Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Idiot-Deluxe Fun stuff. A wicked little thriller from the early 1950's, palpably flavored with some early Sci-Fi elements. These "Sci-Fi" elements, are primarily due to the doctors (quite humble) laboratory. And because of the consistently good (occasionally great) acting and steady direction, the movie moves along at a good pace and proves to be very entertaining for such a low-budget production. Not all good movies cost mega-bucks to make and "Donovan's Brain" is a fine example of that. Like several reviewers have stated before me, this is the best film adaption of the famous Curt Siodmak novel (in contrast to the laughably dismal, MST3K-panned "The Brain That Wouldn't Die"). By watching this movie, it's quite obvious that it came out of the same decade that gave light to The Twilight Zone; as I found the film to play out much like a long-play episode of that show. The film is tautly put together and well-acted, the cast (which includes a young-ish Nancy Davis/Reagan) and crew did a lot with a little, in creating a highly entertaining psychological/sci-fi thriller. Certainly somewhat dated, but in a most charming way. Take note of those great, highly excitable sound effects coming from the professor's laboratory - very fun sounds. Perfect viewing on a dismal rainy afternoon (or night). On a morbid sidenote, by sheer coincidence, I happened to see "Donovan's Brain" for the first time, on the very same day that Nancy Reagan was put in the ground. Like I said a bit on the morbid side.

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.

utgard14 When evil millionaire Donovan dies on his operating table, scientist Dr. Patrick Cory (Lew Ayres) seizes the opportunity and removes Donovan's brain, which still shows signs of life. He manages to keep the brain alive in a tank in his laboratory, where it grows in size in a short time as well as exhibiting telepathic abilities. Soon Donovan's brain becomes powerful enough to force his will on Cory and make him do his bidding.Entertaining '50s sci-fi with few bells & whistles but an enjoyable cast and decent ideas. Lew Ayres is good. I like to imagine this is what happened to Dr. Kildare: he left medicine to become a research scientist and things went horribly wrong. Nancy Davis (Reagan) does a fine job, though her obedient housewife role is likely to draw criticisms from the huff & puff crowd. Gene Evans is great as Ayres' surgeon buddy with a drinking problem who gives Ayres the inevitable "you're playing God" speech. Steve Brodie is fun as a nosy reporter who gets what's coming to him. Based on a novel by screenwriter Curt Siodmak (The Wolfman, I Walked with a Zombie, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, etc.). Siodmak doesn't write the screenplay here. The movie was adapted before as The Lady and the Monster and Siodmak didn't write that either. Not sure why he didn't try to write his own movie version of the novel. This is a good sci-fi flick, though the middle is little more than Ayres going from place to place barking orders at people and handing out money. The beginning and ending are best. Not a lot of action, which won't sit well with everybody, but I was never bored.

stmichaeldet Donovan's Brain is one of the better known and highly respected science fiction films of the fifties, and it's plain to see why. The scant special-effects requirements, serious tone, high-profile cast, and human-interest driven plot would have put it in good position to cross over and appeal to a more mainstream audience than the typical, lurid invasion or radioactive-monster flicks of the day. But can it satisfy the needs of the modern fan of black and white SF? Let's take a closer look.The story centers on Dr. Patrick Cory (Lew Ayres of "Dr. Kildare" fame) and his experiments in preserving brain tissue. His goal is to keep an entire brain alive in a tank, so that he can study it and learn its secrets for the betterment of all mankind. He is assisted by his wife, Janice (Nancy Davis of, well, being-married-to-Ronald-Reagan fame), and Dr. Frank Schratt, who provides the surgical expertise despite his near-constant drunken binges. While Dr. Cory has begun to have success with keeping monkey brains alive, his big break arrives when the dying millionaire W.H. Donovan is delivered to his lab for emergency treatment after a plane crash. So, when Donovan dies on the operating table, Cory thinks nothing of swiping his brain.While Donovan's brain thrives in its tank of nutrient solution, Cory becomes frustrated at his inability to determine what a disembodied brain might be thinking about just by looking at it and measuring its brain waves. So, to Janice and Frank's dismay, he pins his hopes on a theory of establishing telepathic contact with the brain. Unfortunately, Donovan is way ahead of him on this, and uses the opportunity to take over Cory's mind and force him to take steps to gain control of the Donovan fortune and use it to ensure the brain's continued survival.Donovan may have been a ruthless, brilliant financier, he proves not to be very good at covering his tracks, and Cory soon has the Treasury Department, an unscrupulous journalist, Donovan's heirs, and an increasingly worried Frank and Janice dogging his steps. Curiously, though, despite the fact that Frank and Janice go from being concerned about Cory's sanity to believing that Donovan has taken over Cory's mind, and while they discuss pulling the plug on the brain several times in the course of the film, each time they decide that it would be better to let Dr. Cory or God decide when the "experiment" should end.Once they've finally had enough of Donovan, they hatch a plan whereby Janice will distract Cory/Donovan while Frank puts a bullet in the brain's, er, brain. Donovan trips to the plan in time to stop Frank, mainly because Janice's idea of distraction is to tell Donovan that they intend to put an end to his influence over Cory. So, God finally steps in Himself and pulls the plug on the brain with a well-placed lightning bolt. Apparently, God got an assist in this via taped instructions from Cory (recorded in one of his lucid, Donovan-free periods) to monkey with the house's lightning rod, but this explanation feels kind of tacked-on to avoid a completely Deus Ex Machina ending.In the end, Dr. Cory is back to his old self, and is off to defend his experiment to the legal and medical authorities, which, excuse me? I'm sorry, Dr. Cory, but not only did you hijack a brain at the drop of a hat, but people died as a result of your actions, which I think puts the nails in the coffin of any medical-ethics defense. You'll be luckier than you deserve if you don't end up serving jail time for bank fraud, extortion, and manslaughter.So, what have we got? Well, apart from the nonsense of Dr. Cory's hope for redemption in the denouement, we've got a very tight little story, an excellent cast, decent production values, and a fine director in Felix Feist. But it all comes across as a little dry and underwhelming. After all, if you're a fan of old SF films, it's probably because you like rubber monster suits, cheesy effects, and whacked-out scripts. Still, it is a classic, and as such is worth a look. But you might want to have a copy of something like The Brain that Wouldn't Die on hand in case you end up feeling a bit deprived in the cheap-thrills department.