimoy is impossible to recognize in his tiny role as Professor Cole, but there is no mistaking that voice. He is billed as Leonard Nemoy.
- For scientists, they sure carry a lot of guns and hypodermics.
- The parasites look like steel wool pads with sad pipe cleaner antennae (anemic, wet tribbles, perhaps).
- For obvious reasons, the late, great Los Angeles horror host Seymour (Larry Vincent) had a running gag referring to the film as “Attack of the Bunny Slippers.”
Suggested double feature: The Brain From Planet Arous (1957), for sure.
Tagline for the coming attraction: “Nothing Human Loves Forever”
