The Brain Machine

One can only assume that the distributors,RKO Teleradio Pictures,wanted to utilise some of the success enjoyed by The Quatermass Experiment by tacking on a 10 minute sequences at the beginning which justify the use of a title which really hasn't got anything to do with the rest of the film.Elizabeth Allen plays the leading role and is clearly not a woman to be tricked with.In real life she sued MGM because they took away from her the leading roles in The Citadel and Goodbye Mr Chips.She lost on appeal and never worked in Hollywood again.The film develops as a routine crime film.However Maxwelo Reed has an intriguing revolver which fires 12 times without reloading.

It sounds like a sci-fi movie, but is actually a crime thriller that is clearly inspired by American movies of the era. An unusually effective Maxwell Reed is the violent criminal with a brain tumour who kidnaps icy doctor Elizabeth Allan while trying to flee the country. There's a lot going on in its brief running time, but it never quite comes together, and Allan is badly miscast.

Moody Maxwell Reed plays a man with a brain sickness that could turn him into a murderer. Elizabeth Allan plays a doctor who regresses him to remember the source of his mental hurt. She is kidnapped by him and taken to his railway arch den. She discovers a stash of cortozone there. Her doctor husband goes in search of his endangered wife. There is plenty of action and suspense. I reckon the best scene is when Reed closes in on his intended prey towards the end. We see that the husband still loves his wife even though their divorce is imminent. There are hints that she may have fallen for her latest patient. This is definitely for fans of 1950s British crime thrillers as there is very little Sci-Fi interest as the title might suggest. I think this has an improved Maxell Reed who was apparently styling himself on Stewart Granger at the time.

The most bizarre aspect of this competent minor British kidnap thriller is its completely inappropriate packaging as science fiction. The 'Brain Machine' of the title refers to an electroencephalograph which is used by psychologists to identify brainwave patterns characteristic of psychotics. That is indeed a futuristic concept, but the eponymous machine actually only features in the first ten minutes or so. The title sequence is very techy, and the theme tune is the same as the TV serial version of 'Quatermass and the Pit'. Indeed, the opening scene, where the brain machine is introduced to us, is highly reminiscent of scenes in Quatermass, 'X the Unknown' and similar pictures. But after that, the whole thing settles down into thriller mode, with a traditional nick o' time climax. Enjoyable, but misleading.

After a science-fiction type opening, the film develops into a neat and engrossing little thriller, with lively playing by the leads. The central performance of the much underrated Maxwell Reed is especially noteworthy, and the film is all the more impressive for his presence. In fact, was there anyone better in this type of role, in British cinema, during that particular time? It is also interesting, for its time, in that there is a distinct undercurrent of attraction for Reed's character, Frank Smith, by Dr Roberts (Elizabeth Allan) which is clearly magnified during the closing scene of the film when her estranged husband Dr Allen (Patrick Barr) is also present. All-in-all an enjoyable little thriller which, although rarely screened, is well worth catching.