Billion Dollar Brain

For roughly the first twenty five minutes of it's running time, "Billion Dollar Brain" looks like it's shaping up to be something very good indeed. And then, slowly but surely, the whole thing unravels. By the time a further hour or so has elapsed, neither you nor Harry Palmer know nor particularly care what the hell is going on. The blame for this lies firmly at the door of director Ken Russell.

When we first reacquaint ourselves with Caine's coolly amused hero, he is operating as a private eye from a seedy, rundown office in Central London. And living almost exclusively on corn flakes. His superior, Colonel Ross (played once more by the wonderful Guy Doleman), wants him back in the service. Harry's not interested, but a little persuasion and blackmail ensures that he's soon off to Finland to deliver a thermosflask to a mysterious professor. Here he encounters the spectacularly sexy Francoise Dorleac and her highly unlikely lover, a lucky old sod played by Karl Malden.

People turn up dead, and triple-cross follows double-cross. But after a while it becomes pretty obvious that all of the complex subterfuge is merely an attempt to mask a rather run-of-the-mill 'madman takes over the world' plot.

Such is the stuff of every Bond picture, and it's a big disappointment after the relatively believable milieus of the first two Palmer flicks. The major problem, though, is that the director's hand is so uncertain, and his pacing so uneven, that we are never sure exactly what kind of film we are watching. Russell mixes the starkly beautiful mise en scene and ready cynicism of a 'realistic' cold war drama with the pop-art excesses of a Broccoli fantasy, but the cake doesn't rise. Heavy-handed attempts at political satire just make the warmed-over fare even more inedible.

There are compensations: Russell knows how to frame a shot, and Billy Williams' cinematography is often extremely beautiful (especially when shooting the ill-fated Dorleac). All of the main performers are charismatic and Richard Rodney Bennett turns in an atmospheric score. The spookily evocative theremin-like sound is created using an ancient French keyboard instrument, the ondes martinot.

In the draggy latter-half, a couple of sequences manage to pique the interest, especially the superbly staged 'Alexander Nevsky' parody, framed by the surreal contrasts of blinding white ice and pitch black sky. There is also an eerie, darkly comic sequence in which Harry awakes in a bathtub full of dead bodies, unsure of what exactly is happening. Unfortunately, all of the surrounding guff only serves to dull their impact.

Amuse yourself in the tedious stretches by looking out for blink-and-you'll-miss-em spots by Susan George and Donald Sutherland. Caine's brother Stanley also appears as the postman in the opening scene.

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.

This is the third of the Harry Palmer spy stories which made Caine a big name star as a sympathetic crook turned into an expert secret agent. Nowadays, Harry forced into retirement and working as a private eye . Henry encounters himself privately recruited by the British Secret Agency and he's again hired by MI6 and colonel Ross (Guy Doleman, usual in the Palmer trilogy) . He must deliver a thermos flask containing some strange eggs to an American (Karl Malden) resident in Finland . Harry gets a little help from a gorgeous woman (Francois Dorleac sister to Catherine Deneuve and unfortunately deceased by car crash), but treachery is all around and he starts doubting on his partners. Meanwhile, a Texan millionaire (an overacting and blustering Ed Begley) prepares a military uprising in Estonia with the help of a billion dollar computer. His objective is the overthrowing communist by means of a coup de'Etat in Riga. Meantime, the Russian intelligence officer (a wickedly comical Oskar Homolka who appeared in 'Funeral in Berlin' as defector) in charge of Russian espionage tries to detain it.

Michael Caine as a deadpan , flabby anti-hero is phenomenal , he makes a delightful creation as the cockney secret agent, an immensely agreeable role . Packs solid scenes such as the final spectacular icebound highlights, among others . There appears uncredited Donald Sutherland as a scientist at computer . This exciting picture displays a James Bond style , in fact the producer is Harry Saltzman in charge of OO7 series production. Emotive musical score including sensitive leitmotif by Richard Rodney Barrett . Colorful cinematography reflecting splendidly the freezing outdoors by cameraman Billy Williams. The motion picture was well directed by Ken Rusell, who adds his peculiar style in some frames .

The best adaptation based upon the bestseller by Len Deighton is ¨Ipcress file (1965)¨ by Sidney J Furie with Gordon Jackson, Sue Lloyd, Nigel Greene, Guy Doleman , it's followed by ¨Funeral in Berlin¨ (1966) by Guy Hamilton with Oscar Homolka, Eva Renzi, Guy Doleman, "Billion Dollar Brain" by Ken Russell with Karl Malden, Oscar Homlka, Ed Begley. And continuing the series with inferior renditions for TV, titled ¨Bullet to Beijing (95)¨ by George Mihalka with Mia Sara, Jason Connery, Sue Lloyd Patrick Allen and ¨Midnight in Saint Petesburg(97)¨ by Douglas Jackson with Michael Gambon, Vlastra Vrana, Jadon Connery.

I'm baffled by the dislike afforded this enjoyable sixties romp. The charge that it is less realistic than the previous films is groundless because the others weren't the real world either. The first featured some daft business with a psychedelic torture chamber and the second some far fetched romps around the Berlin wall. Of course, the events in 'Brain' are no less credible. The kremlin wouldn't allow a top Colonel to be chums with a British spy, let alone allow him to wander around Latvia taking photographs. The real purpose is to open the plot and make it more colourful, and also the opportunity to satirise entrenched positions and the madness of humanity. Recent events in Russia, especially under Yeltsin, prove that truth is definitely stranger than fiction. The score is terrific and the breath-neck direction may be enough to make it accessible to young, contemporary film fans.

The cast is superb. Guy Doleman is brilliant again as the supercilious Colonel Ross. The scene where he spills the cereals and refuses to move his feet while Palmer sweeps them up is priceless. The Russian spy Anya gives a hilarious speech of ennui about her father on the boat with Palmer and Oskar Homolka as Colonel Stock gives a short, classic lament on the ice flow written by John McGrath who does a great job here, especially in his cutting swipes at blinkered thinking. "The air in Texas is pure. That's why I haven't set foot outside of Texas in twenty five years" yells the batty General Midwinter. But the most chilling and truthful exchange occurs between Palmer and amoral spy Leo Newbigen. "When he gets between five miles of the Latvian border, every alarm in the world is gonna blow and four minutes later no one is going to be around." - "You want your money, don't you?"

Ken Russell began his career doing documentaries about classical composers and his experience pays off here in his use of sound with image. Anyone bored with current fair and hasn't seen this trilogy could do worse in giving them a go. This one was the best, in my opinion.

Definitely an odd film, it is best to take it as a parody of the spy-film genre: as such it is enjoyable. Michael Caine is mostly sort of half bemused and half confused as the hapless Harry Palmer whose job is drawing him deeper into insanity and mayhem. And implausibility. The culminating scene is, well, pure symphony of the best (read:trash) special effects of the day. The plot is full of twists and double-crosses, and includes a Texan bent on taking over the world (how very now).

If you are Finnish, or have visited Finland, the experience is either heightened or or lowered: Billion Dollar Brain is one of the films where Finland stands as a location-double for the unaccessible Soviet Union. It is hard to concentrate on the plot, when first Helsinki is playing Helsinki, then Porvoo is in Russia, and Riga is again in Helsinki. The border is seemingly in Hameenlinna. One ends up wondering how Harry does not realize his train is going merely back and forth. Location-spotting can keep you amused as well, though.