''They Saved Hitler's Brain'' is a 1968 TV movie directed by David Bradley. It was adapted for television from a shorter 1963 theatrical

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

, ''Madmen of Mandoras'', directed by Bradley and produced by Carl Edwards. The film was lengthened by about 20 minutes with additional footage shot by

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

students at the request of the distributor. It is often cited as being one of the worst films ever made.

Plot

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

is over, and

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

officials remove

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's living head and hide it in the fictional

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

n country of Mandoras, so that they can resurrect

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in the future. Fast-forwarding into the 1960s, the surviving officials kidnap a scientist with expertise in

nerve gas Nerve agents, sometimes also called nerve gases, are a class of organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs. The disruption is caused by the blocking of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an enzyme that ...

in an attempt to conquer the world. The scientist's son-in-law, who is a security operative, and the scientist's daughter travel to Mandoras to rescue the scientist and foil the evil plot.

Cast

* Walter Stocker as Phil Day * Audrey Caire as Kathy Coleman "K.C." Day * Carlos Rivas as Camino Padua / Teo Padua * John Holland as Prof. John Coleman *

Marshall Reed Marshall Jewel Reed (May 28, 1917 – April 15, 1980) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1943 and 1978. He was born in Englewood, Colorado. Early years Reed's parents were Walter George Reed and Ruth Dustin. By a ...

as Frank Dvorak * Scott Peters as David Garrick * Keith Dahle as Tom Sharon * Dani Lynn as Suzanne Coleman *

Nestor Paiva Nestor Caetano Paiva (June 30, 1905 – September 9, 1966) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor of Portuguese descent. He performed in over 400 motion pictures either as an extra, a bit player, or as a significant supporting ...

as Police Chief Alaniz *

Pedro Regas Petros "Pedro" Regas (born Panagiotis Thomas Regakos; April 18, 1897 – August 10, 1974 in Hollywood, Los Angeles), a veteran stage actor, Regas was spotted on the Broadway stage by Mary Pickford who persuaded him to go to Hollywood and be i ...

as Presidente Juan Padua * Bill Freed as

Production

Shot in 1962 under the

working title A working title is a preliminary name for a product or project. The usage is especially common in film and TV, gaming, music and publishing. It is often styled in trade publications as (wt) and is synonymous with production title and tentative ...

''The Return of Mr.H'', the film was eventually released in 1963 for a limited showing with the title ''Madmen of Mandoras''. Paragon Films acquired the rights to the film and shot 18 more minutes of footage to give a running time of over 90 minutes in order to obtain a higher fee when sold to television where it was included in a package of films.

Parodies in popular culture

In ''The Simpsons''

* In the season 4 episode

Duffless "Duffless" is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on February 18, 1993. Homer gets arrested for drunk driving, and Marge asks h ...

, Hitler's severed head is seen in a jar on a conveyer belt in the Duff Brewery. * In the season 7 finale, Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in The Curse of the Flying Hellfish, Abe Simpson mutters "Now they'll never save your brain, Hitler." before attempting to assassinate Hitler. * The penultimate episode of the 10th season, "

They Saved Lisa's Brain "They Saved Lisa's Brain" is the twenty-second and penultimate episode of the The Simpsons season 10, tenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox in the United States ...

", is a play on the film's title. *

Simpsons Comics The following is a list of comic book series published by Bongo Comics based on the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. The first comic strips based on ''The Simpsons'' appeared in 1991 in the magazine ''Simpsons Illustrated'' (n ...

referenced the title in the story "They Saved Homer's Brain" in 1996.

In other media

* In 1986, the film was featured in an episode of the '' Canned Film Festival''. * In a story arc in ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics Inc., which later merged into National ...

'' from 1988,

Lex Luthor Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor () is a supervillain in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the character first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #23 (published on February 22, 1940, with a cover d ...

, learning that he is dying, stages his own death and has his brain preserved in a jar while wired to a computer, while a new body is cloned for him. He then re-emerges as his supposed illegitimate son Alexander Luthor, Jr. The story arc was collected in 2000 in a trade paperback titled ''They Saved Luthor's Brain!''. * Los Angeles punk band

Angry Samoans The Angry Samoans was an American punk rock band from the first wave of American punk. Formed in August 1978 in Los Angeles, California, by early 1970s rock writer "Metal" Mike Saunders, his sibling lead guitarist Bonze BlaykBad Trip Records ...

included the song "They Saved Hitler's Cock" on their 1982 album ''

Back from Samoa ''Back from Samoa'' is the debut full-length album by the American punk rock band Angry Samoans. It was released in 1982 on Bad Trip Records. Production After the release of Inside My Brain, "Metal Mike" Saunders left the group, and was repla ...

''. * An episode of the U.S. cartoon ''

Duckman ''Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man'', commonly known simply as ''Duckman'', is an American adult animated sitcom created and developed by Everett Peck, based on the characters he created in his 1990 one-shot comic book published by Dark Horse Com ...

'' was entitled "They Craved Duckman's Brain", based on the premise that Duckman, after falling asleep in an active CAT scanner, developed an isotope in his brain that could cure cancer, but getting to it would kill Duckman. *

Local H Local H is an American rock band co-founded in 1990 in Zion, Illinois by guitarist and vocalist Scott Lucas, who has remained the band's sole consistent member. Following the departures of the early line-up's bassist and lead guitarist, Lucas a ...

's album '' Hallelujah! I'm a Bum'' includes a song titled "They Saved Reagan's Brain".

Reception

The film "won" the First World's Worst Film Festival in

Ottawa, Canada Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau ...

in 1979. Bradley was reportedly delighted when he learned his film was crowned the worst ever made. The film

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives ''They Saved Hitler's Brain'' a rare rating of 0%, based on 5 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 1.3/10. ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' described it as "One of the all-time worst". Film critic

Danny Peary Dannis Peary (born August 8, 1949) is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written and edited many books on Film, cinema and sports-related topics. Peary is most famous for his book ''Cult Movies (book), Cult Movies'' (1980), which s ...

said it was "A legitimate candidate for Worst Film Ever Made title." It was also one of the selections for ''

The Golden Turkey Awards ''The Golden Turkey Awards'' is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry. About The book awards the titular "Golden Turkey Awards" to films judged by the authors as poor in quality, and to directors and actors judged to ha ...

''.

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

gave the film the lowest possible rating (BOMB). Maltin said it was "unbelievably muddled" after the additional footage, but he praised Cortez's cinematography.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0057273, The Madmen of Mandoras 1963 films 1968 television films 1968 films 1960s science fiction films Films about Adolf Hitler American science fiction films American television films American black-and-white films Crown International Pictures films American independent films American mad scientist films Films directed by David Bradley Nazi exploitation films Nazi zombie films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language science fiction films