FlyBackTransformer Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 A couple of rare nice selections there by TCM. The Thing That Wouldn't Die is a somewhat unusual and underrated effort from Universal-International as they delve straight into supernatural horror with this one. A SoCal ranch setting with a middle-aged woman, her clairvoyant niece, a painter and his dark-haired fiance, a bigoted hired hand and his big slow-witted Lenny sidekick... and *Gideon Drew!* In the past I've seen this listed many times with a single poor one-star rating which is a mistake. This is great fun. Head-only Gideon knows how to bring out the vile nastiness in otherwise nice girls. First he has the dark-haired beauty turn on the painter and slap him seemingly for no sensible reason then he has the really nice clairvoyant girl rudely say to the film's hero "now get back to work!" harshly after kissing him, but that's well after Gideon has Lenny take out George the bigoted hired hand with a boy scout knife replete with blood on the carpet and everything. Later on after the two nice girls arrange for Gideon's temporary lodgings in a hatbox that the two of them agree is swanky, Gideon sees to it that Lenny is dispatched with police bullets as a mad psycho killer that George made fun off too many times but sittng thru this is well worth it to see the film's climax with Robin Hughes as a head and body reunited Gideon Drew who with his british accent is totally believable as a bloodthirsty resurrected 15th century devil worshipper. Great climax and dialogue. As far as husky-voiced Virginia Leith as a head nurse in The Brain that Wouldn't Die is concerned, I only wonder if this will be a showing of the censored or uncensored cut. Link to post Share on other sites
Sepiatone Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 Sounds like great family fun! Sepiatone Link to post Share on other sites
hoytereden Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Good news! We got the uncut version of *The Brain That Wouldn't Die.* I debated weather or not to record it since the last time It was shown on TCM it was the widely circulated edited version. Glad I resisted the urge not to record. *The Thing That Couldn't Die* was a film I hadn't seen since I was a teen (a very long time ago). Good fun and, as FlyBack said, the film is definitely worth seeing. Robin Hughes is quite good as the title character. He was also memorable for playing Satan in one the best remembered Twilight Zone episodes-*The Howling Man*. That episode's climax with him escaping his cell gave me chills for years. Link to post Share on other sites
Janet0312 Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 The Thing That Couldn't Die. Man, this picture used to scare me to death. I used to go with a guy who would grab at his hair, make a stone face and mouth words. Used to scare the crap out of me. Then I saw it on MST3K. Changed my whole outlook on the film. Hope TCM airs it at a more reasonable time in the future. I love this film! Link to post Share on other sites
FlyBackTransformer Posted July 21, 2013 Author Share Posted July 21, 2013 > {quote:title=hoytereden wrote:}{quote}Good news! We got the uncut version of *The Brain That Wouldn't Die.* I debated weather or not to record it since the last time It was shown on TCM it was the widely circulated edited version. Glad I resisted the urge not to record. > > *The Thing That Couldn't Die* was a film I hadn't seen since I was a teen (a very long time ago). Good fun and, as FlyBack said, the film is definitely worth seeing. Robin Hughes is quite good as the title character. He was also memorable for playing Satan in one the best remembered Twilight Zone episodes-*The Howling Man*. That episode's climax with him escaping his cell gave me chills for years. > I pushed myself to stay up late and watch it. It's always fun watching the big lummocks Mike stick the no good cowboy with his mumblety-peg knife. ] Girls do strange things when their minds are controlled by 15th century severed heads. Take the climax, Gideon Drew's significant lower half starts climbing out of his coffin and Jessica comes down from upstairs with Drew's head and reunites head with body and the fun dialogue from Robin Hughes begins. Now there's Jessica standing with an arrogant smirk on her face while Gideon spouts off. He grabs a dagger and starts talking about knifing every living soul in the room. Does smirking Jessica really think that she and Linda are going to go unscathed? I mean what's in it for them? So they let his head lay around in a hatbox for awhile. Link to post Share on other sites
PrinceSaliano Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE must be Universal's worst horror film. At least it demonstrates that Universal titles ARE available to TCM. Now how about offering THE CROSBY CASE, THE GREAT IMPERSONATION, MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, THE MISSING GUEST, THE BLACK DOLL, THE WITNESS VANISHES, ZANZIBAR, BOMBAY CLIPPER and MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM??? Link to post Share on other sites
Hibi Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 That's good news! I dont think I've seen the uncensored version of "Jan in the Pan!" Glad I recorded it. (Didnt make it up that late) But alas, I didnt have enough time to record the preceeding film or stay awake to watch it. Hopefully it will turn up again....... Link to post Share on other sites
FlyBackTransformer Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 > {quote:title=PrinceSaliano wrote:}{quote}THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE must be Universal's worst horror film. At least it demonstrates that Universal titles ARE available to TCM. Now how about offering THE CROSBY CASE, THE GREAT IMPERSONATION, MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, THE MISSING GUEST, THE BLACK DOLL, THE WITNESS VANISHES, ZANZIBAR, BOMBAY CLIPPER and MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM??? I agree! Lets see some of the Edward J. Montaigne Don Knotts vehicles like The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut and How To Frame a ****. Link to post Share on other sites
infinite1 Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 > {quote:title=PrinceSaliano wrote:}{quote}THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE must be Universal's worst horror film. At least it demonstrates that Universal titles ARE available to TCM. Now how about offering THE CROSBY CASE, THE GREAT IMPERSONATION, MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, THE MISSING GUEST, THE BLACK DOLL, THE WITNESS VANISHES, ZANZIBAR, BOMBAY CLIPPER and MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM??? MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD has recently been shown on TCM, the other films you list, never. But, I wouldn't recommend holding your breath waiting. TCM had more then enough time between last Halloween and now to request and get LUGOSI's DRACULA for OCTOBER 2013. I didn't see it listed, did you? Link to post Share on other sites
LonesomePolecat Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 I always call this movie "Jan in the Pan" thanks to MST3K. Link to post Share on other sites
Shuvcat Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 I thought BrainTWD was one of the honestly better films they showed on MST3K. On my disc they included the non-MST version on one side of the disc. They used to do that on the early releases. I have never seen ThingTCD before. Looking forward to more headless fun! Link to post Share on other sites
Hibi Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 LOL. Can you blame her? What else could she do? Link to post Share on other sites
casablancalover2 Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Me too, Lonesome. I think they had the better title. Link to post Share on other sites
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