donovans brain

In the surprisingly crowded sub-genre of "killer brain" films, Donovan's Brain (1953) always seems to get the most attention. Likely because it was quickly sold to television and played ad nauseam in the living rooms of impressionable young tykes everywhere. As a quintessential piece of '50s science fiction, it fits in quite nicely with other independently produced quickies of the era: an expensive idea executed with cheap actors and even cheaper sets. Yet it's that idea, based on a novel from Curt Siodmak, that resonated well enough for countless other filmmaker's to rip it off over the decades.

In an isolated Arizona lab, Dr. Patrick Cory (Lew Ayres) is busy pickling monkey brains in a special solution in an attempt to keep them alive and active outside of their monkey bodies when an even better test subject drops into his lap. A plane crash kills renowned millionaire (and tax scofflaw) W. H. Donovan, but with the brain still functioning, Cory removes it for use in his experiment...ethics be damned.

Donovan's brain not only survives, it thrives under Cory's care and begins increasing in size and cerebral power. Soon it is able to mentally take over the doctor's body, forcing him to track down those who would squander his amassed fortune, which is now up for grabs by the government.

Despite the "mad scientist" premise, director Felix Feist's film is relatively lacking in typical science fiction set pieces. In fact, Donovan's villainous actions are purely capitalistic, consisting of money transfers, blackmail and financial coercion...nothing particularly cinematic. But when someone threatens the plan, Donovan's brain goes into action, using Cory like a puppet to manipulate or kill with impunity. By the final reel, the brain brags it has enough mental chutzpah to take over the world!

Yet for most of the running time, the stakes seem rather small. And Donovan's Brain works best as an acting showcase for Lew Ayres who essentially gets to play two roles for the price of one. His wife is played by Nancy Davis, the future First Lady better known as Nancy Reagan, which adds an element of historical curiosity, although her performance is cold and devoid of the usual shrieks common in the genre. Many subsequent films would lift Siodmak's idea with more overtly exploitive results (namely The Brain That Wouldn't Die) but there is a certain amount of innocent charm to this 1953 version that keeps it at the top of the list.

Kino Lorber's newly remastered Blu-ray is like looking through a windowpane. Really, there aren't enough words in the thesaurus to describe how truly immaculate the image looks in high definition. Joe Dante kicks off the extras with a quick introduction as part of his Trailers From Hell series. But the audio commentary from film historian Richard Harland Smith is the real meat and potatoes here; a non-stop but down-to-earth narration about everything you could possibly want to know about the film...and dozens of things you didn't even suspect.