FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

JohnHowardReid This is the sort of film the critics love to label "a witless farce", and certainly for the first 30 minutes or so, this description would be fair enough. True, Gerard Oury's direction is rather inventive, but the acting tends to be so heavy-handed that it smothers the jokes (such as they are). An obviously dubbed voice for Jean-Paul Belmondo doesn't help matters. It's fortunate that the other main players – including the delightful Bourvil – speak their own English lines. In fact, the film was actually filmed in two versions. Nevertheless, it's still a bit of a pain until the introduction of super-charming Silvia Monti, at which point it definitely picks up, not only in Miss M's physical attractiveness, but in the level of the farce itself. Even the direction becomes more amusing and super-delightfully extravagant, while the budget becomes suddenly more and more expensive and expansive. In fact, some of the stunts are almost unbelievable, but we see them happening with our own eyes – and on real locations and with hundreds of extras too! Adroit film editing also adds a lot to our entertainment. In fact, it's a pleasure to see a real film director like Gerard Oury spending the producer's money so lavishly and well. True, not everyone will like this sort of crazy, super-expensively produced slapstick, but it becomes so well-timed and brilliantly directed, that – once Miss Monti enters the fray – I loved every second and minute of it! French title: Le Cerveau.

grahamcallander I first saw this movie in 1971. My brother and I liked it so much that we saw it twice (we still use lines from it in conversation). Wish it would be issued on DVD. When I saw it again after a lapse of over 30 years, I was delighted to see skits I had forgotten about. This movie is stuffed full of hilarious moments. I have a badly scratched VHS version (a former rental), but it's still a lot of fun to watch. Bourvil (Anatole) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (Arthur) have some memorable bits of dialog and wonderful on-screen rapport. David Niven (Colonel Matthews) is the dashing villain with the brain, and he delivers his usual polished performance. I was never much of a fan of Eli Wallach's movies, but he's pretty good here as a gangster guarding his sister's virginity.

virchow Ah, the characters: David Niven as a British Officer/Master thief, played with his usual ironic assurance and poise, Eli Wallach as a frantic and choleric mafioso (he is a contender for Louis des Funés as the most explosive screen presence ever) and the delicious duo of Belmondo as an ambitious and inventive but somewhat hapless small time crook with Bourvil as his more cautious straight man and partner in crime. A movie with great dialogue, fantastic pace, a swinging soundtrack and an incredible mix of physical, situational and verbal comedy - laugh-out-loud funny throughout. If "The Brain" should really not be available on DVD this would just be further proof of how little brain these entertainment-industry executives have.

Nicholas Rhodes Occasionally seen on TV in France, this film has now been issued on a double DVD in France with French subtitles only. Picture quality is superb ( THX Standard ). The film is extremely entertaining, to say the least, quite normal as the directer is the great Gérard Oury and on a par with such films as Le Corniaud or La Grande Vadrouille. I'm sure it's well known across the world, even if people don't know its title, if only because of David Niven's head that slants to one side because his brain's too heavy. There's a mixture of actors here, some French, some foreign and it has that light hearted happy-go-lucky-swinging-sixties look as typified by the Italian Job and other similar films. Knowing the perverse nature of things, now that this commentary has been written, the film will probably turn up on DVD in the coming months !! Let's hope so anyway !