Madmen of Mandoras (1963)

They Saved Hitler's Brain
Amazing Mr. H
The Return of Mr. H

Cast:

Walter Stocker is Phil Day
Audrey Caire is Kathy Coleman 'K.C.' Day
Carlos Rivas is Camino Padua / Teo Padua
John Holland is Prof. John Coleman
Marshall Reed is Frank Dvorak

What the box says:

Filled with action, this dramatic story is about a group of fanatics on the island of Mandoras who - in their attempts to eliminate all threats to their diabolical plot to conquer the world - kidnap a famous American neurobiologist, triggering a rescue search that blows their plan to bits.

Plot:

Stock footage of an elephant is shown with a narration of an extremely deadly poison gas. Professor John Colman talks about the new small antidote for it. A phone call interrupts him and reveals his daughter has been kidnapped. Rushing home, some goons grab him.

The Frank Zappa clone grabs Phil, Colman's son-in-law, who works for some secret law enforcement agency. Phil is told that Colman was taken to the country, Madoras. The goons catch up and shoot Frank Zappa clone.

The meek shall inherit nothing...

Phil and his wife, Casey, Colman's non-kidnapped daughter fly to Mandoras. The police chief give them the 5 star welcome greeting. At the hotel, Camino, Frank Zappa's clone's brother, reveals he's been following them and how Professor Colman was kidnapped by a Nazi group. Flashback to World War 2, Hitler had doubles. He thought doctors could make him immortal, by preserving his head. Camino heeds Phil's help. The Nazi group plan to destroy Colman's antidote to the nerve gas.

Later, Suzanne, Colman's kidnapped daughter, spots Phil and Casey at a cafe. Shots ring out; the police chief blames Phil and hauls him off to jail. Afterwards, he's taken to the Presidential mansion where Suzanne and Casey are. Phil meets the country's president.

Suzanne, Casey, and Phil are taken to Professor Colman.

Phil is taken to his imprisoners and their leader: Hitler's head in a jar.

This can be nothing good...Hitler's head in a jar...

Standing room only takes a different meaning when your leader is pickled in a jar.

Back at the cell, Phil overpowers the guards. The police chief and President are working undercover to help Phil. Breaking out, Suzy, Casey, Colman, Phil, Chief and Prez split up to reach help while being chased by troops.

Hitler's head in a jar is taken to a car.

Reaching town, the troops search for Phil. Chief manages to cap one of the guards.

Our heroes reach the cave where the general plans on riding out the poison gas attack. Stock footage plane ensues. Commando Phil with grenade fu lets the explosions fly.

The Nazi car stalls caught on fire.

Dictator head in a jar caught on fire...Priceless.. Flaming Hitler head in ajar ensues as the wax head melts.

President thanks the heroes. They learn Suzanne married Camino. Hilarity...

What I say:

I can't list every truly strange movie titles. Can't include all the reviewed movies on my site: Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, I Married a Monster From Outer Space, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave, Robot Versus the Aztec Mummy, and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. If you like check my review page for some of the other strange ones. Plenty of movies I've yet to review like The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Suddenly Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies and Rat-Phink A-Boo-Boo. Think it is fair to say that this movie's other better known title They Saved Hitler's Brain is hard to forget.

Take a movie that was made years earlier and just tack in a little more extra footage into it to make an entirely different movie. This movie had a different version which transformed it from Madmen of Mandoras into They Saved Hitler's Brain. Colman's daughter's popping in and out of the movie is a little hard to keep track of. At first, just the audio could have implied the kidnapped daughter. It has been done in Beast From Yucca Flats and Monster A-Go-Go. However, it has been more commonly done in super-imposing white guys as ninjas into movies. That isn't the cheapest way.

Brains seem to get the worst treatment as internal organs going bad. Zombies seem to love feast on them. Brainiac has a brain eating monster. However, the typical brain removed from the body and the head automatically becomes evil like the Brain That Wouldn't Die (OK, that was an evil head...). Of course, the extraterrestrial brain in the Evil Brain From Outer Space was evil. The Brain From Planet Arous had a good and evil brains.

A movie with Hitler's head or brain trying to keep conquering the world shouldn't wait for more than a half hour until getting to the head in the jar. The gag with any extremely wild title like this one just seems self-defeating when it takes so long to get to it. For example, with a movie with "Godzilla" in the title, you should be able to expect some giant lizard destroying a city except with Ferris Bueller in Godzilla's Day Off. With the additional footage added in years afterwards, it makes sense for it to take a while before getting to the the only reason people want to watch this movie: They Saved Hitler's Brain. Imagine a movie that just has a wax head dummy in a jar as the main villain. It makes it a little hard to follow when the villain doesn't even have the obligatory rant concerning world domination. The severed heads in Futurama at least talk. Movie vampires at least have some lame fangs for vampire teeth. Typical monsters have bad masks or costumes.

Quotable Dialogue
"With a wife like this who needs a girlfriend?"
"But, not Mr. H."
"Take 5, Cat!"
"This time answer in English."
"Does it really give orders?"
Morals of the Story
Phone booths can be used as coffins.
Police chiefs are baggage handlers.
Small countries only have 1 hotel.
Ohio exports many waiters to countries in South America.
Hysterical people can be quickly be calmed by slapping them.