The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (also known as The Head That Wouldn’t Die or The Brain That Couldn’t Die) is a 1962 American science fiction horror film directed by Joseph Green and written by Green and Rex Carlton. The film was completed in 1959 under the working title The Black Door but was not theatrically released until May 3, 1962, when it was released under its new title as a double feature with Invasion of the Star Creatures.

The film focuses upon a mad doctor who develops a means to keep human body parts alive. He keeps his fiancée’s severed head alive for days, and also keeps a lumbering, malformed brute (one of his earlier failed experiments) imprisoned in a closet.

The specific plot device of a mad doctor who discovers a way to keep a human head alive had been used in fiction earlier (such as Professor Dowell’s Head from 1925), as well as other variants on this theme.

Plot
Dr. Bill Cortner (Jason Evers) saves a patient who had been pronounced dead, but the senior surgeon, Cortner’s father (Bruce Brighton), condemns his son’s unorthodox methods and transplant theories.

While driving to his family’s country house, Cortner and his beautiful fiancée Jan Compton (Virginia Leith) become involved in a car accident that decapitates her. Cortner recovers her severed head and rushes to his country house basement laboratory. He and his crippled assistant Kurt (Anthony La Penna) revive the head in a liquid-filled tray. But Jan’s new existence is agony, and she begs Cortner to let her die. He ignores her pleas, and she grows to resent him.

Cortner decides to commit murder to obtain a body for Jan. He hunts for a suitable specimen at a burlesque nightclub, on the streets, and at a beauty contest. Jan begins communicating telepathically with a hideous mutant, an experiment gone wrong, locked in a laboratory cell. When Kurt leaves a hatch in the cell door unlocked, the monster grabs and tears off Kurt’s arm. Kurt dies from his injuries.

Cortner lures an old girlfriend, figure model Doris Powell (Adele Lamont), to his house, promising to study her scarred face for plastic surgery. He drugs her and carries her to the laboratory. Jan protests Cortner’s plan to transplant her head onto Doris’s body. He tapes Jan’s mouth shut.

When Cortner goes to quiet the monster, it grabs Cortner through the hatch and breaks the door from its hinges. Their struggles set the laboratory ablaze. The monster (Eddie Carmel), a seven-foot giant with a horribly deformed head, bites a chunk from Cortner’s neck. Cortner dies, and the monster carries the unconscious Doris to safety. As the lab goes up in flames, Jan says, “I told you to let me die.” The screen goes black, followed by a maniacal cackle.

Cast
Virginia Leith as Jan Compton
Jason Evers as Dr. Bill Cortner
Virginia Leith as Jan Compton
Anthony La Penna as Kurt
Adele Lamont as Doris Powell
Bonnie Sharie as blonde stripper
Paula Maurice as brunette stripper
Marilyn Hanold as Peggy Howard
Bruce Brighton as Dr. Cortner
Arny Freeman as photographer
Fred Martin as medical assistant
Lola Mason as Donna Williams
Doris Brent as nurse
Bruce Kerr as beauty contest M.C.
Audrey Devereal as Jeannie Reynolds
Eddie Carmel as monster
Sammy Petrillo as Art