The Brain (1962)
Directed by Freddie Francis

Film Review

Cinema's third adaptation of Curt Siodmak's 1942 novel Donovan's Brain plays down the sci-fi/horror trappings of the previous two versions - The Lady and the Monster (1944) and Donovan's Brain (1953) - and instead performs more or less as a conventional murder mystery, albeit one with a few ghoulish moments along the way.  An Ango-German production (by Raymond Stross Productions and Central Cinema Company Film), The Brain's main point of interest is that was the first horror film to be directed by a stalwart of the genre, Freddie Francis.  Already renowned as a cinematographer, acclaimed for his work on Sons and Lovers (1960) and The Innocents (1961), Francis distinguished himself in the 1960s with a run of horror films for rival companies Hammer and Amicus, including psycho-thrillers such as Nightmare (1964), the Gothic horror The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and horror anthologies like Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965).

In less capable hands, The Brain could easily have ended up as a routine crime film - essentially just a plodding whodunit with a disembodied brain driving things along, but Francis's penchant for atmosphere gives it the body it needs to grab our attention and make it a distinctly creepy variation on a familiar theme.  Peter van Eyck's presence as a driven Germanic scientist brings a grim intensity to the drama which is effectively stressed and sustained by Robert Huke's forbidding noir-like cinematography and the film's extensive use of extreme close-ups.  The music and sound effects lend a suitably eerie note to the proceedings, and whilst more could have been made of the film's horrific premise, The Brain functions adequately as a compelling little thriller, admirably served by a distinguished supporting cast that includes Cecil Parker and Bernard Lee.  After this promising debut, Freddie Francis would have difficulty escaping from the thrall of the horror genre - "Horror films have liked me more than I have liked horror films," he once remarked. Like the main protagonist in The Brain, it just wouldn't let him go.

Film Synopsis

By experimenting on primates, Dr Peter Corrie has found not only a way to preserve the brain of an animal after death, but also a means of monitoring brain activity in its new, artificial environment.  The opportunity of using a human brain in his experiments presents itself when he is called to the site of an aeroplane crash to try to save the life of the sole survivor, business tycoon Max Holt.  Realising that Holt will surely die from his injuries, Corrie removes his brain before death and places it in a glass tank, with the intention of using it in his experiments.  To his surprise, the brain is unusually active and seems to begin exerting some kind of mental grip on him.  Under Holt's control, Dr Corrie is driven to investigate the circumstances of the businessman's death and soon discovers he was murdered - but by whom?