"Nothing is unbelievable if you have the nerve to experiment." (Dr. Bill Cortner)
I f there was a movie theater in Noirsville this is exactly the type of twisted film you'd expect it to show.
Written and directed by Joseph Green in a one off film. The film was based on an original story by Rex Carlton and Joseph Green. Cinematography was by Stephen Hajnal, Music was probably stock suspense tracks put in by the Sound Department which was Emil Kolisch, and Robert E. Lessner The Soundtrack for the body shopping sequences was "The Web" composed by Tony Restaino and performed by Abe Baker, by permission of Laurel Records.
Lets call it Tail Fin Jazz It's quite sleazy enjoy!
And a big thanks to producer Rex Carlton and Mort Landberg associate producer for Rex Carlton Productions for giving us this gem.
"FILM NOIR HAD AN INEVITABLE TRAJECTORY… THE ECCENTRIC & OFTEN GUTSY STYLE OF FILM NOIR HAD NO WHERE ELSE TO GO… BUT TO REACH FOR EVEN MORE OFF-BEAT, DEVIANT– ENDLESSLY RISKY & TABOO ORIENTED SET OF NARRATIVES FOUND IN THE SUBVERSIVE CULT FILMS OF THE MID TO LATE 50s through the 60s and into the early 70s! " The Last Drive In ( thelastdrivein.com )
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| Jason Evers as Dr. Bill Cortner |
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| Dr. Bill and Virginia Leith center as Jan Compton |
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| Leslie Daniel as Kurt |
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| Lola Mason as Donna Williams |
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| Adele Lamont as Doris Powell |
The film stars Jason Evers as Dr. Bill Cortner, Virginia Leith as Jan Compton, Leslie Daniel as Kurt, Adele Lamont as Doris Powell, Bonnie Sharie as blonde stripper, Paula Maurice as brunette stripper, Marilyn Hanold as Peggy Howard, Bruce Brighton as Dr. Cortner, Arny Freeman as photographer, Fred Martin as medical assistant, Lola Mason as Donna Williams, Doris Brent as nurse, Bruce Kerr as beauty contest M.C., Audrey Devereal as Jeannie Reynolds, Eddie Carmel as monster, and Sammy Petrillo as Art.
The Story
Darkness. A voice. Woman. Pleading. "Let Me Die!"
Then the main titles/credits starting with THE BRAIN THAT WOULDNT DIE.,,
Dr. Cortner: I should have known he was as good as dead when they wheeled him in.
Nurse: You did everything you could.
Dr. Cortner Everything... everything except save my patient
Dr. Bill Cortner: Everything in the books.
Dr. Bill Cortner. A brilliant surgeon. A Stud. His father the head surgeon has just lost a patient on the operating table. Dr. Bill asks if he can try something. An experiential procedure. His father objects at first.
Cortner is borderline mad scientist. His father objects to his medical experiments with transplants. The unexplained traces, found in the hospital of his following through on his unorthodox theories, are being noticed.
Dr. Cortner: The Superintendent had it out with me. He thinks it's you who's been stealing those limbs from the amputee operations.
Dr. Bill Cortner: So what if it is?
Anyway, Dr. Bill tells him he's dead what harm can be done? The father reluctantly agrees, tells him the corpse is his, and assists Dr. Bill as they stimulate the brain and tinker around with the heart. The patient is revived. Dr. Bill feels once again justified.
His father berates him for playing god. Dr. Bill counters that obstetricians have to decide whether to save the life of the mother or the child all the time. "who plays God then? Its all part of the game."
His father eventually though grudgingly admits that he did perform a miracle. Dr. Bill's goal is to perfect the "key" to "complete transplantation."
Dr. Bill's fiancée Jan "every time you touch me I go out of my mind" Compton, is another operating room nurse.
Jan: Bill I want to get married I can't stand not having you.
Dr. Bill Cortner: You've been wonderful.
Jan: I'd rather be your bride.
After gets he gets a message from his assistant Kurt, that something terrible has happened up at the country place he asks Jan if she wants to see what's been keeping him away on the weekends. He's worried about his secret laboratory and his greatest experiments.
These issues are dancing around in Dr. Bills head as he drives Jan's 1959 Mercury Park Lane convertible up to his personal Nirvana.
Unfortunately, Dr. Bill gets a little too reckless. He starts speeding around the narrow lane mountain curves and two lane county roads to get to the house but his mind is racing ahead to his experiment.
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| Tail Fins 1959 Mercury Park Lane |
He has his pedal almost to the metal. Cutting corners. Weaving across the double yellow. Squealing tires. Some very impressive stylistic cinematography in this sequence.
Practically to the house he takes one last cuvre too fast. The Merc crashes the guardrail.
It flips over. Dr. Bill is thrown clear. The guard rail we find out has severed off Jan's head. The Merc bursts into flames. Dr. Bill runs over to the burning wreck.
Jan's body is mangled but her head is still in perfect condition. Quick thinking Dr. Bill removes his sport jacket tenderly reaches down to the floor boards and "rescues" Jan's head.
He runs frantically across fields and woodlots, stumbling up to the Cortner family's country house (It's Lynwood near Tarrytown used in House of Dark Shadows). He's delicately cradling Jan's head There he gets Kurt his assistant to prepare a pan of solution. On a lab table Dr. Bill begins his greatest experimental surgery procedure.
Kurt tells Dr Bill that he's mad. But Dr. Bill promises that he'll get her another body, and make her like before.
So begins our demented descent into Noirsville as Dr. Bill becomes obsessed with going on a "Body Shopping" spree through Westchester, Yonkers, and Fort Lee, New Jersey for his beloved Jan. Its quite the kinky love story. Complicating things are Jan-in the-pan's unexpected development of psycho telepathic powers over Dr. Bills experiential seven foot tall transplant cadaver (brought back to life previously) that he keeps locked up in the labs closet.
Noirsville
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| Dona is a Camera Club Model |
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| Moulin Rouge on West 52nd Street |
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| Moulin Rouge doormat on West 52nd |
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| Dona is a nude Camera Club Model in the international cut of film |
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| Bonnie Sharie as blonde stripper |
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| the international cut |
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| Tail Fins - 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Sunliner |
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| international cut of film |
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| the international cut of film |
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| Fort Lee, NJ Animal Hospital |
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| the international cut of film |
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| the international cut of film |
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| the international cut of film |
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| "I trusted a man once,,, All the Way!" |
The whole film is entertainingly bizarre. Watching Dr. Bill (who apparently is a chick magnet) scoping out the strippers at The Moulin Rouge night club is a riot. It's all depicted to the appropriately sleazy strains of "The Web," the films "body shopping" leitmotif, the sequence is just priceless.
The Moulin Rouge was possibly a night club on "The Street." 52nd street between 5th & 6th Avenue in Manhattan or somewhere nearby, that was once a jazz Mecca. In the fifties the venue changed bebop to stripper lounge acts. This could be the only film footage of the joint.
The same leitmotif plays while Dr. Bill is slowly trolling the streets of Fort Lee, New Jersey in his 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Sunliner. The babes that notice him think he's interested in a date. He also visits a beauty contest. Finally we get a nice little sequence with a Camera Club nude model named Doris that was shot for the international cut. In the US version Doris is wearing a bikini.
Jason Evers (a fairly successful TV and bit part film actor was active until 1990), is pretty convincing as as Dr. Bill Cortner, For Virginia Leith who was in Film Noirs Black Widow (1954), Violent Saturday (1955), and A Kiss Before Dying (1956), this film must have been a career low point. Leslie Daniel as Kurt has a chuckle inducing death scene after having his arm ripped out by the roots that lasts what seems like five minutes. Eddie Carmel the 7 plus foot tall "Jewish Giant" played the monster.
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| Oded Ha-Carmeili stage name Eddie Camel with his parents - Diane Arbus |
Camel was in showbiz. The carny sideshow amusement biz. He appeared on West 42nd Street at Hubert's Dime Museum and Flea Circus. Traveled with Milt Levine's World of Mirth Carnival, and after this film with Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Adele Lamont who played Doris was born in New Jersey, as Adele Cracciola in 1931. She really gives off both a beatnik chick and bohemian artists / photographers model vibe (I wouldn't be surprised if she was the real McCoy), too bad she never made any other films. Her one unforgettable line is, after she tells Dr. Bill that she hates all men since her date rape back in high school declaris to him that "I trusted a man once, All The Way!"
This film has a new Bluray release from Shout Factory. 7/10.
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