Tockinit
not horrible nor great
Hulkeasexo
it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Claudio Carvalho
Dr. Patrick "Pat" J. Cory (Lew Ayres) is researching brains with his assistant and friend Dr. Frank Schratt (Gene Evans) and his wife Janice Cory (Nancy Davis, a.k.a. Nancy Reagan) through experiments with monkeys in a laboratory in his house. When an airplane crashes nearby his house, there is only one near-death survivor, the millionaire Warren H. Donovan that is brought still alive to his care. However Donovan dies and Dr. Cory decides to use his brain in his experiment keeping it alive in a tank. Pat, Schratt and Janice research about the life of Donovan and they discover that he was a ruthless and evil man. Soon Donovan's brain imposes his personality to Dr. Cory and possesses him to get rid of his enemies and to live again in his body. Schratt and Janice sees the transformation of Dr. Cory and plan to destroy the brain. Will they succeed in their intent?"Donovan's Brain" is an entertaining B-movie with a combination of sci-fi and horror and a story in the style of Frankenstein, with a mad doctor and the result of his experiment. The conclusion is corny and commercial and would be better and better if the brain survives in the end. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Cérebro Maligno" ("The Evil Brain")
John Bailo
Most here have commented on the Sci-Fi aspects, but I wanted to focus on what seems to be an element of Business Fiction underlying the Sci-Fi (the science and experimentation being perhaps a way to cover another theme that some might want not to hear).The antagonist is a ruthless businessman whose brain is preserved...or more importantly, his mind. This mind lives on and infects others to do its will. The businessmen does not want to be bound by the rules of Government, taxation or even normal morality, it merely wants to conquer, possess and benefit itself. Some of you may be familiar with the work of Napoleon Hill and his book "Think and Grow Rich" which posits that business empires are the work of forming a Mastermind between people to accomplish and build great corporations.Wow. And the year is 1953? Can you imagine if someone had made a plain spoken film about such things? I wondered if Donovan (who flies in small planes a lot) is based maybe on Howard Hughes?Then there is the doctor. He is driven to perform his highly irregular experiments. He seems driven, but also reckless. He hustles his obviously inebriated friend into the operating room! He gets him to perform illegal and unregulated experiments on humans! This all goes on in the California mountains, away from the eye of the law (Nancy Reagan's future husband would be proud!) Law Enforcement are mere tax collectors, looking for their cut.We have the professional class, serving the business class and inflicting pain on the "little people". The Press, represented by a two-bit hustler named Herbie Yocum are no more than a bunch of blackmailing ambulance chasing paparazzi. Bankers, who are supposed to safeguard money, are more concerned with losing a big account than with giving money away to a potential fraud. And everyone else, hotel clerks, and so on, are bullied or cajoled by money. (Oddly, the one solid citizen is a taxi driver, who can't be persuaded by Donovan's money to ruin his livelihood for a short term payday.)Donovan's partners, confronted with the absurdity of their boss now inhabiting the body of someone else, pause for just a minute, then, seeing dollar signs, nod their heads and move on with the deal making. The Horror here is not a pulsating growing brain, but the giant Mastermind manipulating, and perhaps corrupting, all of America.
LeonLouisRicci
Overrated Movie, mostly because it is so seriously handled that it seems intelligent. Only seems. It is rather routine in all respects and is for the most part bland and boring. It does move along quickly and the best Scenes are outside the lab. Not a good thing for a Sci-Fi Film. In fact, it is the money manipulations and Government Investigations that come off as the most interesting.Another thing. There just isn't too much Horror or intrigue in watching a floating disembodied Brain in a fish tank. Some of the mumbo-jumbo is also quite elementary and stilted. Given all this, there must be something inherently haunting about "Brain" Movies because they do make quite a number of them. But nobody seems to know why. Everyone talks about how this is the best of this type of thing. But that isn't saying much. They most always are Kitsch or just Bad. But there are a lot of them out there when you get that uncontrollable urge and succumb to that particular brand of Mind Control or Brainwashing, you won't have much choice but to watch one of them. Actually you can take your pick without missing too much.
ccthemovieman-1
This is brainier (yeah, pun intended) than almost all the other 1950's sci-fi/horror movies but that doesn't mean it is that great and it certainly doesn't live up to its billing. Critics have overrated this movie for decades. I give it one thing: unlike most in its genre, it leans more toward the cerebral than the shock or visual. That's the good news. The bad news is that it gets boring by the halfway mark. Even at just 80 minutes, it is not an easy movie stay with, or one that rivet you to your movie seat. Don't believe the "elitists" who like to tell you how "intelligent" - and thus entertaining - this film is, because there is a reason less than 20 people have reviewed it here as of late 2007: it's not that good.B-movie stars Gene Evans, Lew Ayers, Steve Brodie and Nancy Davis star in the film. Evans overacts and is horrible - the worst actor in the film - while Davis - better known as the former First Lady Nancy Reagan - had a pleasant voice back then, but that was about it.
