That was an excellent one.

Good concept, poorly executed.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Edward Cahn directs Curt Soidmaks screenplay about "zombie" assassins. An American mobster Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger) provides the funds for an ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gay) to continue his experimentation. Buchanan forces the duped doctor into resurrecting cadavers with radioactive brains into becoming the walking dead henchmen to get even with the bad guys that crossed him in the past. Dr. Chet Walker (Richard Denning) teams with Capt. Dave Harris (S. John Launer) to investigate the unbelievable murders. This film is produced by "King of the Quickies", Sam Katzman. Rounding out the cast: Angela Stevens, Tristram Coffin, Harry Lauter, Charles Hovarth, Michael Ross and Charles Evans.

Edward L. Cahn…I'm definitely a fan! The name of this b-movie director probably won't ring any bells, but I invite everyone here to click on his name and check out his impressive repertoire! He was an incredibly busy bee, with sometimes up to twelve movies directed per year, and active in various fields and genres like crime, western and horror. Admittedly he never made any true classics or influential milestones, but he did deliver a lot of fun movies like "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", "Invasion of the Saucer Men" and "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake". And, most of all, he – unwarily – contributed to the historic development of cinematic zombies with this unbelievably underrated and surprisingly suspenseful "Creature with the Atom Brain". This is just my own personal theory, but creation of zombie cinema roughly occurred in four phases and, as far as I know, this cool little movie kick-started phase II… Phase I started it all with the legendary pioneer movie "White Zombie", featuring what is arguably Bela Lugosi's best performance (yes, better than "Dracula"). In these very first zombie movies the living dead are portrayed as disciplined and docile slaves, solely resurrected from their graves to work for evil plantation owners. To a lesser extent, "I Walked with a Zombie" and "King of the Zombies" also fit into this initial phase. Then we have phase II with this "Creature with the Atom Brain". The zombies are still just slaves, but now they are brought back from the dead to serve as controllable murderers with superhuman strengths. The idea is brilliant, as far as I'm concerned, and results in a handful of truly suspenseful and innovative sequences. "Invisible Invaders", also directed by Edward L. Cahn, also belongs in phase II and here the zombies are controlled by extraterrestrials. Phase III – a very short one – almost exclusively contains the very first adaptation of Richard Matheson's monumental novel "I Am Legend", retitled "The Last Man on Earth" and starring genre icon Vincent Price. After a worldwide deadly plague, the dead rise again and act entirely by themselves for the very first time, but they are more reminiscent to vampires since they only come into action after dark. Then, of course, we have George A. Romero to thank for phase IV, as he made zombies to what they still are to this date with "Night of the Living Dead": vile and merciless undead monsters that hunt down the living in order to feast on their flesh and brains.So, I'm probably exaggerating a bit, but I personally think that "Creature with the Atom Brain" is a historically relevant little B-movie. But more importantly, it's a very clever and entertaining '50s horror gem with action and suspense. Frank Buchanan, a nation-wide feared mafia gangster enlists the help of a brilliant former Nazi-scientist to extract vengeance on all the people responsible for his conviction. Through zombies that are brought back to life with atomic energy and remote-controlled through brain wave manipulation, he kills off prosecutors but also fellow gangsters that betrayed him, while he remains within the safe and heavily isolated walls of his mansion. The screenplay of "Creature with the Atom Brain" is very talkative and many of the dialogs are quite tacky, but the underlying ideas of the film are compelling and – as stated above – quite renewing. The film does remain a low-budgeted '50s Sci-Fi/horror production, so naturally the special effects are cheap and cheesy. Still, the close-up zombie hit men are rather uncanny. Edward L. Cahn also maintains a grim atmosphere throughout and even the sequences with the head investigator's 6-year-old daughter aren't that irritating. Good movie, strongly recommended to horror fans with an open-minded mentality.

Following a series of strange deaths across the country, a freak occurrence in the investigation leads police to a mad scientist working with a disgruntled gangster controlling reanimated dead people under their power to kill those who arrested him and must stop his deadly plot.This ended up being quite a bland and overall disappointing zombie effort. For the most part, the film remains solely on the investigation angle of the police trying to determine the cause of the strange deaths around town and interpreting the evidence left behind, running all sorts of different tests and experiments on the material and even debating what they mean for the majority of the film's running time, leaving large portions of the film completely without zombie action at all. Despite the appeal of doing so during the heyday of the 50s sci-fi monster movies running during the same time, in a horror film that type of story doesn't work for it lowers the on-screen amount of time the actual creatures take up, and that in itself is quite the opposite of what's supposed to happen in a genre-related film. Not that the zombies themselves are all that imposing, outfitted with Frankenstein-like marks around the forehead to denote an operation on their face has taken place but otherwise remain completely un-suggestive of traditional zombies or their behavior, and that remains the biggest portion of this one's problems as the lack of traditional zombie actions may make this a bitter pill to swallow for traditionalists, for the creatures are able to speak in a monotone voice, follow commands through a radio-receiver that also allows them to transmit video quality of their deeds and remain lifeless until called upon to act, so the purpose of reanimating the dead tissue for the process, a key component of zombie-lore, remains quite curious for it could've been done through hypnotized lackeys and the result is the same. Though there's some fun sequences here and there, mainly the finale as the army of creatures descends upon the military task-force assigned to take them out, there's just not enough to compound the boredom such a quick film implies.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

A "police scientist" (Richard Denning, always smoking pipe and exuberant/aware in how his talents are depended upon by the police and press) determines that a series of odd killings (tied to a vendetta-fueled mobster who afforded a Nazi scientist a laboratory and technology used to further his research and allow for revenge) are committed by dead gangsters with radioactive "blood" and fingerprints (that illuminate in dark!) and atomic power that allows them to snap backs and necks of targeted victims! The mobster named Buchanan likes to use a microphone to "speak through" the dead gangster zombie killers to those he is about to have killed as to remind them of who is responsible prior to their deaths! This silly sci-fi hokum from Sam Katzman Productions has the look and score of a Universal Horror film without the studio's finesse and pizazz. The plot is bonkers but that has always been part of the B-movie charm that comes with these kinds of films. Dead gangsters (and later cops) with "robotic" brains that can be controlled from a source, atomic energy used to give them great power that also includes being impervious to bullets or harm unless the machines and men behind them are put to rest; this all is preposterous yet entertaining nonsense. There's just always been an appeal to me with these dorky sci-fi movies. Denning has enthusiasm to spare and the zombie-formula helps make this far more fun than it has any right to be. Always handling the material with a serious approach, the actors involved holding a straight face when the plot is as far-fetched and loony as Creature with the Atom Brain, the entertainment value only increases. There's this imminent threat to the atom men that the film milks repeatedly, even at one point having a montage of disasters caused by them thanks to Buchanan who uses his zombies to cause chaos because the police and military are on the lookout, using radium-detecting devices to pinpoint high radioactive areas that send off warning signals. Of course, Buchanan and his German scientist consider Denning a threat because of his "imagination" and intellect, soon killing (and using as a zombie killer/locater) his cop buddy (a later possible threat to his child and wife is established)…Uncle Dave, because of his inside knowledge of the last two men Buchanan wants dead for snitching on him, implicating him, and thus responsible for his deportation to Europe (where Buchanan soon encountered the German scientist), could be important in putting a stop to Denning's hero. Seeing the zombies in gangster suits, their skulls with surgical marks indicating head surgery, attacking cops and soldiers is such an odd sight but should provide plentiful kicks and giggles. Obviously, Denning saves the day, following the lead to his zombie cop buddy, entering Buchanan's lair, and taking a wrench to the machinery behind all the death and violence. Lots of exploding consoles, broken windows, and fisticuffs result. Surprisingly violent for its time, we see bullets riddle the zombie gangster bodies, and there are shadow silhouettes and carefully photographed attacks of victims Buchanan wanted crushed for their betrayal of him. You know if you are the type of audience this is made for, and I am of that number. Complete with Denning, a dutiful wife in apron always preparing him a martini and wanting to spend just a little time with her busy husband, and the cutie daughter doting on her dolly. Fun fact: Curt Siodmak (who lent writing to such diverse screenplays as "Donovan's Brain", "Black Friday", "The Wolf Man", "Beast with Five Fingers", and "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers") was the writer for this film's screenplay.