The Brain [Vengeance] [A Dead Man Seeks His Murderer] ** (1962, Anne Heywood, Peter van Eyck, Cecil Parker, Bernard Lee, Jeremy Spenser, Maxine Audley) – Classic Movie Review 5608

The Brain belongs to a dead tycoon, though surgeons keep it going and it compels one of them, Dr Peter Corrie (Peter van Eyck), to track the tycoon’s killer for Vengeance, as A Dead Man Seeks His Murderer.

Director Freddie Francis’s interesting but lumpy 1962 science fiction horror thriller is a carefully assembled, decently acted and engagingly silly reworking of Curt Siodmak’s novel (and movie) Donovan’s Brain. It stars Anne Heywood as the Brain’s daughter Anna Holt, Peter van Eyck as Dr Peter Corrie, Cecil Parker as Stevenson, Bernard Lee as Dr Frank Shears, Jeremy Spenser as Martin Holt and Maxine Audley as Marion Fane.

This remake is the third official film version of the 1942 Curt Siodmak disembodied brain novel Donovan’s Brain, following The Lady and the Monster (1944) and Donovan’s Brain (1953). Ingeniously, its storyline in the screenplay by Robert Banks Stewart and Philip Mackie differs from the earlier films as the dead millionaire businessman seeks his own murderer through contact with the doctor keeping his brain alive, and communicates clues about the killer to him.

This new take justifies another remake. But, though there is plenty of atmosphere, weirdness and intrigue, the movie fails to grip and entertain as fully and seriously as it should.

Also in the cast are Ellen Schwiers as Ella, Siegfried Lowitz as Mr Walters, Hans Nielsen as Immerman, Jack MacGowran as Furber, Miles Malleson (in the British version) and Dieter Borsche (in the German version) as Dr Miller, George A Cooper as Thomas Gabler, Victor Brooks as the farmer at the crash site, Allan Cuthbertson as Da Silva, John Junkin as Frederick, Bryan Pringle as the dance hall MC, Patsy Rowlands as a young woman at the dance hall and Alister Williamson as Inspector Pike, as well as Ann Sears, Irene Richmond, Victor Brooks, Kenneth Kendall and John Watson.

It is written by Robert Banks Stewart and Philip Mackie, shot in black and white by Robert Huke, produced by Raymond Stross and Artur Brauner, scored by Kenneth V Jones and designed by Arthur Lawson. It runs 83 minutes and is a Central Cinema Company Film (CCC) and Raymond Stross Productions production. It was shot at Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England.

As befits a UK-West German production, it was also released as Ein Toter Sucht Seinen Mörder (West Germany), as well as A Dead Man Seeks His Murderer, and Vengeance (UK).

It was made back to back in German and British versions. The actors played their same roles in both versions, except for Dieter Borsche and Miles Malleson (in the British version) as Dr Miller. The German version includes topless scenes of Anne Heywood not in the British print.

Freddie Francis recalled that Peter van Eyck did not get on with Anne Heywood.

Dr Peter Corrie is said to be 35 but the actor Peter van Eyck is 50, while Thomas Gabler is said to be in his 60s but the actor George A Cooper is in his 40s.

Jeremy Spenser (born Jeremy John Dornhurst de Sarem in London on 16 July 1937) had a mysterious disappearance after appearing in Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and is last known as being a drama teacher (1969) but is confirmed to be still alive and well.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5608

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