The Mind of Mr Soames ** (1970, Terence Stamp, Robert Vaughn, Nigel Davenport, Christian Roberts, Donal Donnelly) – Classic Movie Review 8475

Amicus Productions tries for classy science fiction with director Alan Cooke’s 1970 British sci-fi drama The Mind of Mr Soames, starring Terence Stamp, Robert Vaughn, Nigel Davenport, Christian Roberts, and Donal Donnelly, based on the novel by Charles Eric Maine, and filmed at Shepperton Studios, Surrey.

Vaughn (in creepy beard) plays Doctor Bergen, who operates to bring young John Soames (Stamp) out of a three-decade-long coma. But the operation turns out to be only a qualified success when the patient turns out to have the mind of a child and starts acting like a little kid again. So the adult baby, a child trapped in man’s body, must be educated in a medical psychology lab, but Doctor Bergen and Doctor Maitland (Nigel Davenport) clash over what to do, and then the 30 year old baby escapes and flees.

An intelligent sci-fi story fascinates, Stamp makes a quite sympathetic hero as the child man and the whole cast works hard to try to make it a credible success. But The Mind of Mr Soames doesn’t really have anywhere to go since the screenplay by John Hale and Edward Simpson so desperately wants to avoid being a chiller. For once, less restraint and good taste would have helped.

It also co-stars Dan Jackson, Vickery Turner, Judy Parfitt, Joe McPartland, Pamela Moiseiwitsch, Billy Cornelius, Jon Croft, Esmond Webb, Norman Jones, Kate Binchy and Tony Caunter, with Alan Lake, Reg Thomason, Christopher Timothy, Fred Wood, Eric Brooks, Joe Gladwin, and Bill Pilkington.

The Mind of Mr Soames is directed by Alan Cooke, runs 96 minutes, is made by Amicus Productions and Columbia Pictures Corporation, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by John Hale and Edward Simpson, based on the novel by Charles Eric Maine, is shot in Eastmancolor by Billy Williams, is produced by Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky and Teresa Bolland (production manager) and is scored by Michael Dress, with Production Design by Bill Constable.

It is made in early 1969 at Shepperton Studios, Studios Road, Shepperton, Surrey, England. The hospital exteriors and grounds were filmed at Pyrford Court, Ripley, Surrey.

RIP Robert Vaughn, who died on 11 November 2016, aged 83.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8475

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