The Head
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Victor Trivas
Horst Frank
Michel Simon
Paul Dahlke
Karin Kernke
Helmut Schmid
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Professor Abel has created a secret formula, Serum-Z, with which he has maintained life in the severed head of a dog. He is visited by Dr. Ood, who becomes obsessed with the possibility of extending the experimentation to human subjects. Abel proposes an operation to replace his failing heart with that of a badly injured patient. Dr. Ood kills Abel's collaborator, Dr. Burke, who objects to the plan; he then decapitates Abel, and against the professor's will keeps his head alive with the help of the serum and a specially-constructed machine. Ood turns his attention to Abel's nurse, Irene, a beautiful but crippled young woman. He decides to endow her with a perfectly-formed body and searches for an appropriate subject. A stripper, Lilly, falls prey to his charm, despite the jealousy of her boyfriend, Paul. Ood lures her to the laboratory, decapitates her, and performs a successful grafting operation on Irene, who believes that the surgery is aimed at correcting her deformity. Irene becomes the object of Ood's devotion. As time passes, she finds herself strangely drawn to the nightclub where Lilly worked, and here she meets Paul. They fall in love, but he becomes suspicious when he sees her carrying Lilly's purse and forces her to reveal Dr. Ood's criminal activities. They are discovered by the warped genius, who tries to kill them, but they are saved by the intervention of the police. Ood sets the laboratory aflame and falls to his death during an attempt to escape.
Director
Victor Trivas
Cast
Horst Frank
Michel Simon
Paul Dahlke
Karin Kernke
Helmut Schmid
Christiane Maybach
Dieter Eppler
Kurt Müller-graf
Maria Stadler
Otto Storr
Barbara Valentin
Herb Beschanner
Crew
Friedl Buckow-schier
Richard Eglseder
Lothar Gündisch
Karl Hanoszek
Wolfgang Hartwig
Rudolf Kaiser
Eva Kohlschein
Georg Krause
Susi Krause
Jacques Lasry
Lasry-baschet
Erwin Lehn
Erwin Lehn Orchestra
Jacques Mage
Willy Mattes
Bruno Monden
Theo Nischwitz
Horst Philipp
André Von Piotrowski
Otto Reinwald
Kurt Rendel
Heidi Rente
Ludwig Spitaler
Victor Trivas
Victor Trivas
Hermann Warm
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
You mean you're still doing those awful experiments?- Stella, alias Lilly
I'm now LEGALLY a doctor.- Dr. Brandt, alias Dr. Ood
Material things don't interest me. It's living things that fascinate me.- Dr. Brandt, alias Dr. Ood
It's an ill wind that blows nobody no good.- Stella, alias Lilly
Very good, Lilly, you're such a philosopher.- Paul Lerner
Yes, I'm sick. Yes, I'm sick, and you're the only one who knows it, but I don't care. You belong to me and me alone. Professor Hartmann experimented on my brain. The results were fantastic. It made a genius of me. Hear me, a genius!- Dr. Brandt, alias Dr. Ood
But these spells are the debt I paid. The price of my genius was madness. My whole being became sick. The moon, and the wind, and that confounded dog!- Dr. Brandt, alias Dr. Ood
Trivia
Notes
Released in West Germany in July 1959 as Die Nackte und der Satan; running time: 97 min. Also known as A Head for the Devil and The Screaming Head. German sources credit only Rapid Film as production company.
