The Head (1959) on Netflix
Dr. Abel's serum lets a dog's head live on after the body dies. Hunchbacked Irene Sanders asks his team to cure her, and Dr. Ood joins them, drawn to the formula.
- Netflix2.7/5
- IMDb5.3/10956 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Dr. Abel leads a medical team that includes Irene Sanders's cousin, Dr. Walter Burke. Irene, a hunchback, comes to Abel to ask whether an operation can cure her, and he treats her with kindness. Dr. Ood has followed her to the laboratory and talks his way onto the team, saying he cares only about operations that preserve living tissue, though he is far more interested in Serum Z, the formula that has kept a decapitated dog's head alive. When Abel tells his colleagues that his own heart is failing and that a donor has been found, they prepare for surgery.
Cast
- Osman Raghebas Franz - the Bartender(uncredited)
- Maria Stadleras Mrs. Schneider(uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Head (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Austria's Tyrolean state government banned a planned 1960 screening in Lienz under the State Cinema Act, which barred films offending moral or religious sensibilities; the cinema owner sued, won at the Constitutional Court, and the ban was lifted in 1961 as unconstitutional.
- Kai Fischer was cast as nightclub dancer Lilli but objected to the role requiring her to remove most of her clothes; her manager Irmgard Palz got producer Hartwig to promise on February 23 that she would appear neither nude nor topless. Fischer left and Christiane Maybach replaced her.
- Finland banned the film from theatrical release outright, while its August 1959 Austrian screenings led to public protests in Salzburg and a police investigation of a cinema owner that was dropped shortly after.
- The Head was among the first horror films made in Germany after World War II, alongside Alraune (1952) and Horrors of Spider Island (1960).
