They Saved Hitler's Brain is a 1968 science fiction film. It is about exactly what you think it is: Nazi war criminals preserve Adolf Hitler's brain on a small tropical island until the time is right to resurrect him and, along with him, the Third Reich.
The film was adapted for television from a shorter 1963 movie called Madmen of Mandoras, and lengthened by about 20 minutes with additional footage shot by UCLA students at the request of the distributor.
Tropes appearing in this film:
- Argentina Is Nazi-Land: The Nazis are plotting from a ficticious Latin American country called Mandoras.
- Artistic License – History: That's not how Hitler died.note
- Banana Republic: Mandoras is a fictitious Latin American country from where the Nazis operate.
- Body Double: During the flashback, we see two potential body doubles who are meant to act as the Decoy Getaway. The first of the body doubles looks more accurate to how Hitler looked in 1945 while the actor actually playing Hitler looked more like a young Beer Hall Putsch era Hitler. The second body double looked amusingly like John Cleese's Mr. Hilter. Fortunately, Hitler chose the first one.
- Brain in a Jar: It's right there in the title: Nazis have preserved Hitler's brain in a jar.
- Decoy Getaway: At least we are given a reason why we would be led to believe that Hitler's body was actually burned.
- Losing Your Head: Hitler's head got saved, too.
- No Indoor Voice: You have no doubt seen the live footage of Hitler giving his speeches in his trademark high pitched reedy voice with the dramatic gesticulations. Well, according to the flashback scene, that's how he also talked in a normal conversation.
- Spoiler Title: In Madmen of Mandoras (aka The Amazing Mr. H.), it was supposed to be a big reveal near the end.
- Stock Footage: Most of the movie is just Madmen of Mandoras, with a half hour of additional footage shot years later. The becomes obvious as the added footage looks like a home movie and amateurish while the older footage is a lot more professional, like from an actual movie studio. This also leads to a very weird effect concerning differences in film stock and fashion, as everybody in the older portion has a clear '50s-early '60s look, while the newer footage has folks clearly from the late '60s. Even without considering that, though, there's lots of other random stock footage about the war and an elephant.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Ah, those wacky Nazis indeed. Saving Hitler's head in a jar?
- Two Word Vocabulary: A man infamous for his Rousing Speeches seems only capable of barking "Mach schnell! Mach schnell!" ("Hurry up! Hurry up!") at his minions. Then again, they didn't save his lungs along with his brain, so Hitler probably doesn't have the puff to do much else.
- You Cloned Hitler!: The Nazis in the film plan to make a clone of Hitler to give his disembodied head a body.
