The Man Without a Body (1957)

A wealthy business man discovers he has a brain tumor and seeks medical help. The business man finds a scientist experimenting with transplanting monkey heads on different monkey bodies. ... See full summary »

Directors:

Charles Saunders, W. Lee Wilder

Writer:

William Grote (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert Hutton, George Coulouris, Julia Arnall

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Hutton	...	Dr. Phil R. Merritt
George Coulouris	...	Karl Brussard
Julia Arnall	...	Jean Cramer
Nadja Regin	...	Odette Vernet
Sheldon Lawrence	...	Dr. Lew Waldenhouse
Peter Copley	...	Leslie
Michael Golden	...	Nostradamus
Norman Shelley	...	Dr. Alexander
Stanley Van Beers	...	Madame Tussaud's Guide (as Stanley van Beers)
Tony Quinn	...	Dr. Brandon
Maurice Kaufmann	...	Chauffer (as Maurice Kaufman)
William Sherwood	...	Dr. Charot
Edwin Ellis	...	Publican
Donald Marley	...	Stock Broker (as Donald Morley)
Frank Forsyth	...	Detective

Storyline

A wealthy business man discovers he has a brain tumor and seeks medical help. The business man finds a scientist experimenting with transplanting monkey heads on different monkey bodies. The business man decides to steal the head of Nostradamus from the prophet's crypt.

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Plot Keywords:

head | brain tumor | nostradamus | grave robbing | research | 

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Taglines:

a diabolical dream come true! Who is his Next Victim?

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Mann ohne Körper

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmplays Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

In an interview, Robert Hutton said that credited co-director Charles Saunders was hired to meet a British government requirement that a certain percentage of British citizens had to be hired on non-British productions filmed in England. Hutton said that although Saunders was always on the set, he had nothing to do with actually directing the picture.

User Reviews

Goofy! Deranged! Makes No Sense! I Loved It!

It's been a little while now, maybe a few months, since I saw this obscure title thanks to Netflix. I've been searching out goofball old movies like this for some years, and even I had not heard of this one, that's how obscure it is.

I had seen a few films previously by the director, W. Lee Wilder, the much less talented brother of Billy Wilder. These included Phantom From Space and The Snow Creature, both of which I thought had a lovable, shaggy-mutt quality of boisterous genre thrills on a rock bottom budget. But still, those films, as ridiculous and low-rent as they were, made some kind of sense.

This film makes hardly any sense AT ALL.

Too many weirdnesses in the story and strange plot holes to even begin listing them. But the overall effect is like Ed Wood at his most hallucinatory.

The movie feels like a sweat-drenched fever dream glimpsed obliquely through an oppressive cloak of madness draped over and blocking out the everyday world you and I inhabit.

When a filmmaker, or any kind of artist, can achieve an effect like that on his audience, well, this is an artist that one cannot just dismiss wholesale. As ludicrous as this film is, it will make you sit up and take notice, even if it is only to groan "What am I LOOKING AT????"

If you are an Ed Wood fan, and you appreciate his type of skewed reverie, this is a must-view. Even for those casually interested based on this review and the others listed here, I would encourage you to check it out. May not be a life-changing experience, but it is a loopy, way-out way to spend 80 minutes of your life.