Thanks to brisk pacing by director by Edward L. Cahn, the film moves so quickly that the viewer doesn’t have much of a chance to question the logic.
When gangster Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger) wants to get revenge on his enemies, he employs an oddly complicated way of doing it. He recruits a former Nazi scientist (Gregory Gay) to reanimate dead bodies to carry out their murders. I guess if you want something done, you’ve got to get a recently deceased corpse to do it.
As Creature with the Atom Brain opens, a casino owner is attacked by a man who breaks into his office. His spine and neck are broken and the assailant leaves behind some curious clues. His fingerprints, footprints, and even his blood are luminous. Enter police forensic scientist Dr. Chet Walker (Richard Denning, Creature from the Black Lagoon) and Captain Dave Harris (S. John Launer.) As the pair investigate the clues, bodies killed in a similar fashion begin piling up around town.
Dr. Walker, using some pseudo-scientific terminology, determines that the luminous material left behind is some kind of radioactive blood replacement. When the fingerprint results come back from the FBI, they belong to a man who died in prison two weeks before. Dr. Walker and Captain Harris have to locate the source of these radioactive killers. Thankfully, Buchanan is far from a criminal genius.
It’s pretty clear from the onset that Creature with the Atom Brain was made with a limited budget. Thanks to brisk pacing by director by Edward L. Cahn, the film moves so quickly that the viewer doesn’t have much of a chance to question the logic. Visually, director of photography Fred Jackman Jr. musters up a few truly clever shots. (The opening murder scene documents the spine-cracking power of the killer without being too graphic.)
Creature with the Atom Brain was written by veteran screenwriter Curt Siodmak (The Wolf Man.) As I watched, I was reminded of a similarly-themed movie, The Magnetic Monster. In that 1953 film, investigators track down the source of a dangerous radioactive organism. I didn’t realize until afterwards that The Magnetic Monster was also written by Siodmak. Both films, of course, capitalized on the public’s fear and ignorance surrounding radiation and atomic energy. I also noticed its use of what are essentially murderous zombies predates George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead by 15 years. Romero’s iconic undead ghouls definitely derived some of their mannerisms from the “creatures” of this movie.
While not exactly gripping cinema, Creature with the Atom Brain is a competently made — if excessively talky — science-fiction/horror movie.
2.5 out of 5.0 stars
