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Reviews
Donovan's Brain (1953)
Biz-Fi?
Most here have commented on the Sci-Fi aspects, but I wanted to focus on what seems to be an element of Business Fiction underlying the Sci-Fi (the science and experimentation being perhaps a way to cover another theme that some might want not to hear).
The antagonist is a ruthless businessman whose brain is preserved...or more importantly, his mind. This mind lives on and infects others to do its will. The businessmen does not want to be bound by the rules of Government, taxation or even normal morality, it merely wants to conquer, possess and benefit itself. Some of you may be familiar with the work of Napoleon Hill and his book "Think and Grow Rich" which posits that business empires are the work of forming a Mastermind between people to accomplish and build great corporations.
Wow. And the year is 1953? Can you imagine if someone had made a plain spoken film about such things? I wondered if Donovan (who flies in small planes a lot) is based maybe on Howard Hughes?
Then there is the doctor. He is driven to perform his highly irregular experiments. He seems driven, but also reckless. He hustles his obviously inebriated friend into the operating room! He gets him to perform illegal and unregulated experiments on humans! This all goes on in the California mountains, away from the eye of the law (Nancy Reagan's future husband would be proud!) Law Enforcement are mere tax collectors, looking for their cut.
We have the professional class, serving the business class and inflicting pain on the "little people". The Press, represented by a two-bit hustler named Herbie Yocum are no more than a bunch of blackmailing ambulance chasing paparazzi. Bankers, who are supposed to safeguard money, are more concerned with losing a big account than with giving money away to a potential fraud. And everyone else, hotel clerks, and so on, are bullied or cajoled by money. (Oddly, the one solid citizen is a taxi driver, who can't be persuaded by Donovan's money to ruin his livelihood for a short term payday.)
Donovan's partners, confronted with the absurdity of their boss now inhabiting the body of someone else, pause for just a minute, then, seeing dollar signs, nod their heads and move on with the deal making.
The Horror here is not a pulsating growing brain, but the giant Mastermind manipulating, and perhaps corrupting, all of America.
Bananas (1971)
Ahead of the Comedy Pack
Woody Allen is so well known now as more an "artist" than a comedian, it's hard to remember just how successful and ahead of his peers he was in his early days as a funny-man writer and performer.
Bananas is a case in point. The fast moving episodic sketch and parody comedy is something that was often done by groups associated with Harvard Lampoon, SNL and Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker , but Bananas came out in 1971!
The courtroom scene near the end, is highly reminiscent of that in Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), for example. And the fake ads an "Execuciser" is highly Not Ready for Prime Time Playerish as any.
Funny, because in Manhattan, Allen portrays himself a successful TV writer who has it up to here with broad, scatological sketch comedy and quits. Maybe by then he'd done it all, before, and perhaps better, than others, and simply had to move on.
I Walk Alone (1947)
Wall Street - The Prequel
Fantastic spin on a gangster movie. Lancaster is "old technology" coming back from 13 years in prison. When he went in brute force for running liquor was the path to success. Now his partner, the unctuous Kirk Douglas, using corporate rules is on top. Lancaster is a Rip Van Winkle...a man out of time, puzzled, unable to comprehend the source of Douglas' wealth and position. It takes him a while (understandable for a man who has been in prison, in an age where there was no TV or Web) to figure out how the game has changed. This film reminded me almost of Wall Street! Lancaster, the man who "works with his hands" (even if that means socking a guy) and Douglas (funny...where have I heard that name before...) a guy who uses his cunning and brains, has built a wall of legality and subterfuge to rob Lancaster of his due! Every minute was worthwhile.
Umberto D. (1952)
Really Neo Real
The thing I like about this film is that every character acts exactly as they would. There is no "forcing" or overplaying a role. While many talk of sadness, for me, there was no sadness because it played out the way it had to. Umberto D. needed assistance, but in his world, there was nothing to give. He couldn't rely on a girl who was pregnant and unmarried, or a landlady who disdained him and was trying to social climb. Even the nuns and hospitals had way too many charges.
There was nothing left to give. And who knows...what was his life like before the present state? Why was he in debt? Was he profligate, or mean, or a gambler? The former colleagues who he met on the street seemed to be doing quite well...even at the beginning, the other seniors he enlisted to rebel revealed that they had no debts...unlike Mr. D.
And so, there seemed to be a case that he had indeed made his own bed, even as it was being taken away from him.
And that is the beauty of this spare film.