The Brain Machine **½ (1955, Elizabeth Allan, Patrick Barr, Maxwell Reed) – Classic Movie Review 13,286

The Brain Machine (1955, Elizabeth Allan, Patrick Barr, Maxwell Reed).

‘HE’S ESCAPED! The man with murder on the brain!’ Ken Hughes’s enjoyable 1955 British sci-fi crime film The Brain Machine stars Elizabeth Allan, Patrick Barr and Maxwell Reed.

‘HE’S ESCAPED! The man with murder on the brain!’

Writer/ director Ken Hughes’s 1955 British sci-fi crime film The Brain Machine stars Elizabeth Allan, Patrick Barr and Maxwell Reed.

The Brain Machine is an electro-encephalograph (EEG) machine that shows a mental hospital’s psychiatrist Dr Philippa Roberts (Elizabeth Allan) that a drug-running amnesiac patient Frank Smith (Maxwell Reed) is a killer psychopath, who then proceeds to abduct her and take her hostage. The cops’ trail, led by Inspector Durham (Russell Napier), leads to a violent drug smuggling gang. Meanwhile Dr Philippa Roberts’s estranged husband Dr Geoffrey Allen (Patrick Barr) has to find the abducted psychiatrist before the smuggling gang finds him and kills them both.

The Brain Machine is a brainy and unusual little British sci-fi crime thriller, with telling performances. It is capably written and directed by Hughes, though he doesn’t deliver quite enough surprises or oomph, and is held back by the low budget.

Overall, this rather enjoyable item is an interesting and fair enough old Brit B-movie, with a fair share of welcome faces of the day.

The cast are Elizabeth Allan, Patrick Barr, Maxwell Reed, Russell Napier, Gibb McLaughlin, Edwin Richfield, Neil Hallett, Vanda Godsell, Bill Nagy, Anthony Valentine, John Horsley, Joan Tyrrell, Cyril Smith, Donald Bisset, Gwen Bacon, Clifford Buckton, Thomas Gallagher, Ian Wilson. Henry Webb, Hilda Barry, Patricia Driscoll, Michael Bird, Michael Kelly, James Raglan, and Marianne Stone.

It was made at Merton Park Studios in South London by Merton Park Studios for released as a co-feature.

Release date: January 1955 (UK) and February 1956 (US).

Maxwell Reed (2 April 1919 – 31 October 1974)

Northern Irish actor Maxwell Reed was married to Joan Collins at the time. Reed was her first husband. They married on 24 May 1952, were separated in 1954 and divorced in 1956,

The Brain Machine is directed by Ken Hughes, runs 84 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK) and RKO Radio Pictures (US), is written by Ken Hughes, is shot in black and white by Josef Ambor, is produced by Alec C Snowden, and is scored by Richard Taylor (music director).

The cast and characters

The cast and characters are Maxwell Reed as Frank Smith, Elizabeth Allan as Doctor Phillipa Roberts, Patrick Barr as Doctor Geoffrey Allen, Russell Napier as Inspector Durham, Gibb McLaughlin as Spencer Simon, Neil Hallett as Detective Superintendent John Harris, Mark Bellamy as gangster Louie, Bill Nagy as gym owner Charlie, Edwin Richfield as Henry Arthur Ryan, Clifford Buckton as Edward Jarritt, John Horsley as Doctor Richards, Gwen Bacon as nurse/ matron, Donald Bisset as Major Gifford, Thomas Gallagher as plant foreman Bates, Vanda Godsell as Mabel Smith, Cyril Smith as prison warder, Anthony Valentine as Charlie’s son Tony, Joan Tyrrell as woman in hallway, Henry Webb as apartment janitor, Dan Wilson as personnel manager, Hilda Barry as Mrs Wright, Patricia Driscoll, Michael Bird, Michael Kelly, James Raglan, and Marianne Stone as hospital technician.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,286

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