If you dig in the heap of “Awful Movies That Are Still Fun to Watch”, you will undoubtedly come across The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962). It’s about a doctor whose radical ideas on transplants has him on the outs with the medical establishment. He gets the chance to Show Them All! When his girlfriend is decapitated in an accident. Fortunately, he manages to keep her head alive – now all he needs is a body to graft it to.

Weird idea, but not one that’s unusual. In competent hands, and with some resources given to it, one just might be able to create a passable movie on that premise.

Frank Henenlotter wrote that he came up with the idea for Frankenhooker out of thin air when his pitch for another movie failed. But the similarities between the two movies are too strong for it to have been a mere coincidence. Perhaps he saw the older movie and vaguely remembered the plot, or perhaps he knew that “Brain” was in the public domain, so he was free to riff on it to his heart’s content.

Anyway…..

Jeffrey (James Lorinz) has been kicked out of medical school (three of them!), and is now working for the local electric utility while living with his mother (Louise Lasser). Mom must figure that his odd behavior is due to unresolved trauma after his girlfriend Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) died in an accident involving a remote-controlled lawn mower of Jeffrey’s design. Little does she know that her mad genius son has been keeping her head alive in his garage lab, where, in addition to having a lot of equipment that “followed him home from work”, he has plans on getting Elizabeth a new body…. Plans that involve something he calls “super crack”, and getting the necessary spare parts from prostitutes – who surely won’t be missed.

The latter two ideas come from one of those typical coincidences that are used in movies and TV to move the plot along – he watches a local TV talk show (clearly modeled on The Morton Downey Jr. Show – if you know, you know) where the day’s topic is the crack epidemic among prostitutes. While looking for hookers to use as bodies for Elizabeth, Jeffrey manages to score some samples of crack from a NYC pimp named Zorro. The next night, using the pretense that he’s in the market for a couple of girls to bring to a party he’s planning, he arrives at Zorro’s place of business with his “super crack”.

After examining the girls (yes, there’s a LOT of gratuitous display of skin), Jeffrey gets cold feet / an attack of conscience about the whole thing, and tries to bail. Still wanting to get paid, the girls ransack his valise – and find his stash. Well, they start lighting up, and in very short order, they “light up” as they (obvious mannequins, actually) explode, scattering body parts all over the room – just as Zorro arrives to check on what’s going on, and right in time to get knocked out by a flying head when he opens the door.

Well, whether he wanted them or not, Jeffrey now has all the body parts he needs. He manages to put them all together to give his girlfriend a body, and reanimate the construct. Elizabeth 2.0, being made of prostitute parts, escapes and goes off to pick up that trade – right in Zorro’s territory. Having recovered consciousness, Zorro puts the pieces together and figures out that Jeffrey was responsible for the loss of his “stock”. So when Jeffrey comes to collect Elizabeth and bring her back to his lab to fix her, it’s a fairly simple matter for Zorro to follow him back and get his revenge….

Yes, I spent a bit more on the plot summary than is probably warranted.

LOTS of credit for this movie working belongs to Patty Mullen as Elizabeth. A “Penthouse Pet” in her first real acting role, she NAILS it. It doesn’t take much talent to walk around like a “Frankenstein Monster”, spouting a couple of stock phrases. But to make it work for scene after scene? With the right comic touch and nearly constant girning? It’s a shame this was the end of her acting career.

It’s delightfully funny and sleazy (with some actual scary bits in the final scene, where Zorro shows up in Jeffrey’s lab). If you want to pick it apart for social commentary; go ahead. But for me, all you need to know about it is that the legendary horror host Zacherley has a bit part as a suitably over-the-top and deranged TV weatherman…..