The Brain from Planet Arous **½ (1957, John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller) – Classic Movie Review 4347

Nathan Juran’s so-terrible-it’s-fun movie The Brain from Planet Arous is bizarrely amusing virtually throughout, with acting and effects to match. It has survived years of terrible reviews to become a cult classic. It is silly and funny! 

Ah, alien possession and world domination! You can’t go wrong, really, can you? Or can you? Director Nathan Juran’s 1957 American black-and-white sci-fi movie The Brain from Planet Arous is incomparably awful stuff, in which a gelatinous, water-logged brain with eyes (named Gor) possesses the body of scientist Doctor Steve March (John Agar) in an attempt to rule the world.

But a rival brain (Vol) from outer space works with March’s future wife Sally Fallon (Joyce Meadows), possesses Agar’s dog, and a breath-taking confrontation will decide the world’s fate.

John Agar plays scientist Doctor Steve March.

Juran’s so-terrible-it’s-entertaining movie is bizarrely amusing virtually throughout, with acting and effects to match. It has survived years of terrible reviews to become a cult classic, along with Juran’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Hey, Planet Arous is silly and funny!

Also in the cast are Robert Fuller, Thomas Browne Henry, Henry Travis, Kenneth Terrell, E Leslie Thomas, and Tim Graham. Morris Ankrum is listed but does not appear.

The director was unhappy with how The Brain from Planet Arous turned out and arranged to be credited as Nathan Hertz.

The independently made American black-and-white sci-fi movie The Brain from Planet Arous, produced by Jacques R Marquette on a budget of $58,000, was released briefly by Howco International on October 1, 1957, and again in 1958 in a double bill with Teenage Monster (1958), produced and directed by Marquette. More recently The Brain from Planet Arous has resurfaced in the UK on TPTV, and so has Teenage Monster.

The special effect for Agar’s eyes uses contact lenses lined with metal foil. To show Gor’s psychic powers, they use stock footage of unoccupied houses being flash-incinerated in atomic bomb tests.

In 1983, Stephen King said his novel Carrie derived to a considerable extent from ‘a terrible grade-B movie called The Brain from Planet Arous’.

The cast are John Agar as Steve March, Joyce Meadows as Sally Fallon, Robert Fuller as Dan Murphy, Thomas Browne Henry as John Fallon, Kenneth Terrell as Colonel in Conference Room, Henry Travis as Colonel Frogley, E Leslie Thomas as General Brown, Tim Graham as Sheriff Wiley Pane, Bill Giorgio as Russian, Kenner G Kemp as Military Man at Meeting, and Dale Tate as Professor and the voices of Gor and Vol.

The Brain from Planet Arous is directed by Nathan H Juran [Nathan Hertz], runs 71 minutes, is made by Marquette Productions Limited, is released by Howco International, is written by Ray Buffum, is shot in black-and-white by Jacques R Marquette, is produced by Jacques R Marquette, and is scored by Walter Greene.

It was shot in July 1957 at Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles.

Nathan H Juran was born Naftuli Hertz Juran (September 1, 1907 – October 23, 2002)

Austrian-born film art director Nathan H Juran was born Naftuli Hertz Juran (September 1, 1907 – October 23, 2002). As film director, he was known for science fiction and fantasy films, especially Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and The Deadly Mantis (1957), though he also made Westerns, including Gunsmoke (1952), Tumbleweed (1953) and Drums Across the River (1954), all with Audie Murphy.

Joyce Meadows

Joyce Meadows was born Joyce Johanna Burger on April 13, 1933 (or April 13, 1935) and (probably) turned 90 on April 13, 2023.

She appeared in the films The Brain from Planet Arous, Frontier Gun, The Girl in Lovers Lane, Walk Tall, and Zebra in the Kitchen.

Robert Fuller

Robert Fuller was born Leonard Leroy Lee Jr on July 29, 1933 and turned 90 on July 29, 2023.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,347

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