The Brain from Planet Arous

For a science fiction fan I am truly blessed to have grown up in the fifties. This was a golden age of cheesy sci-fi and I loved it. This was fundamental to my current passion for movies. After listening to numerous interviews with film greats like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg one fact is evident, these flicks affected them deeply as well. There are films that I saw over forty five years ago that I still fondly remember. One that my wife and I have always loved is ‘The Brain from Planet Arous’. Even though the flick is rarely on cable and it was regrettably absent from our video collection of fifties cult classics I now have it on DVD. Young people that I have talked to about films like this rarely have an appreciation for just how wonderful the flicks were. Those used to fantastic special effects usually laugh at some of these movies and don’t quite get the themes of paranoia prevalent in most of them back that is just their tender years speaking. The fifties were the times of fear of the communist menace. The Russians had the H Bomb and placed them one missiles aimed act American cities. Science fiction has always reflected the mood of the public and this time was a prime example. Instead of a threat from across the sea these films usually gave us an inhuman creature bent of global domination.

As the film open we meet nuclear physicist Steve March (John Agar) and his trusted friend and assistant Dan Murphy (Robert Fuller). Recently a strange light exploded on near by and aptly named Mystery Mountain resulting in unusual spikes in radioactivity. Steve expresses his concerns to his fiancée, Sally Fallon (Joyce Meadows), and her father, John (Thomas B. Henry) and a nice little luncheon. Being true Americans the two scientists are blessed with a healthy sense of curiosity and they head out to the mountain with their trusty Geiger counter in hand. Steve and Dan are very familiar with the area and immediately notice a new cave has been blasted in the base of the mountain. The Geiger counter registers something very peculiar, the radiation levels rise to off the chart and then fall to nothing. They see an odd glow and shout out for whoever it is to come out in the open. Perhaps they were a bit to quick to see what it was since a huge brain with eyes in its frontal lobe floats out towards them. Steve and Dan discover their guns are of no use as the brain floats closer. Both men twitch in pain as the glow becomes stronger. Dan collapses dead; Steve is unconscious as the brain floats over him and disappears into his body. The brain has completely taken control of Steve at this point. A week passes and Sally begins to get worried. Just as she and her father are about to go out and search for them Steve walks in and lays a big wet kiss on Sally. Now remember, this was the fifties when this type of passion was saved for the wedding night. Steve is gripped with pain but dismisses it as a toothache and goes back to kissing Sally. Her dog, George, seems to sense the brain within Steve and attacks him. Steve leaves and once alone the brain comes back out. It introduces himself as Gor (voiced by Dale Tate) a member of a race of brains from the planet Arous. He is on earth to take it over and use it as a platform for universal domination. It also explains that using his body to get busy with Sally is a nice added benefit. While Sally is expressing her concerns about Steve to her father a second brain appears. It is Vol (also voiced by Dale Tate with much gentler tones) who is here on earth to stop the criminal Gor. He explains that the only way to stop Gor is to hit him on the fissure of Rolando while he is in his native state; in order to do that he must be close to Gor when he comes out of Steve. They decide that the best cover for Vol is for him to hide in the body of George the dog. Gor, in possession of Steve goes to the local military base and displays his vast power by blowing up a test town meant for a nuclear bomb test. He tells the military men and scientist there that he plans to take over the world and he wants representatives from the major countries there to receive his terms. Just for added measure he fries some poor Joe standing nearby. Naturally, the sinister plot is foiled by Sally and George, Gor is dead and Vol just drifts away.

My wife and I have joked about the phrase ‘fissure of Rolondo’ for years although we never actually saw the flick together. We both fondly remembered it from our childhoods and were actually excited about getting the DVD. Director Nathan Juran is well known to the sci-fi geeks. He not only directed many television and film science fiction classics including the Ray Harryhausen classic ‘20 Million Miles to Earth’ but he did such memorable shows as ‘Lost in Space’, ‘the Time Tunnel’ and ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’. His strong point was allowing the audience to care about characters the cheesiest flicks around. Instead of laughing out loud at the floating brain with those beady little eyes we actually can care about Steve and Sally. Back in the fifties you really couldn’t make something about the Communist threat. Science fiction offered a means to use an allegory to show the fears that the American people collectively felt. As with most of these cold war flicks the salvation comes from either the military, science, or as in this case, the bravery of a true American and her dog. We can learn a lot from this film about life forms on other planets. Even if an inhuman creature is set of dominating the universe there is always time to make out with an earth girl. If a kiss turned on Gor so much just imagine if he landed on earth today and saw Britney Spears getting out of an SUV, most likely his frontal lobes would exploded. This film was played seriously because back then the idea of the inhuman commies taking over the world was real to most Americans. Films like this help to cope with that threat by letting us watch a happy ending.

The DVD of this cult classic comes from Image. They have a large selection of these little gems. The black and white full screen video was marred by some signs of age but over all the transfer is pretty good. The mono audio is clear and without distortion. This must have been the golden age for the zither player since almost all the sci-fi sound tracks featured that instrument. I know there are many people out there who watched this film like I did; after school sitting on the floor in front of the TV with a snack. Now own it and recapture a piece of your youth.

Posted 01/05/07