Creature With The Atom Brain (1955)

I wanted to see this based on my love of the Roky Erickson song of the same name. I knew it was going to be schlocky fifties fun and stupid and probably boring. It was all of these things.

The plot is that a mobster employs the help of a mad scientist to reanimate dead bodies to kill the mobsters enemies. Every character explains exactly what they are doing or about to do or is looking at throughout the entire film. “Look, those look like zombies with atom brains out for blood!” “Lets get into a car and drive to the police station.” I was pretty excited that Roky takes dialogue straight from the movie for lyrics. I also liked that people would be walking around with rods of uranium in their hands making idle conversations.

I did enjoy it, a funny timecapsule of its era. The main hero character Dr. Chet Walker’s home life is a riot, the girl that plays his daughter has totally classic “bad child actor” style.