Billion Dollar Brain [1967]

Customer Reviews:

Our man Flint, Harry Palmer style.......2008-01-02

This story is not quite "The Ipcress File" (1965) but it has its moments. The catsup, oops blood in those days was considerable thicker.

We have Harry (Michael Caine) once again being recruited by Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman), with a promotion and a 300£ annual raise. But he has other ideas and soon opportunities to take part in a great political movement. Where there is chaos there is profit. And as usual you can not tell the good guys from the bad or the idiots.

The actors as they are introduces in the story are an added plus. The Russian Colonel Stok, Oscar Homolka earlier played Dr. Prokosch in "Boys' Night Out" (1962). Who can look at Karl Malden and not think of "The Streets of San Francisco" (TV series) - Detective Lt. Mike Stone (120 episodes, 1972-1977). Of course we can not leave out Ed Begley best known for the cult classic Wild in the Streets (1968).

The movie is fast paced. And somehow in all the noise and bad tempers Harry Palmer keeps his cool and is the voice of reason. So does he get his raise?

Integrity, good taste and a mad billionaire.......2007-12-03

What more could you want? Well, Michael Caine post Alfie but still gorgeous, being down at heel, noble and put upon; Catherine Deneuve's sister, for heaven's sake, just before she died; a spoof of the Moonraker plot??; very amusing Texan megalomaniac in the context of today's USA; icy, haunting music by Richard Rodney Bennett; strong visual and pace contrasts. Class

Time finally catches up with Billion Dollar Brain.......2007-02-01

Billion Dollar Brain had always disappointed in the past, but seen again in light of recent events it's taken on a whole new resonance. As a Harry Palmer movie it still disappoints, but taken on its own terms its an entertaining spoof of the 60s spy movie, from its OTT title sequence (where Maurice Binder ruthlessly sends up his own Bond title sequences) to its Alexander-Nevsky-with-oil-tankers finale on the ice. At no point does the film ever expect you to take it seriously, which is just as well - after all, who on Earth would believe that a far-right evangelical Texas oil millionaire would start a pointless war based on phoney intelligence? Definitely a film that reality has finally caught up with...

MGM/UA's DVD boasts a fine 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, although as others have noted a 32-second sequence featuring The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night playing on a record player has had to be cut because of licensing problems. There are also sadly no extras at all.

Over the top 60's spy movie.......2007-01-30

Over the top can be a positive thing. For decades Bond movies have made their reputation on it. However, this third entry in the Harry Palmer series goes a long way to undoing the good will built up over the first two instalments (The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin) in its 60's excess.
Its predecessors made a virtue not of reality, but creating a believable every day Cockney with unique character traits, unwillingly dragged through the existence of spying, and all the bureaucracy inherent in it. The movie and plot were never fully grounded in reality, but were nonetheless believable.
Here, Ken Russell opts to throw away the edgy impressionistic camera angles developed by Sidney Furie and Guy Hamilton, instead making a pseudo Bond movie. Which is a real pity - who needs another Bond-lite character? The plot builds slowly at first with satisfyingly snowy locations and skullduggery and spying.. but soon becomes lost in an over-the-top ending involving a megalomaniac American oil billionaire using a not-so-super-now-computer to try and invade Latvia.
There is never a real sense of danger to humanity, and too many plot threads are left unexplained for this to be an entirely successful affair.
And yet, all of this is tempered by Michael Caine's effortless charisma in the role. If the scriptwriters fail to maintain the details in the screenplay that made the character so involving, Caine overcomes this with his screen presence. Karl Malden plays well in the rather two dimensional `greedy guy' role, and Ed Begley plays `evil megalomaniac' well within the confines of the material. Guy Coleman makes a welcome return as Colonel Ross but alas is woefully underused. The femme fatale is played by Francoise Dorleac, who tragically died at a young age later the same year in a car accident.
Honeywell computers are given a big credit as having supplied all the computing rooms and material which make such a big component of the plot. It's fantastically quaint now to watch huge rooms of computers racked up to do mundane tasks, programming supplied by stacks of cards. One unintentionally hilarious scene has Karl Malden `editing' the data by taking some of the programming cards out and shredding them! I can't imagine what a generation brought up on iPods and powerful home computers must make of it.
In summary, what makes the movie at best mediocre - the bland script, the over the top campness, will endear it as a classic to others. The action scenes are handled well, the locations in Finland suitably spectacular, and the actors are more than up to the task. However this reviewer was left cold by more than just the scenes of snow and ice.

Brilliant film, great to have it on DVD.......2005-01-12

I originally ordered this DVD in October, due to various problems it finally arrived in early January the following year! But it was worth the wait. During the period of wait I probably watched the film at least one more time on the MGM channel. It really is a favourite of mine, though not quite as good as The Ipcress File which was smarter, tighter and more thrilling.

A few comments on the review below:

"To solve the problem the studio has simply cut out a long sequence which is a disgraceful butchering of a director's work and alters the meaning of a scene from an exhuberant one to a more subdued one. Fans of this film are not going to like it."

I don't think it's a long sequence. It is a matter of seconds, and in my opinion does not affect the film irrespective of whether you are new to the film or familiar with the cut scene. Basically, Harry Palmer walks into the Latvian house and the Beatles are on TV playing Hard Day's Night. He moves into a room where Newbigen's "cousins" are and the film is neatly edited at that point so it looks like a flawless segue. I also don't agree that it alters the meaning of the scene - the only relevance is when Palmer leaves the room and is asked if he has any Beatles records. I suppose the scene helped place the film in terms of musical and social context - Beatles the rage and subersive in the Eastern bloc. Overall, I would rather have the film on DVD with the scene missing than not having it on DVD at all.

As for why the studio would release it, presumably Michael Jackson was asking too much for the rights to that music.

As for the quality of the print, it is 10x clearer and sharper than the digital satellite signal on MGM channel. And I hate films not being shown in their proper aspect ratio so having it in 2.35:1 widescreen is brilliant. The picture for me is wonderful so the DVD is definitely worth getting.

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