I defy anyone to find a 1950's film more off the wall and unpredictable than this. Even Nostradamus himself wouldn't be able to do it! Calling this campy trash is taking the easy way out. The film has more original ideas than a dozen big budget Hollywood films from the same period that cost a hundred times as much. If you have never seen "Man Without A Body" before, find it on Youtube, where it is presented in complete and pristine form. Then sit back and get ready to be amazed by the entertaining absurdity of it all.To cover the basics of the plot, an egomaniacal millionaire in the vein of Charles Foster Kane and Howard Hughes is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor after he has head pains and starts answering phantom phone calls. Veteran actor George Coulouris plays Karl Brussard with lots of vigor. Of course Brussard cannot contemplate his own end, so he hooks up with renegade scientist Dr. Merritt, who has found a method of keeping long dead monkey heads alive and in perfect condition.The crazed Brussard has the idea to imprint his mind and personality upon the head of the greatest man who ever lived...the French prophet Nostradamus! After a grave-robbing expedition, the dessicated head of Nostradamus is brought back to life and asks Dr. Merritt and company: "Have they burned all my books?" Despite the cheesy effects, there is something quite eerie about the ease with which Nostradamus adapts to his new situation, saying "I have always lived in the future". Soon Brussard tries to brainwash Nostradamus into thinking he's Brussard, leading to one of the craziest scenes ever filmed.Meanwhile, there's a lot more going on. Brussard's sexy nymphomaniac mistress Odette, whom he treats like an annoying pet, has hatched a plot to murder the old man with the help of Merritt's assistant Lou. At the same time, Merritt's female assistant Jean tries to get this frosty egghead to thaw out and return her advances. Finally, in an amazing scene, Nostradamus is transformed into a Frankenstein-like monster with a giant paper mache blob encasing his head. This crazy creature goes on the rampage in search of the now-fugitive Brussard, whose company has been ruined due to false stock market advice given by the prophet.The ending is very abrupt, yet quite appropriate. It seems Nostradamus had foreseen everything all along, resulting in a satisfactory resolution where everybody gets their due.Despite the cheapness of the production, "The Man Without A Body" holds you in a spell from the get go, with better direction than you would think. This film is begging to be discovered! I wonder if the real Nostradamus could have ever foreseen his participation in a movie like this?

A wealthy business man discovers he has a brain tumor and seeks medical help. The business man finds a scientist experimenting with transplanting monkey heads on different monkey bodies.How can you go wrong when Billy Wilder's brother directs? You simply cannot. Especially when he has a nice scene that acts as free advertising for Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.What I find most interesting about this film is that it implies the French have discovered the secret to keeping corpses fresh. You would think that after a few hundred years, Nostradamus' head would be nothing more than a skull (if that). Yet, he is hardly rotten at all and even has his vocal cords in working order.

George Coulouris generally played character roles and occasionally second leads. In "The Man Without a Body", he gets his "big chance" to play the lead role in a movie. He should have passed—the movie is so ridiculous that it's laughable.Coulouris played a long line of rich and stuffy businessmen or industrialists, and here he's at it again. Unfortunately, his character is diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor and told to go home and die. Coulouris has a different idea, however: he schemes to exhume and steal the head of 16th-century philosopher Nostradamus, and implant that purloined brain in his skull. His new brain, Coulouris reasons, will have visions of the future, so it'll be great for business! Geez, why didn't I think of that? Coulouris travels to France, makes off with Nostradamus' head (which had been buried for 400 years), and smuggles the head back to the U.S., where he enlists the help of the local mad doctor, Robert Hutton. Somehow, Hutton is able to "activate" Nostradamus' head, so the good doctor and Coulouris can have some pretty interesting conversations with Nostradamus about his prophecies. Hutton's assistant is killed, so Hutton—apparently not wanting to waste a perfectly good 400-year-old head—transplants Nostradamus' head onto the assistant's body. The Nostradamus/assistant transplant guy naturally gets loose and goes for a stroll, falling to his death after a few preposterous scenes.I certainly hope Coulouris and Hutton were well-paid for this mess, because the film truly is dreadful. Imaginative? Yes. Good? Not at all. However, the animated conversations with a Nostradamus' old, old head are sort of entertaining, even if they're entertaining in the wrong way. You've been warned.

I have only seen this movie once, in the early Seventies. It was on a Friday night horror show program, and I have never seen it since. All I really remember are a few scenes, including one of obnoxious millionaire George Couloris being told his mistress is threatening to kill herself, and he basically says he's too busy to be bothered with it. I remember the grave robbing scenes, but the one image that really sticks with me is a couple of scientists conversing with the head of Nostradamus, and the head nodding and expressing interest in all the new developments of the Twentieth Century. It seemed to me at the time a terrible movie, which has, perhaps not surprisingly, disappeared from circulation.