According to The Frozen Dead, not all Nazi top brass escaped to South America at the end of WWII, and not all of their scientists were snapped up by the Russian and American governments: Dana Andrews plays Nazi boffin Dr. Norberg, who has spent twenty years living undetected in the UK, waiting for orders from his superiors (who have been living who knows where) to thaw out the Arian elite frozen during the fall of the Third Reich.
Norberg's attempts at reviving the cryogenically preserved Nazis have so far been unsuccessful, but when his assistant Karl (Alan Tilvern) murders Elsa (Kathleen Breck), close friend of the scientist's niece Jean (Anna Palk), Norberg gets a chance to keep the dead girl's head alive and study her brain (which he keeps exposed by replacing her cranium with a clear plastic dome).
Nazis and mad scientists go together like cookies and milk, and with such a macabre premise, The Frozen Dead cannot fail to deliver at least a couple of memorable moments. Unfortunately, writer/director Herbert J. Leder provides too few chills overall, while the lifeless performances mean that it's a struggle to remain conscious at times. I don't want to be too harsh towards such a mean-spirited movie - I appreciate its attempts to shock - but The Frozen Dead left me cold for the most part.
4/10. Not as bad as They Saved Hitler's Brain (but then not much is), but for a slightly more entertaining 'living head' film watch The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
Norberg's attempts at reviving the cryogenically preserved Nazis have so far been unsuccessful, but when his assistant Karl (Alan Tilvern) murders Elsa (Kathleen Breck), close friend of the scientist's niece Jean (Anna Palk), Norberg gets a chance to keep the dead girl's head alive and study her brain (which he keeps exposed by replacing her cranium with a clear plastic dome).
Nazis and mad scientists go together like cookies and milk, and with such a macabre premise, The Frozen Dead cannot fail to deliver at least a couple of memorable moments. Unfortunately, writer/director Herbert J. Leder provides too few chills overall, while the lifeless performances mean that it's a struggle to remain conscious at times. I don't want to be too harsh towards such a mean-spirited movie - I appreciate its attempts to shock - but The Frozen Dead left me cold for the most part.
4/10. Not as bad as They Saved Hitler's Brain (but then not much is), but for a slightly more entertaining 'living head' film watch The Brain That Wouldn't Die.