Billion Dollar Brain

SPOILER ALERT - Not sure if I do give much away, but to be safe, do not read until you have viewed. Not being a huge Ken Russell fan, it was even more of a surprise to me how much I love this film. It is a quintessentially 60s work, but in a good way. Caine puts in another understated and accomplished turn as Harry Palmer, the anti-Bond of the age (though I love Bond films too). Two moments I particularly liked were the crazy General and his followers burning pictures and whipping themselves up into a frenzy as the camera swirls dizzily around them and close to the end where the beautiful Russian wants to kiss Palmer as if everything is alright, just because she is so gorgeous, but he spurns her brilliantly. The books are excellent too, by the way; pity even more Len Deighton works have not been made into films, though in fact a reasonable number have.

Enjoyable if dated, they are still using punch cards to program their computers!, espionage thriller with a solid cast. Caine is cool as ice as the reluctant protagonist casting a jaundiced eye on all the shenanigans going on around him. Francoise Dorleac is a lovely mystery woman although her character seems to vanish at several key points in the film when it feels like she would be there. This might be because she was killed in a traffic accident while the picture was still filming necessitating a rethinking to still make her completed work usable. She's quite magnetic, her resemblance to her sister Catherine Deneuve is striking, and her death cut short a career that was already very successful in France and was starting to expand worldwide. Ed Begley also stands out, having a great time as a crazy old coot. Subtle he ain't but memorable for sure.

"Billion Dollar Brain" is an unbelievably, inexplicably bad movie. It's so bad that the Harry Palmer series didn't survive it. I can't realize (after two viewings) what exactly is wrong with it, but it seems to fail on every level: plot, action, satire. Even Caine looks passive and unable to save it. A real curiosity.

The Ipcress File was a downbeat and gritty antidote to the James Bond films. The Harry Palmer films suddenly enter the psychedelic sixties with Billion Dollar Brain. Ken Russell was never going to make this into a straightforward spy drama. He was more into exotic flourishes and that is exactly what he brings to the table. Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) has left the secret service and is now a private detective. Out never means out and his old boss Colonel Ross forces Palmer back to work for MI5. Palmer's mission whether he likes it or not is go to Finland and stop biological warfare. A mad oil tycoon General Midwinter (Ed Begley) wants to take a war to the Soviet communists. An old friend Newbigen (Karl Malden) is acting suspicious as he is pocketing some Midwinter's money. Russell must have taken his cue from Dr Strangelove when it comes to General Midwinter. However this film is plodding and comes across more as a spoof than a serious spy drama without much underlying wit.

Former MI5 Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) is now a private detective. He gets a phone call from a computer voice directing him to a package in an airport locker. He's told to go to Helsinki where he gives the thermos to Anya (Françoise Dorléac) and his old friend Leo Newbigen (Karl Malden). He is soon suspicious of Leo and his mysterious boss. He is coerced to work for MI5 Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman) who tells him that the thermos is filled with a deadly virus and the conspiracy is headed by an oil tycoon General Midwinter (Ed Begley). This spy thriller isn't serious or realistic. It's basically a lower grade espionage movie with a convoluted premise. It does jump around a little with out-of-the-way locales, virus, beauties and Russians. Director Ken Russell made a competent but somewhat unimpressive movie. It's a low tension mystery rather than a high power thriller. Then the movie turns into a spoof with the cartoon villain. Its craziness is just enough fun to be interesting.