Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

BaronBl00d This is a relatively cheaply made sci-fi vehicle from the Golden Age of Science Fiction with some fairly big stars. Lew Ayres stars as Doctor Cory, a genial man who wants to find cures to diseases of the mind through experimentation with monkey brains. Nancy Davis(Mrs. Reagan) plays his devoted wife, and Gene Evans his drunken doctor sidekick. Anyway, a plane crashes and the body of a nearly dead millionaire is at stake, so Dr. Cory goes to him, brings him back to his lab, and when it is evident that his life can no longer be sustained - Dr. Cory, against the wishes of his wife and alcoholic helper, extracts his brain and houses it in a fish aquarium with some metal rods and tubing attached to it. The brain looks like an inflatable football, heaving and deflating every now and then. And man is that one big brain. Is it true what they say about men with big brains? The brain somehow takes over Ayres genial mind and he slowly becomes two personalities - the genial(wow - talk about repetition with a word)doctor and the repulsive, selfish, mean-spirited millionaire - hated by family and friends. Look, you know what you will get for the rest of the film. Ayres does a decent job surveying both roles. Evans and Davis are also okay, not they really have much to do. There is a nice small performance from Steve Brodie as a reporter with few scruples. Director Felix Feist, a journeyman director with more misses than hits, is competent behind the camera if nothing else. The movie is slow and talky at times, and the plot really meanders in the final third. The special effects though are a real let-down even by 1950s standards. Donavan's Brain, based on a novel by Curt Siodmak, is definitely a more thought-provoking sci-fi film of its era, but also, in my humble opinion, one of the lesser quality ones.

funkyfry This is a film for sci-fi fans who are able to put up with some outdated effects and technology, not for people who like "so bad it's good" films. The film is not campy at all, and is handled very straight and serious. Good thing too, because it does have a lot of disturbing elements.Dr. Cory (Lew Ayres) and his wife (Nancy Davis, later Reagan) are engaged in an experiment in preserving living animal brains when fortune puts an irresistible opportunity in his path -- a private plane crashes and he is able to harvest one passenger's brain after his body expires and before the brain dies. Unfortunately for him the brain happens to belong to Donovan, a Hearst-esquire multi-millionaire with a really bad attitude and a lot of mental prowess. The brain soon learns to communicate telepathically with the doctor and eventually begins to control him, even inspiring Cory to begin wearing the dark suits and smoking the cigars that were trademarks of Donovan's extravagant lifestyle. The brain also begins to take control back of his financial empire and to scheme for a permanent house for itself, seeking to control the international financial world with his new mental powers and his old financial cunning.It's a bizarre but very interesting and effective premise, from Curt Siodmak's (The Wolf Man) novel. The directing is only average as far as actors are concerned but it is well enough handled in the terror sequences, such as when the brain sets out to kill one investigative journalist who gets too close to the truth by "driving" him to suicide, literally. Ayres is good as well as Davis, and all the actors treat the material with respect and add a level of dignity to the film that other "living brain" films lack. There's also a very interesting parallel between Dr. Cory's tendency to enable the alcohol addiction of his assistant (Gene Evans) and his wife and the assistant's enabling of his increasingly strange behavior with regards to Donovan's brain. Good solid 50s sci-fi without the laughs, for those who are interested.

theowinthrop Lew Ayres had a long and distinguished career in motion pictures from the 1930s until his death in 1996. It takes in plenty of territory, such as his lead in the original ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT to his alcoholic younger brother in HOLIDAY to his psychiatrist sleuth in THE DARK MIRROR to his doctor in JOHNNY BELINDA to his ignored Vice President in ADVISE AND CONSENT to his later television work on a Columbo episode and even in L.A. LAW (as a super-annuated but likable attorney). There was also some interesting (but acceptable) political controversy: he took his exposure to war's horrors in ALL QUIET quite seriously, and was a conscientious objector in World War II. But he actually still served in that war as an ambulance driver, so nobody accused him of shirking his duty or of cowardice. He never did achieve Oscar status, but then neither did his contemporaries Edward Arnold nor Greta Garbo.One of the few times Ayres played a less than likable person was in this marvelous little science fiction film from the 1950s. Actually Ayres is portraying two personalities: First he is playing a typically good character, Dr. Patrick Cory. Doc Cory is working with his wife/nurse Janice (Nancy Reagan - here Nancy Davis) and Dr. Frank Schratt (Gene Evans) on research into brain waves and keeping brain tissue alive. He's making great progress with monkeys and animal brains. But he realizes that he has yet to have any experience with human brain tissue. So he is fascinated when an accident occurs near his desert laboratory/home. A private plane crashes killing the people on board. One is Warren H. Donavan, a multi-millionaire of questionable attitudes and business ethics. Because of his work with the local police department, Ayres is called in to the wreck site as a coroner. He writes up the death reports, but he notices that Donavan's brain case is in a good physical state despite the crash. He waits until the police leave, and (with Schratt's questioning assistance) he cuts out Donavan's brain and puts it into one of his specially designed tanks to be kept alive and measured for brain waves.Gradually Ayres picks up his second role and personality. You see, he does not realize that Warren H. Donavan was a very forceful personality - indeed a very hateful one. Early on Ayres (as Dr. Cory) meets Donavan's son and daughter, neither of whom are totally sorry to see their tyrannical and evil father dead (he'd been threatening to disinherit both for not listening to his "advice" to them). This should have tipped him off. Gradually, as day follows day, Cory and Schratt see that the brain of Donavan is getting healthier under their care, and seems able to function in the apparatus. But Schratt and Janice Cory notice that the Doctor is not himself - he is rather sharp with them both, and he does not seem to notice he has acquired some negative characteristics of Donavan's. Actually, of course, the powerful brain of Donavan is slowly taking over the softer, gentler Cory's brain. So the second personality emerges, and for long stretches of this neat thriller Ayres is actually playing Warren Donavan, complete with Donavan's diet (he likes milk and steak three times a day), wardrobe (a specially designed pinstripe suit), and limp.Donavan was having problems with the Federal Government at the time of his death: he was against paying any income taxes. I don't mean he lied and paid a minimum by playing fast and loose with the rules - he loathes the idea of income taxes. He has bribed a Washington IRS man (Tom Powers) to find legal roadblocks regarding a full scale investigation into his wealth. Donavan has also hidden a huge proportion of it (about $600,000 in 1950 dollars) in bank accounts under assumed names around California. Using the imprisoned Cory as his body, he takes this money out and starts assaulting the stock markets. His goal: to basically take over the American economy. How to do this: by having Cory and Schratt build better equipment to keep that mighty brain of his alive as long as possible. He does not plan to be stopped.And he won't be. He is blackmailed by one clever reporter Herbie Yokum (Steve Brodie) who has half the story correct: Yokum saw (when taking photos of the autopsied bodies of the plane victims) that Dr. Cory had done something with the brain of Donavan, although he never reported it to the police. He does not realize, as he gloatingly shows the autopsy photos to an angry Cory, that he is not talking to Cory but to Donavan at that point (who is not pleased to see photos of his body cut up). So Donavan makes fast work of Yokum in a subsequent accident.Eventually the brain also demonstrates it's willingness to injure anyone - Dr. Cory himself, Schratt, and even Janice. It is just by a sheer piece of luck or divine intervention at the end that the brain is finally stopped.Science fiction films in the 1950s tended to confront the Cold War issues of American threatened by "alien" cultures or beings. But only in DONAVAN'S BRAIN was it the threat of uninhibited capitalism boosted by science that took central stage. A very thoughtful little film indeed.

stmichaeldet Donovan's Brain is one of the better known and highly respected science fiction films of the fifties, and it's plain to see why. The scant special-effects requirements, serious tone, high-profile cast, and human-interest driven plot would have put it in good position to cross over and appeal to a more mainstream audience than the typical, lurid invasion or radioactive-monster flicks of the day. But can it satisfy the needs of the modern fan of black and white SF? Let's take a closer look.The story centers on Dr. Patrick Cory (Lew Ayres of "Dr. Kildare" fame) and his experiments in preserving brain tissue. His goal is to keep an entire brain alive in a tank, so that he can study it and learn its secrets for the betterment of all mankind. He is assisted by his wife, Janice (Nancy Davis of, well, being-married-to-Ronald-Reagan fame), and Dr. Frank Schratt, who provides the surgical expertise despite his near-constant drunken binges. While Dr. Cory has begun to have success with keeping monkey brains alive, his big break arrives when the dying millionaire W.H. Donovan is delivered to his lab for emergency treatment after a plane crash. So, when Donovan dies on the operating table, Cory thinks nothing of swiping his brain.While Donovan's brain thrives in its tank of nutrient solution, Cory becomes frustrated at his inability to determine what a disembodied brain might be thinking about just by looking at it and measuring its brain waves. So, to Janice and Frank's dismay, he pins his hopes on a theory of establishing telepathic contact with the brain. Unfortunately, Donovan is way ahead of him on this, and uses the opportunity to take over Cory's mind and force him to take steps to gain control of the Donovan fortune and use it to ensure the brain's continued survival.Donovan may have been a ruthless, brilliant financier, he proves not to be very good at covering his tracks, and Cory soon has the Treasury Department, an unscrupulous journalist, Donovan's heirs, and an increasingly worried Frank and Janice dogging his steps. Curiously, though, despite the fact that Frank and Janice go from being concerned about Cory's sanity to believing that Donovan has taken over Cory's mind, and while they discuss pulling the plug on the brain several times in the course of the film, each time they decide that it would be better to let Dr. Cory or God decide when the "experiment" should end.Once they've finally had enough of Donovan, they hatch a plan whereby Janice will distract Cory/Donovan while Frank puts a bullet in the brain's, er, brain. Donovan trips to the plan in time to stop Frank, mainly because Janice's idea of distraction is to tell Donovan that they intend to put an end to his influence over Cory. So, God finally steps in Himself and pulls the plug on the brain with a well-placed lightning bolt. Apparently, God got an assist in this via taped instructions from Cory (recorded in one of his lucid, Donovan-free periods) to monkey with the house's lightning rod, but this explanation feels kind of tacked-on to avoid a completely Deus Ex Machina ending.In the end, Dr. Cory is back to his old self, and is off to defend his experiment to the legal and medical authorities, which, excuse me? I'm sorry, Dr. Cory, but not only did you hijack a brain at the drop of a hat, but people died as a result of your actions, which I think puts the nails in the coffin of any medical-ethics defense. You'll be luckier than you deserve if you don't end up serving jail time for bank fraud, extortion, and manslaughter.So, what have we got? Well, apart from the nonsense of Dr. Cory's hope for redemption in the denouement, we've got a very tight little story, an excellent cast, decent production values, and a fine director in Felix Feist. But it all comes across as a little dry and underwhelming. After all, if you're a fan of old SF films, it's probably because you like rubber monster suits, cheesy effects, and whacked-out scripts. Still, it is a classic, and as such is worth a look. But you might want to have a copy of something like The Brain that Wouldn't Die on hand in case you end up feeling a bit deprived in the cheap-thrills department.