This is a relatively cheaply made sci-fi vehicle from the Golden Age of Science Fiction with some fairly big stars. Lew Ayres stars as Doctor Cory, a genial man who wants to find cures to diseases of the mind through experimentation with monkey brains. Nancy Davis(Mrs. Reagan) plays his devoted wife, and Gene Evans his drunken doctor sidekick. Anyway, a plane crashes and the body of a nearly dead millionaire is at stake, so Dr. Cory goes to him, brings him back to his lab, and when it is evident that his life can no longer be sustained - Dr. Cory, against the wishes of his wife and alcoholic helper, extracts his brain and houses it in a fish aquarium with some metal rods and tubing attached to it. The brain looks like an inflatable football, heaving and deflating every now and then. And man is that one big brain. Is it true what they say about men with big brains? The brain somehow takes over Ayres genial mind and he slowly becomes two personalities - the genial(wow - talk about repetition with a word)doctor and the repulsive, selfish, mean-spirited millionaire - hated by family and friends. Look, you know what you will get for the rest of the film. Ayres does a decent job surveying both roles. Evans and Davis are also okay, not they really have much to do. There is a nice small performance from Steve Brodie as a reporter with few scruples. Director Felix Feist, a journeyman director with more misses than hits, is competent behind the camera if nothing else. The movie is slow and talky at times, and the plot really meanders in the final third. The special effects though are a real let-down even by 1950s standards. Donavan's Brain, based on a novel by Curt Siodmak, is definitely a more thought-provoking sci-fi film of its era, but also, in my humble opinion, one of the lesser quality ones.
Review of Donovan's Brain
