They Saved Hitler's Brain is a 1966 science fiction film that was adapted for television from a shorter theatrical feature film, Madmen of Mandoras, directed by David Bradley. The film was lengthened with about twenty minutes additional footage shot by UCLA students at the request of the distributor. As the original footage was shot several years earlier, the differences in costumes and production values are rather obvious.
Synopsis
World War II is over, and Nazi officials remove Adolf Hitler's living head and hide it in the fictional South American country of Mandoras, so that they can resurrect the Third Reich for the future. It fast forwards into the 1960s, and the surviving officials kidnap a scientist in an attempt to keep Hitler alive. Various intelligence agencies, aware of the evil plot, recruit secret agents to bust the Nazi officials.
Parodies in popular culture
In The Simpsons
- An episode was titled "They Saved Lisa's Brain" as an obvious reference to the film.
- The episode "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish" features Abe Simpson remembering a moment during World War II when he had Hitler in his sights. He had muttered "Heh heh heh, now they'll never save your brain, Hitler" but the shot went astray through the clumsy intervention of fellow Hellfish squad member Montgomery Burns.
- In the episode "Marge Be Not Proud", one of the games in the store "Try-N-Save" is titled "Save Hitler's Brain."
- Simpsons Comics referenced the title in the story "They Saved Homer's Brain" in 1996.
In other media
- In the episode "A Clone of My Own" of the series Futurama, Farnsworth references this movie by saying "Everyone's always in favour of saving Hitler's brain but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, ooh, suddenly you've gone too far."
- Unnatural Axe 1982 song "They Saved Hitler's Brain" contains direct references to scenes in the film.
- The Angry Samoans song, "They Saved Hitler's Cock," is an obvious reference to the film's title.
- In Flaming Carrot Comics, The Flaming Carrot is menaced by an army of disembodied clones of Hitler's jackbooted feet.
- Hitler's brain is a character in the Irregular Webcomic! series of comic strips.[1]