jpbarham Reviews

Donovan's Brain (1953)

Creepy thriller

[7/10 · 4 July 2011]

A neat example of what you can do on a small budget. Dr. Cory starts out a regular, married scientist who just happens upon a body crushed in a car wreck but with the brain still functioning and normal. The brain is removed from the mangled body and kept alive in a fish tank. It isn't long before the brain starts sending telepathic messages to the good doctor. Soon he's doing the bidding of Donovan's living brain, like gaining access to the Donovan fortune and using it to intimidate just about anybody who stands in the late millionaire's path to gain control of most of the country's economic resources. Cory's change of manner is noted by his wife and best friend, and it isn't long before they are both targeted for removal.

Lew Ayres is in top form as the good Dr. Cory evolves into misanthrope Donovan. Amusing if one realizes Ayres began his career playing the gentle, heroic Dr. Kildare. Creative casting! Along for the ride is Nancy Davis - - the future Mrs. Reagan - - and Gene Evans, as Cory's loyal but confused assistant. Steve Brodie plays a blackmailing reporter who gets just what he deserves.

All in all, "Donovan's Brain" is well worth watching if you're in the mood for something different. It has been selected to premiere on TCM later this month.

The Klansman (1974)

Somebody please burn this movie!

[1/10 · 23 February 2011]

I've witnessed movies about the American South that were awful and embarrassing, but this one goes overboard. Nothing or nobody in it is worth the one hour and 41 minutes of time it takes to suffer through this banal piece of junk. First off, here's poor Richard Burton limping about and trying to sound southern, but seems to have given this disguise up half-way through. Then Lee Marvin grunts and growls his one-dimensional sheriff's part with little conviction, so as to make O.J. Simpson's acting seem Olivier-like by comparison. That's right, Simpson's in it and playing the hero, no less. Rumor has it that Burton and Marvin were drunk during most of the filming. Shoot...they both had to be drunk when they first were handed the script.

Seems the Burton character has drawn the wrath of the KKK by allowing poor blacks to live on his land rent-free, while taking in rape victims whose attackers were of the opposite race. They want him to leave town and, of course, he won't. So they come to burn him out. What needed burning is this stinker that sends the cause of good race relations back a century or two. I give "The Klansman" * 1/2 stars, with much credited to Johnny Walker.