The Brain from Planet Arous

Now this is the ultimate in 50s low budget drive-in outer space silliness. A rogue Brain from planet Arous comes to Earth to overtake body of an good boy atomic scientist and (surprisingly) conquer the Earth! Later, second Brain arrives to stop him, overtaking the body of poor doggie. Special effects look like the ones from Attack of the 50ft Woman (see-through monsters etc.) and the plot is similarly goofy. John Agar´s performance as an atomic scientist turned fiend is overacted as ever, which but adds to whole goofiness of the film. Recommended to any 50s B-movie fan.

Next to the movies that come out today this is 2001 A Space Odyssey. Actually it is pretty good if you can get past the hilarity of brains floating around with two eyes. The eyes were very expressive. I call them phony Disney eyes. You know the eyes all the Walt Disney cartoon characters have had since the 80's.

John Agar who married a very young Shirley Temple years ago is the star of this movie along with the pet pooch. I understand he had a little drinking problem and that did not help his career. Still he was skilled enough not to make this into a over acted mess like most of actors who portray superhuman aliens that can destroy the universe. He acted like a regular guy most of the time.

I am not going to give away the whole movie other then to say it looks like Gor a alien from this planet escaped the police and landed in John Agar's brain. We know this because Vol is another alien from Arous but he is cop looking for the elusive Gor. Vol is also a floating brain but he decides the family dog is the best place for him to hide out. In the meantime John Agar kills his colleague because he is a rival for Joyce Meadows affection. Vol let's Joyce and her father know that her boyfriend is acting strange because Gor has taken over his body.

Gor/Agar can blow up airplanes just by looking at them and he does. There is a Atomic Age sub story. Gor shows his might by demanding a meeting by all the superpowers take place so he can show them he is even more powerful then the A Bomb. This is all very entertaining. I like the idea that the Joyce Meadows character is not your typical blithering idiot girlfriend. Gor/Agar becomes a little frisky with Joyce but the dog is not going for it, The Alien in the dog is a good idea because the dog can hang out with Gor/Agar without any suspicion being cast. So as silly as it seems, it works. It it much better the Vol hiding outing in a human whose presence has to be explained.

The end comes quickly and I am not going to give it away. But this was a nice little movie that is not as bad as the title makes it seem.

Generally speaking there are two types of Sci-Fi movies from the 1950's. First and foremost you have the timeless and indisputable classics. These are the highly influential milestones that everybody knows and appreciates, like "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "Forbidden Planet", "This Island Earth" and a selected few others. Secondly you have the massive overload of low-budgeted, insignificant but tremendously amusing campy B-movies. These movies handle about the weirdest and most grotesque alien invasion stories and feature the craziest monster designs and special effects. The majority of those films are long forgotten and very obscure by now, but if you happen to stumble upon a cheap DVD version, you're guaranteed to have a great time! "The Brain from Planet Arous" is such an irresistible camp oldie. The plot is preposterous, the titular monster is a ludicrous creation and the script is chock-full of slightly perverted undertones and insinuations. Dig this: the eminent scientist Steve March and his assistant head out to the remote area of Mystery Mountain because there are unusual fluctuations in the radioactivity measurements. Once there, they run into an evil alien from the planet Arous that goes by the name of Gor. Gor is in fact a gigantic floating brain with a pair of evil penetrating eyes who promptly kills the assistant and possesses the body of Steve. Gor wants to do very sexist things to Steve's fiancée Sally, but his main objective nevertheless remains dominating the entire universe. His hobbies include burning people's faces and causing planes to explode in open air. Luckily, for our planet's sake, Arous also sent a good alien named Vol to prevent Gor from executing his fiendish plans. In order to stay close to Gor, Vol possesses the body of Steve's loyal dog George! Now, through this brief plot description it's probably clear already why "The Brain from Planet Arous" isn't ranked amongst the biggest Sci-Fi classics of the 50's decade, but it's definitely great entertainment. The film is fast-paced and doesn't suffer from dullness at all. Genre expert Nathan Juran ("The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", "20 Million Miles to Earth") assures a tight direction and John Agar is the B-movie veteran actor at your service. There are numerous memorable highlights to be found here, like watching how Agar painfully struggles with his black contact lenses or the meeting of the world leaders gathered in a small office in Indian Springs; Nevada. The abrupt ending leaves many questions unanswered (like how is Steve every going to talk his way out of what happened) and the whole thing only gets sillier if you think about it, but "The Brain from Planet Arous" definitely comes warmly recommended to all tolerant fans of Sci-Fi nonsense.

That's right--"The Brain From Planet Arous" is _indeed_ John Agar's best science-fiction movie...but that's not saying very much. While it is undoubtedly _cheap_ (the giant alien brains in their natural form look a lot like balloons!), and while the storyline is sheer goofiness bordering on surrealism (one of the brains inhabits the body of a dog!), it _is_ somehow fun to watch, in spite of (or more likely because of) its low-budget limitations. And John Agar IS fun to watch; you can tell that he's doing his best here--in the scenes where he's possessed by the evil brain, he had to wear some very uncomfortable silver contact lenses--but the odd, yet by-the-numbers script doesn't give him much to work with. Still, if you're willing to put your own brain on hold for a little while, you might get a kick out this movie.

My friend, who's a John Agar fan, clued me in on this. I saw it on video the other night. It's one of those movies that is so bad, that it's pretty good (or at least not a complete waste of time). I especially like the scene where Agar's character, while driving a jeep through the desert, crashes into a huge rock that he couldn't possibly have missed, then says something like "well, I guess we walk from here." The ending is completely beyond belief; you have to see it to believe anyone would end a movie like that.