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.
Review of The Brain from Planet Arous
