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 Reichfor the future. Fast forwarding into the 1960s, 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.
The penultimate episode of the 10th season, "They Saved Lisa's Brain" is a play on the film's title.
The episode "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "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."
In the episode "Duffless", one of the items on the conveyor belt is Hitler's head in a jar.
Simpsons Comics referenced the title in the story "They Saved Homer's Brain" in 1996.
In other media
The film was mentioned by Wesley in an episode of Mr. Belvedere.
In 1986, the film was featured in an episode of the Canned Film Festival.
Upon learning he was dying of radiation poisoning due to the constant exposure from his kryptonite ring, Lex Luthor stages his own death and has his brain preserved in a jar while wired to a computer, while a new body is cloned for him. He then re-emerges as his alleged illegitimate son Alexander Luthor, Jr. The story arc was titled "They Saved Luthor's Brain".
In Futurama, Professor Farnsworth proclaims "Everyone's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, oooh, suddenly you've gone too far."
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.
Los Angeles punk band Angry Samoans included the song "They Saved Hitler's Cock" on their 1982 album Back from Samoa.
In the comic book seriesSavage Dragon, Hitler's brain was attached to a gorilla body to become the villain Brainape. After being separated from the gorilla, the brain forms legs and runs away.
An episode of the U.S. cartoon Duckman was entitled "They Craved Duckman's Brain", based on the premise that Duckman, after falling asleep in an active CAT scanner, developed an isotope in his brain that could cure cancer, but getting to it would kill Duckman.
In honor of the film, the area of the now defunct PointlessWasteofTime.com forum set aside for serious discussion was titled "We Saved Hitler's Brain". It, along with the rest of the PWOT forums, was migrated to Cracked.com when editor David Wong was employed by Cracked.com as Senior Editor.
Unnatural Axe's 1978 song "They Saved Hitler's Brain" was singer and guitarist Richie Parsons' homage to the film. He says in an interview with Boston Groupie News, " I saw the last 5 minutes of this B movie that was funny as hell. I had no idea what it was about. All I saw was Hitler's Brain in a glass jar in the back of a staff car and the rest I made up."
Local H's album Hallelujah! I'm a Bum includes a song titled "They Saved Reagan's Brain".
Hitler's Brain is a resource card in the game .
The film "won" the First World's Worst Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada in 1979. Bradley was reportedly delighted when he learned his film was crowned the worst ever made.
Reception
The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives They Saved Hitler's Brain a rare rating of 0%, based on 5 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 1.3/10. TV Guide described it as "One of the all-time worst". Film critic Danny Peary said it was "A legitimate candidate for Worst Film Ever Made title." It was also one of the selections for The Golden Turkey Awards. Leonard Maltin gave the film the lowest possible rating. Maltin said it was "unbelievably muddled" after the addition footage, but he praised Cortez's cinematography.
