La Vengeance du docteur Corrie

If the science fiction elements were absent from this film, it would have been a good film noir movie. A remake of "Donovan's Brain", "Ein Toter sucht seinen Morder" (American title: The Brain), falls between two stools. In it, a scientist keeps alive the brain of a dead colleague while keeping the fact a secret from dead man's relatives who he suspects of murdering him; he turns detective and investigates.

The brain is kept alive in what looks a formalin-filled tank with wires sticking out of it - amateurish, but in keeping with the low budget science fiction films of that era. The film noir camera work is excellent as are the other film noir elements in this flick. The movie has a fast pace most of the time. Peter van Eych's acting is wooden at best and he looks too old for the part.

Worth watching if you are into old science fiction films of that era.

(Reviewed by Sundar Narayan)

Back in 1944, Hollywood produced "Lady and the Monster". Not even a decade later, they remade the film as "Donovan's Brain". Now, less than a decade after that, the British remade the film yet again as "The Brain"! I've seen the other two films and decided to see if the British version is any better. And, after seeing it, I am not sure I'd say it was better...more very different.

Dr. Corrie (Peter van Eyck) is one of those researchers whose humanity and ethics take a back seat to his research. He's been working on trying to keep brains alive after the rest of the monkey has died and he's longing to try his experiments out on humans. Soon, an opportunity practically drops in his lap when an airplane crashes nearby. Everyone on board is dead or dying and the one living victim is nearly dead. So, Corrie decides to try out his experiment and he ends up keeping the brain of a cruel industrialist alive.

This brain apparently is from a man with a strong will, as soon it begins controlling Corrie and makes him investigate the airplane crash. Soon, folks are alarmed that Corrie keeps declaring that it was murder and that he seemed to know details of the case he shouldn't have known. How long until the murderer decides that Corrie is a liability and needs to be gotten out of the way?

This film, unlike the other two, is less a horror film and more a murder mystery. Van Eyck's acting is very nice and the story held my interest. Very good and different enough from the others that it's still worth seeing.

By the way, the prop brain they used in the film was too big...more like an elephant's brain than a human one!

This Anglo-German co-production by Raymond Stross based on the novel by Kurt Siodmak represented an early film by Freddie Francis, when he still had serious ambitions to establish himself as a director.

As befits a man who had recently been an Oscar-winning black & white cinematographer Francis provides the film with a vivid visual style. Among the cast comprising Ango-Saxons and Teutons in fairly equal measure Peter Van Eyck as usual gives a sound dramatic performance as Dr Corrie both before and after coming under the control of the recently deceased megalomaniac Max Holt. The producer's wife provides a memorably glacial femme fatale, while a surprisingly large number of actors associated with comedy - including Miles Malleson - fleetingly appear in straight roles.

While 'Donovan's Brain' wasn't the first movie version of Curt Siodmak's sci fi shocker, it is by far the best known and best remembered of the three adaptations (so far). As a corny but entertaining b-grade movie it is hard to beat, and wonderful fun. 'The Brain', an overlooked German/English remake, doesn't try to outdo it, it instead approaches the source material in a very different way. The sensationalistic thrills and mind control horror of the 1953 movie are replaced by a calmer, more atmospheric style which adds a mystery element not seen in the earlier version. The basic premise is the same (though the names have been changed). This time around the scientist experimenting with keeping monkey's brains alive outside the body is played by Peter van Eyck ('Wages Of Fear'). He is assisted by his beautiful wife (well, I think it's his wife) Ella (Ellen Schwiers, who is positively stunning, and a lot easier on the eye than Nancy Davis!), and his trustworthy alcoholic sidekick (Bernard Lee, 'M' of James Bond fame). Once again a plane crashes nearby and the sole survivor is taken back to their lab. Once again the man cannot be saved but the scientist decides to keep his brain. As in 'Donovan's Brain' the brain survives and begins to exert control over the scientist. But it isn't in the same way, it is much subtler, and instead of domination, the brain wants something else - justice. For in 'The Brain' the millionaire has been murdered, and most of his family and associates are suspects. This interesting twist, plus the superior cast, makes this movie a rarity - a worthwhile remake. However, I wouldn't go so far as to say it surpasses the earlier movie. It is less silly and more intelligent, but not necessarily more entertaining. I enjoy both movies in different ways, and recommend them both.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Freddie Francis; Screenplay by Robert Stewart and Philip Mackie, based on Curt Siodmak's novel; Produced by Raymond Stross as a British-German co-production for Raymond Stross Productions and CCC. Released in America by Governor Films. Photography by Bob Huke; Edited by Oswald Hafenrichter; Music by Kenneth Jones. Starring: Anne Heywood, Peter Van Eyck, Bernard Lee, Cecil Parker, Jeremy Spenser and Maxine Audley.

British remake of "Donovan's Brain", with an all-star cast. Suspenseful horror-mystery film in which a dead man's brain is kept alive and seeks to uncover the murderer of its body. One of many overlooked fine movies made by the adventurous team of Anne Heywood and her husband Raymond Stross.