Looking for Kid Scary 1950s Horror/Scifi film seen on TV in early 1960s (1 Viewer)

Hi. Newbie here and please forgive me if this post is not in the right forum section.


I'm looking for the name of a movie that scared me to death as a youngster. It was shown on a local TV station on an afternoon horror host show in the early 1960s (maybe late 1950s). From Internet research, it does not appear to be part of the Shock! or Son of Shock! movie packages offered to TV stations.


As best as I remember, the main theme of the movie was an evil doctor or scientist that would perform brain operations on people to gain control of their minds to do ??? things. (Not really a zombie movie in the tradition sense of today's zombies). You could identify these controlled people by a metal clip just behind their ears (for holding the suture together??). There is a investigative newspaperman (or PI?) who is a favorite uncle of a little boy and his mother (man's sister?). He gets wind of these strange events concerning what used to be normal people acting strangely and decides to investigate.


He comes to visit his nephew and his sister periodically to update them on how his investigations are going.


The scary finish is where he now knows what's going on and is going to share it with his nephew/sister.

The last shot shows him ringing the doorbell at their house. The shot is an over-the-shoulder showing him ringing the doorbell, but also showing a metal clip behind his ear!!!


I'm trying to add it to my scary kid movie collection which also has Target Earth which aired on the same station's horror host program around the same time. This aired on "The Dungeon" with host M.T. Graves on Miami's WCKT on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.


If anyone can help me figure out this obscure movie's title, I'd really appreciate it.


Thanks!


Scifiguy.

Creature With The Atom Brain!

Trailer:

Thanks bgart13! I think that's the one!

I appreciate the lightning fast answer. Now I just have to search for a copy on DVD and relive the fright!

Thanks, Bob! The set is on order now.

This is a fantastic group. Happy to have stumbled upon it after fruitless weeks of trying to ID this flick.

That's a terrific DVD set. You can't go wrong with Sam Katzman.


Plus, the film is based on scientific facts!

Love that set -- one of many great compilations from the Golden Age of DVD.

Apparently three of the films in that set are 16x9, whilst the film that is the subject of this thread is 4x3. It is the earliest released, but is still very late for a 1.37:1 production. Bob, was it a holdover or is it the case the print is open matte?

Somebody goofed and pulled the wrong master. CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN is a widescreen film and should be 1.85:1. Use the zoom feature on your TV to approximate the correct framing.


In theaters, it was officially released by Columbia as a supporting feature with:

Great -- glad I was right. The set is a fun one, Zombies Of Mora Tau is a favorite (as is The Giant Claw)!

Bob Furmanek said:

Somebody goofed and pulled the wrong master. CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN is a widescreen film and should be 1.85:1. Use the zoom feature on your TV to approximate the correct framing.


In theaters, it was officially released by Columbia as a supporting feature with:

Click to expand...

Ummm...just how was that octopus planning to "destroy the world"? it was all it could do to knock out that one bridge. And how exactly would it have gained from destroying the world?

Vic Pardo said:

Ummm...just how was that octopus planning to "destroy the world"? it was all it could do to knock out that one bridge. And how exactly would it have gained from destroying the world?

Click to expand...

One bridge at a time until the entire world collapses!!

"Use the zoom feature on your TV to approximate the correct framing."

C'mon Bob, you know that it doesn't work like that. First of all, by "zooming" (from your tv set) you'll just lower the resolution and there are no guarantees that the "zoomed" ratio is the correct one. I mean would you use zoom with Kino's Marty?

If it's released in 4:3, then it's best to watch in that ratio. Not always ideal, but still better than using zoom from your tv set.

Everyone. Thanks again for identifying my scary movie as Creature with the Atom Brain. It's interesting to me how over the years some of the details were different in my mind. Particularly the child almost-a-victim was actually a girl and not a boy as I had thought. I guess I was really into the story and put myself in that spot.


The other three in the Sam Katzman set were even better! I was amazed at how good the actors are in them. Very fluid, not over the top and very believable.


This set is definitely a keeper.


Thanks again for the assistance!


Best regards,


Scott