The Frozen Dead

The 1966 British science fiction horror film *The Frozen Dead* was written, produced, and directed by Herbert J. Leder, starring Dana Andrews, Anna Palk, and Philip Gilbert.

Two decades after World War II, unrepentant Nazi scientist Dr. Norberg works at his English country estate to thaw frozen Nazi soldiers kept in suspended animation since the war’s end. He awaits superiors General Lubeck and Captain Tirpitz, who are told by Norberg’s assistant Karl that the experiments are a complete success—but they are not. Norberg can thaw bodies but not brains, producing only zombie-like beings that repeat a single past action. The most violent, Prisoner No. 3, is Norberg’s brother-in-law. Lubeck reveals that 1,500 frozen Nazis are hidden across several countries and must be revived immediately. To solve the brain problem, Norberg brings in American scientist Ted Roberts, who has thawed functional brains. Ted believes he is helping keep organs alive for medical use, unaware of the Nazi plot.

Norberg’s niece Jean returns unexpectedly from an American university with her friend Elsa. The next day, Jean is told Elsa left on the 6:00 AM train to London. In truth, Karl drugged Elsa and took her to the lab, where Prisoner No. 3 stands over her dead body. Norberg later shows Ted a wall of amputated human arms he can control electrically, then reveals Elsa’s living head—blue-skinned, with a clear plastic dome over its brain. That night, Jean dreams Elsa is dead and her head is in the lab; Ted dismisses it, but Jean is communicating telepathically. Jean investigates, consulting railway staff and a Mrs. Smith—actually Mrs. Schmidt, a Nazi in hiding—and asks Police Inspector Witt for help.

After seeing Elsa’s head, Ted grows suspicious. Karl knocks him unconscious, and Norberg claims his brother-in-law (No. 3) attacked Ted, describing him as “mentally ill” since the war. Norberg asks Ted not to tell Jean that No. 3 is her father, whom she believes died in a concentration camp as a victim, not a Nazi. Lubeck and Tirpitz torture Karl to see if he has revealed the plot; he confesses to telling the Schmidts, his own family. After Karl tries to kill Jean and Ted to prove loyalty, Lubeck forces Norberg to freeze him.