“I saved your brain for mankind professor.”
Dr. Abel (Michel Simon) is a scientist who has invented a serum he calls “serum Z” that can keep organs alive even after the host has died. He has proven that his serum works by keeping the head of a decapitated dog alive. Dr. Walter Burke (Kurt Muller-Graf) is one of his assistants. His cousin Irene Sanders (Karin Kernke) is a hunchback. Burke is hoping the Dr. Abel can do a surgical operation to cure her.
Dr. Abel hires a new assistant Dr. Ood (Horst Frank). Dr. Ood’s interest in the formula for serum Z makes him seem a little shifty. Dr. Abel also has Bert Jaeger (Helmut Schmid) helping him. Bert has mental issues due to a previously botched operation. Dr. Abel also has a heart condition and he needs an operation. He is relying on Ood and Burke to do a heart transplant on him. During the operation the donor dies. Ood wants to use the serum Z to keep Dr. Abel’s head alive until a new body can be found for him. Burke objects. Ood kills Burke and buries him in the back yard. With brain dead Bert’s assistance, Ood decapitates Dr. Abel and hooks him up to serum Z. Dr. Abel wakes up to find himself sans body.
What Dr. Ood wants to do next is a head transplant on the hunchback, Irene. And he knows the perfect body for her. Lilly (Christiane Maybach), is a striptease dancer in a bar. Dr. Ood knows Lilly from his past when he was a plastic surgeon and his name was Dr. Brandt. At that time she was called Stella and she poisoned her husband. Ood considers Lilly’s body perfect for Irene.
Ood persuades Irene to let him operate on her. When she awakes, he tells her that he fixed her spine and that she is normal now. Irene starts to have strange feelings about her body. When Ood tries to seduce her she runs away. Eventually she makes her way the bar that Lily use to work at. There she meets Lily’s old boyfriend Paul. Paul is attracted to her. Irene hears about Lilly’s death. She begins to put things together and learns that Ood killed Lily and Irene is now walking around with her head on Lily’s body.
“The Head” was released in 1959 and was directed by Victor Trivas. It is a German horror film and it’s a darker take on the disembodied head genre. In part due to the music score and the dim, old mansion setting. It is actually quite creepy. And actually quite good.
Michel Simon, who plays Dr. Abel, was a star in France at the time the movie was made. He had used a tainted makeup on a previous film that resulted in his body and face becoming temporarily partially paralyzed. Because of it he had trouble finding work. He took the role in this low budget flick because he needed the money. Only his head would be shown for most of the movie so he didn’t have to move around a lot. He felt he was safe since he didn't think a film of this caliber, which could adversely affect his career, would be seen on the rest of the continent. Unfortunately he was wrong, and the film was in fact a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.