This second remake of Curt Siodmak's Donovan's Brain (THE LADY AND THE MONSTER [1944] and VENGEANCE [1963] were also based on the novel) is the one that adheres most closely to the original story line. Having succeeded in keeping the brain of a dismembered monkey alive in vitro, gentle,
dedicated scientist Ayres is called upon to assist the victim of an airplane crash, who dies in Ayres' laboratory before he can be hospitalized. Hooking electrodes to the victim's skull, Ayres discovers that the man's brain is still functional. Using his newly discovered techniques, he removes the
brain--over the objections of his wife, Davis, and his hard-drinking assistant, Evans--and keeps it alive in a tank. The brain belongs to one Donovan, a ruthless, self-made millionaire. Gradually Donovan's brain begins to influence Ayres' personality, a Jekyll and Hyde situation in which Ayres
even begins to assume the physical characteristics and style of dress of the cruel, vicious businessman. When Brodie, a photographer who has gotten into the laboratory and taken a picture of the brain, blackmails Ayres into letting him take more pictures, the brain, growing ever more powerful,
pushes Brodie to suicide. Ayres struggles vainly to free himself from the brain's hold; in his saner moments, he records a plan for Davis' use that might defeat the brain. However, the brain again takes over, and decides that Davis and Evans must die. As the possessed Ayres tries to kill Davis,
Evans gets into the laboratory and fires a pistol at the brain. The brain, with its growing strength, instead forces Evans to shoot himself. When Davis and Ayres reach the laboratory in response to the shots, Ayres forces her to gaze at the brain, which begins to take control of her mind, as well.
Before it can do so, however, lightning from a developing storm strikes a lightning rod on the roof which, in accordance with Ayres' earlier plan, overloads the brain's support circuits and bakes the brain. Evans recovers from his wound; Ayres is himself again, and reunited with Davis.
In his half-mad doctor role, Lew Ayres handles his transformation sequences well. Ayres' career was adversely affected by his conscientious objector stance in WW II, leading to his being cast against his usual type, but he shows himself up to the challenge here. Nancy Davis gives an adequate
performance as his long-suffering wife; audiences may be tempted to draw parallels with her later life-role as First Lady Nancy Reagan. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the film (and the novel from which it is derived) is that the Mr. Hyde/Frankenstein monster personality is not that of a
conscienceless hedonist, cretin, or criminal, but that of a successful business entrepreneur. Remade in 1965 as THE BRAIN. leave a comment