Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Brain Blu-ray Movie Review

Head trip.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 29, 2012

The 1967 version of Casino Royale proved that you could have a bevy of top name stars (and in the case of this particular film, even a bevy of top name directors), everything that money can buy including a then very trendy composer, and still end up with one of the most agonizingly bad films of (at the very least) its era. Despite having been that odd duck that could claim parentage by Ian Fleming (due to some labyrinthine rights negotiations that went back a good decade or more), Casino Royale had very little to do with the “real” James Bond (at least as he was then thought of in the person of Sean Connery), and perhaps even more pointedly, very little to do with real comedy (no quote marks around real this time). Part of what made Casino Royale such an unmitigated disaster was its relentlessly manic quality, something that seemed rather ill suited to the likes of David Niven and Deborah Kerr (and only passably more appropriate for the likes of Woody Allen). That same manic quality is on tap in The Brain, another late sixties film full of a sort of “mod” ambience and once again offering David Niven in a late career role. However, fear not: The Brain manages to use its own frenetic quality for good, not evil, and the film is a brisk and often quite funny farce that deals with several people trying separately and together to pull off a massive heist of untold wealth from a train making its way from Paris to Brussels. The Brain features an international cast, and part of this film is in English, but it appears that it may actually have been released in an all English language (dubbed) version stateside back in 1969, at least according to some data available online. If that’s the case (online information is a bit sketchy), this must be the original European cut of the film, for all of the principal actors speak either in French or in combinations of French and English and their lip movements clearly follow those languages.

As with any good farce, there are several story lines featuring various characters playing out simultaneously. We are introduced to charming thief Arthur Lespinasse (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who just barely manages to break out of the Big House with some not very good help from his less than mentally competent partner in crime Anatole (Bourvil). Arthur is convinced his ship has come in in the form of a train moving United Nations materiel, including several bagfuls of various national currencies, but he’s unaware that he’s not the only one who has the loot on his radar. There’s also the titular Brain (David Niven), who has the distinction of having pulled off a previous huge train heist and is still on the lam, though authorities have after several years of investigation finally concluded that the culprit must have an oversized cranium which can’t be held upright if the Brain is under duress. It turns out that The Brain in real life is one Colonel Matthews, who not so coincidentally has finagled his way into commanding the guard unit that is accompanying the UN transport. Also along for the ride is an agitated Italian mobster named Frankie (Eli Wallach), whom The Brain has hired to launder the money once it's purloined. Frankie of course has ideas of his own, and is further annoyed that The Brain seems to be falling for his extremely comely younger sister, Sofia (Silvia Monti).

The film actually takes its own good time getting to the heist sequence, and in fact the first half or so is filled with a number of sequences that only fitfully move the plot along. The introduction of the Wallach character, for example, takes place in a sort of silly pool segment where both Wallach and Niven are floating in inflatable chairs which of course suffer various calamaties, leading to the actors getting more than a bit wet. Speaking of getting wet, Silvia Monti’s entrance is rather spectacular in this same sequence, when she rappels down a rope from her second story room and then showers lasciviously as Niven looks on appreciatively, with the whole scene set to some swingin’ pop music by Georges Delerue.

That scene may fall flat, and others (like the cute but not all that hilarious sequence of Belmondo and Bourvil tunneling toward each other but not quite meeting) aren’t quite as funny as they were obviously intended to be, but the film starts to perk up considerably once all the pieces are in place. Several times director and Gérard Oury stages things almost in pantomime, as in one great scene where both Wallach and Bourvil are attempting to eavesdrop on Niven and Monti, who are in a car, and end up getting pronged by the car’s radio antennas when Monti turns on the radio. In a much later scene, there’s a great little moment when Belmondo and Bourvil have been misidentified as “The Brain” and a hapless cop has tracked them down on a bus. Other police roar up on motorcycles and the cop inside the bus madly tries to indicate the bad guys are right in front of him through some panicked gesticulating.

This being essentially a heist film in the guise of a farce, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that things don’t go according to anyone’s plans. The Brain thinks he has everything under control, not realizing that Arthur and Anatole are right there as well, working to the get the loot for themselves. Once the dimwitted duo’s plans seems to only help The Brain achieve his goal, we get Frankie entering the picture with his own plot, and all bets are off at that point. The final third or so of the film turns into a madcap chase that could have almost been staged by the great Blake Edwards. In fact there’s an Edwardsian touch to a great deal of this film, and it’s probably no mere coincidence that The Brain has a pet panther (not pink, mind you, but a panther nonetheless) that plays an important part in a very funny early scene in the film involving Arthur’s attempts to get information on the UN train.

The Brain is probably a little too over-obvious for its own good (the final gag, for instance, would have worked perfectly without the little added “explanation” that a couple of lines of dialogue seek to give it), but there’s an immensely winning spirit to this film that keeps the soufflé mostly light and airy. The performances are wonderful throughout, with Wallach’s hyperbolic turn a real standout. And it was all done on probably a mere pittance of what Casino Royale cost.

The Brain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Brain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This is another great looking transfer from Olive, albeit one whose elements seem to have faded ever so slightly and whose flesh tones occasionally tilt just a tad toward the brown side of things. Otherwise, though, colors are generally very robust, and some of the exterior shots of the train feature some fantastic depth of field. Contrast is solid and black levels are good if not incredibly deep. Fine object detail is quite pleasing, especially in the many close- ups of the actors. As with all Olive releases there doesn't appear to have been any digital tweaking and the transfer retains a natural layer of grain (noticeably increased in a couple of opticals).

The Brain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Brain features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix in French and English with forced subtitles. Fidelity is quite good throughout this track, with dialogue cleanly presented and Georges Delerue's pop laden score sounding great. The title tune by The American Breed fairly screams 1969 (in one of the vagaries of the music business, the band went through a series of personnel changes and reformed later as Rufus, which ultimately hired Chaka Khan as their lead singer).

The Brain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements of any kind are included on this Blu-ray disc.

The Brain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You might be tempted not to stick with The Brain, as it's awfully redolent of the worst self-indulgent excesses of Casino Royale in its early going, but have a little patience and you'll be rewarded with an often quite winning little farce that manages to pack a good number of sizable laughs, including some great sight gags, into its manic proceedings. The film would have been better had it gotten to the heist element sooner, but once all the plot mechanics have been set into motion, things are brisk and often very funny. This Blu-ray offers very good video and audio and comes Recommended.