Monstrosity 1963

In a secluded, high-tech laboratory buried beneath the mansion of the elderly, formidable heiress Hetty March, Dr. Otto Frank conducts brain transplantation experiments with dangerous ambition. His work has produced troubling results: a snarling man-beast named Hans, with a dog’s brain, and the Walking Corpse—a pretty young woman who drifts through the lab with a glassy, vacant stare.

Mrs. March hopes to transplant her brain into a younger, more beautiful body, thereby becoming one of the wealthiest and most striking women in the world. To that end, she advertises for domestic help and hires Nina Rhodes from Austria, Bea Mullins from England, and Anita Gonzalez from Mexico. Anita Gonzalez is ruled out because of a birthmark on her back, and Bea Mullins is chosen as the preferred donor.

Anita is turned over to Dr. Frank for experiments, and he transplants Xerxes the cat’s brain into her head. Anita immediately takes on cat-like tendencies—purring, hissing, and nibbling at mice. Nina and Bea are unaware of Anita’s fate, and when Bea encounters her, Anita scratches out one of Bea’s eyes. On the mansion roof, Nina tries to bring Anita down, but Anita loses her footing and falls to her death.

With Anita out of the running, Nina becomes the default choice for Mrs. March’s new body. Yet Dr. Frank, wanting to control the work completely, instead transplants Mrs. March’s brain into Xerxes. Xerxes/Mrs. March then activates the atomic-powered chamber, reducing Dr. Frank to a skeleton and triggering a chain reaction that destroys the lab and burns the mansion to the ground.

A half-blind Bea staggers into the wreckage to rescue Nina, but a heavy piece of machinery falls and kills her. Nina escapes into the night, unaware that Xerxes/Mrs. March follows silently behind, waiting for a chance to someday claim Nina’s body.