Title of an old scary movie

[skotropolis]

*Please help!* I'm looking for the title of an old black and white horror movie about a living disembodied *head* that is kept in a *hatbox*. I believe it takes place in a small town or neighborhood and could possibly be an old TV episode as well.

[scsu1975]

It could be The Thing That Couldn't Die. Check here:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052289/

[fixin2quilt]

My sister and I used to watch this movie and laugh uncontrollably when the disembodied head would be "hypnotizing" the young women by moving his lips slowly, seemingly whispering some silent spell to them. For some reason we found that part to be especially hysterical. Imagine my excitement when I found out that this movie had also been featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000! The MST3K version has not yet been released on DVD but I await that event with great anticipation, although I have a VHS taped from TV (somewhere among all my "stuff"!).

 

"The Thing That Couldn't Die" -- not to be confused with "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" -- which also involves a disembodied head that is kept alive! "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" is available on DVD, but the MSTK feature is available on VHS but not DVD yet:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052646/

 

A couple of other foreign (and language dubbed) old "head" movies that I have collected over the years:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053095/ (German - dubbed in English)

 

And this one - where they dig up Nostradamus (!) and transplant his head onto a modern man -- haha!:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050676/ (French - I think - dubbed in English)

 

Okay, more information than you probably wanted. Enjoy!

 

 

 

I seem to be fascinated by films with this general theme - disembodied heads. (Well, mad scientists in cheesy cult movies too ... but with heads in particular for some reason. Just anything silly and spoof-able.)

[nightwalker]

There was also a Mexican horror film titled THE LIVING HEAD from 1963, in which archaeologists enter a tomb and annoy the still-living head of an Aztec general.

 

AND: To be reviewed in the future on the "Mexican Horror Films" thread under "HORROR" right here on these boards.

 

Also, leave us not forget THE FROZEN DEAD (1966) starring Dana Andrews as a Nazi mad scientist in present-day England who also has a disembodied head (among other things) in his basement laboratory.

 

Then there's THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN from 1963, starring the head of everybody's favorite Fuehrer.

[fixin2quilt]

Wow, thanks. I will have to check out all of those. Good information!

[Cat Majiv]

12 years gone by + nobody gave right answer. All the ones given are are good answers, but noy the one the person wanted. I got here by a Google search for the same movie. I saw 2 versions of it on TCM,  both B + W .  In England an old lady, played by a familiar actress  lives in a house outside the town with her housekeeper/ secretary, and eats chocolates.  A youngish guy who is hiding from the law, played by a familiar actor (Robert Montgomry I think) ends up there. He stays for a while, maybe a few days. At first he seems very charming but later becomes unpleasant and demanding. Nobody knows that he is a a fugitive, or that he has somebody's head. He hides the head in the lady's leather hat box he finds. He tries to seduce the secretary and sort of blackmails her because she kissed him, I think.  Here my memory gets foggy so I have forgotten the rest. If anyone knows the name of this, or saw 1 ofthe2 versions andknows who the actors were, please let me know. Thanks! 

[LawrenceA]

1 hour ago, Cat Majiv said:

12 years gone by + nobody gave right answer. All the ones given are are good answers, but noy the one the person wanted. I got here by a Google search for the same movie. I saw 2 versions of it on TCM,  both B + W .  In England an old lady, played by a familiar actress  lives in a house outside the town with her housekeeper/ secretary, and eats chocolates.  A youngish guy who is hiding from the law, played by a familiar actor (Robert Montgomry I think) ends up there. He stays for a while, maybe a few days. At first he seems very charming but later becomes unpleasant and demanding. Nobody knows that he is a a fugitive, or that he has somebody's head. He hides the head in the lady's leather hat box he finds. He tries to seduce the secretary and sort of blackmails her because she kissed him, I think.  Here my memory gets foggy so I have forgotten the rest. If anyone knows the name of this, or saw 1 ofthe2 versions andknows who the actors were, please let me know. Thanks! 

The movie you're referring to is Night Must Fall. 

The 1937 version starred Robert Montgomery and May Whitty. The 1964 version starred Albert Finney and Mona Washbourne.

[slaytonf]

Robert Montgomery starred with Rosalind Russell and Dame May Witty in Night Must Fall (1937), in which he plays a psychopath toting around the head of one of his victims in a hatbox.  But because it is not alive, it dissuaded TCemmers from suggesting it ohwaybackwhen.  It was remade in 1964 with Albert Finney.  TCM has shown both, but I much prefer Mr. Montgomery's adapation.

 

Oops!  LawrenceA beat me to it!

Edited February 14 by slaytonf
slowpoke!

[Swithin]

Night Must Fall is based the play of the same name by Emlyn Williams, which appeared on Broadway in 1936, starring Emlyn Williams as the young man, Dame May Whitty as the old woman, and Angela Baddeley as Olivia. Dame May Whitty's husband, Ben Webster, also had a role in the play as did Doris Hare.