| Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.) Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| The Brain Eaters (1958) | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 13 2007, 07:24 AM (458 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Jul 13 2007, 07:24 AM Post #1 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
A few years ago, I was a consultant on a series of “Arkoff Vault” titles released on DVD in England; the final series totaled 25 films, including such gems as How to Make a Monster, War of the Colossal Beast, Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, Teenage Caveman, and Rock all Night. Y’know, classic stuff. One of the films in the series, though, I’ve never seen, and I selected it just on its pedigree and title: The Brain Eaters, adapted from Robert A. Heinlein’s story “The Puppet Masters” and starring Ed Nelson. I forget which American-International Pictures film it was paired with, but for whatever reason I’d never seen the darn thing, one of the few (if not the only) AIP horror/sci-fi films of the 1950s I can say that about. So, that’s was the second presentation in our all-night marathon. During a pre-title sequence, the narrator tells us, “Riverdale… just another quiet, small town.. and then on that Saturday, shortly after midnight, a LIVING NIGHTMARE began!” Yikes! Is Archie Andrews okay? Hey! Bruno Vesota, the fat guy in such film classics as The Undead and Attack of the Giant Leeches, is the director! Cool! Only In The Balcony could take you from director Charlie Chaplin to director Bruno Vesota! Tom Jonson’s music score for the theme is excellent! First three minutes, and I love this film. It reminds me of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, and that’s high praise. The enthused narrator sounds like William Conrad on The Bullwinkle Show. “The NATURE of the cone remains… UNDETERMINED!” I checked my old notes… The Brain Eaters was the original co-feature with Earth vs. the Spider. Incidentally, if you want to learn all about my Arkoff DVD project, go to http://inthebalcony.com/page3.html. Daffy science, stilted dialog (“Could anything have gone wrong?” “I don’t know.”) and a lack of special effects. Like I said, I love this movie. Some sort of metallic cone has appeared in the woods outside of town, three townsfolk have died under mysterious circumstances, and the mayor is having hysterics and trying to shoot himself. And what is that thing on the back of his neck? “I don’t know.” I grew up on films like this one (yes, there are other films like this one). My big bruddah used to take me to the movies every weekend at the decaying Forum Theatre in downtown Akron, Ohio, now long gone. Well, that is, the Forum is long gone; downtown Akron is, so far as I know, still there. Anyway, there was a decaying banner hanging from the decaying marquee at this decaying theatre, “Always Three Big Features!” and so they were. I dunno what they showed the rest of the week, but on weekends they had triple features of 1950s monster films, mainly from AIP, Allied Artists, and Universal. A typical show might include Monster on the Campus, I was a Teenage Frankenstein, and Attack of the Crab Monsters. If we were really lucky, the newsstand on the next block had the latest copy of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” too. Man, life was good. Now, I “own” all those films, and show them to my own kids and the kids in the neighborhood. I hope they mean as much to them as they did to me; I think they do. The Brain Eaters have shown up in this film; they look like a cross between leeches and cockroaches. Ewww. “Some of this is fact and some of this is scientific hunch,” Mr. Nelson tells us. Hey, they get bigger! Now they’re fuzzy and they have antennae made from pipe cleaners! Actually, they’re adorable! I’d love one! Ed Nelson, producer/star of The Brain Eaters, can also be seen in such motion picture masterpieces as Attack of the Crab Monsters, Carnival Rock (a great R&R movie that hardly anybody knows about; find it!), Rock All Night, Teenage Doll, Teenage Caveman, A Bucket of Blood, and about 50 other Roger Corman movies. Holy cow! They made it inside that cone, and whom do they find in there? Leonard Nimoy, beloved star of Zombies of the Stratosphere, Francis goes to West Point and some forgotten sci-fi TV series. The movie clocks in at a brisk 61 min. Excellent job of editing; at 62 min. it would’ve been way too long. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| Johnny Sokko | Aug 13 2007, 04:49 PM Post #2 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Great movie.Lucky enough to have a t.v. print of it. |
![]() |
|
| shelbyvinje | Sep 14 2008, 07:45 PM Post #3 |
|
Lee Meriwether fan
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I have a print from laserdisc release and it's original. (Sorry, I am going to give it away) but the space ship and aliens are not -- turns out they drilled from underneath the surface. They remade it under the title of THE PUPPET MASTERS and incidentally, I recommend you read the novel. Much more graphic than the movie version. |
![]() |
|
| MovieMan | Sep 15 2008, 07:48 AM Post #4 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Is this the one where the people are trapped in the basement of a castle or church and if the antennas touch you then you die? Its in colour? |
![]() |
|
| Laughing Gravy | Sep 15 2008, 08:44 AM Post #5 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
No. That one sounds pretty good though! |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| MovieMan | Sep 15 2008, 08:46 AM Post #6 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I just caught the trailer on YouTube and its what I think I have been looking for for years. Cheers to In The Balcony for reviving some of my lost youth!
|
![]() |
|
| Laughing Gravy | Sep 15 2008, 08:59 AM Post #7 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Other favorite BRAIN movies include The Brain from Planet Arous with John Agar and Fiend Without A Face with... ummm.... not John Agar. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · It Came from Beyond the Balcony · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)



6:37 AM Jul 11