El cerebro

Very Sixties in its making - with elements of the Italian Job and the Pink Panther combined - the Brain is silly, slick, and entertaining.

The robbery is colossal - $7 million in used notes from 14 countries all on one train! With an all star international cast headed up by Belmondo and Niven this is a frantic, frenetic, fun-filled take on the caper genre - and it really works - from the prison break to the caper itself and the subsequent chase it's high speed all the way.

Everything just kind of works - a great cast - a very competent director and all in all, it's fun.

The only downside is its very difficult to find and is rarely scheduled.

It has however finally been released in France on a double DVD (Without subs).

If you can find it it's a film to enjoy.

I first saw this movie in 1971. My brother and I liked it so much that we saw it twice (we still use lines from it in conversation). Wish it would be issued on DVD. When I saw it again after a lapse of over 30 years, I was delighted to see skits I had forgotten about. This movie is stuffed full of hilarious moments. I have a badly scratched VHS version (a former rental), but it's still a lot of fun to watch. Bourvil (Anatole) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (Arthur) have some memorable bits of dialog and wonderful on-screen rapport. David Niven (Colonel Matthews) is the dashing villain with the brain, and he delivers his usual polished performance. I was never much of a fan of Eli Wallach's movies, but he's pretty good here as a gangster guarding his sister's virginity.

Occasionally seen on TV in France, this film has now been issued on a double DVD in France with French subtitles only. Picture quality is superb ( THX Standard ). The film is extremely entertaining, to say the least, quite normal as the directer is the great Gérard Oury and on a par with such films as Le Corniaud or La Grande Vadrouille. I'm sure it's well known across the world, even if people don't know its title, if only because of David Niven's head that slants to one side because his brain's too heavy. There's a mixture of actors here, some French, some foreign and it has that light hearted happy-go-lucky-swinging-sixties look as typified by the Italian Job and other similar films. Knowing the perverse nature of things, now that this commentary has been written, the film will probably turn up on DVD in the coming months !! Let's hope so anyway !

Though it was a long time ago I watched this movie, I remember most of it and also the laughter it provided; in fact this was the time I got to know David Niven and Jean Paul Belmondo fine comedy acting. At the time I was about 15 and was getting started in the fine art of watching good movies, so this one really impressed me. . It is 60's style humor alright, if you're into special effects and high tech stuff, you may not appreciate it. I would love to see it re-released it on DVD, it is as good or better than the inspector Clouseau's Movies (and the Pink Panther, featuring David Niven too, is a fine comedy movie) Don't let it go into oblivion. If you ever watch it, prepare yourself for some good laughs.

It must be nearly twenty years since I last saw this film on tv and so I have only a vague memory of it. I do remember it as being highly entertaining.

David Niven plays a master criminal called 'The Brain' who is so massively intelligent, one of the give away signs of his identity is that his massive brain occasionally causes his head to go off balance thus causing him to keep it upright in his hands (very gallic sense of humour as this film appears to be largely French made).

He plans a major robbery whilst trying to avoid the attentions of Interpol. One of the gang members is the great French comedian, Bourvil who had parts in among others 'Monte Carlo or Bust' and the tv series 'The Flashing Blade'.

I would love to see this come on the tv again and can only think its been left off for contractual reasons over ownership of the rights and for royalty purposes.