Absolutely Fantastic

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

In the third film of my Harry Palmer weekend, 1967's "Billion Dollar Brain," which I HAD seen a few times before, Cockney thief turned secret agent Harry, played once again by Michael Caine, has left the Secret Service and is operating as a private detective. But he is pulled back in by his ex-superior, Guy Doleman, and gets involved in the biggest case of his career. It seems that a Texas oil billionaire has decided, in his anti-Commie furor, to invade Latvia with his private army and thus kick off WW3! (This wackadoodle, it seems, has taken a page from Sterling Hayden in "Dr. Strangelove.") The billionaire (maniacally well played by Ed Begley) also has the titular supercomputer to aid in his plans. Oscar Homolka returns as the lovable Colonel Stok to give Harry assistance here, and an old friend of Harry's, played by Karl Malden, pops up also, with decidedly ambiguous plans of his own. Also on hand, in her final picture before her untimely death by car crash, is Francoise Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve's older and (sez me) better-looking sister, and she surely does make for a marvelously mysterious damsel. I don't think I've ever seen Dorleac look more beautiful than she is in this final picture of hers.Ties to the Bond franchise in the final Palmer outing consist of Harry Saltzman's producing and the title credits by Maurice Binder. But what really make this film special are the truly outrageous direction by Ken Russell (his second film), a haunting theme score on piano, and gorgeous-to-look-at scenery of the Finnish countryside in winter. In all, a marvelous trilogy of films that I can recommend very highly to you all. I know that you will enjoy each and every one of them, for different reasons....

Harry Palmer is a character played by Michael Caine who is very much unlike James Bond. While Bond is amazingly athletic, sexy and,...well...PERFECT, Palmer is a spy who is none of these---just very lucky! "Billion Dollar Brain" begins with Harry no longer working for MI-6 but is now a private eye--albeit one with no clients. When the agency tries to get him to return, he's insistent on remaining a free agent--and soon gets an odd case involving making a delivery. The recipient turns out to be an old associate (Karl Malden)--one who is working for a VERY eccentric megalomaniac Texan (Ed Begley Senior). Apparently, Begley insists that the Soviet Union is about to fall apart--all they need is some assistance from him and his private army. However, his intelligence is wrong--all the information his agent (Malden) is giving him is made up and Malden is pocketing the money supposedly going to pay the insurgents in Latvia--though there are NONE! When Harry tries to tell the nutty Texan, he won't listen--his computer (the billion dollar brain) tells him the plan WILL succeed. What's Harry to do? What about the potential of this nut starting WWIII? And what of Harry's Soviet friends--such as the rather avuncular Colonel (Oskar Homolka)? The film has some good acting going for it. Caine is wonderful and although Begley's part is far from subtle, his scene-chewing is captivating. The only real serious shortcoming in the film is the unlikeliness of it all--and the computer angle certainly doesn't help. But, if you turn off your brain and just watch, then it does deliver solid undemanding entertainment.By the way, on a sad note, this would be Françoise Dorléac's last film. The pretty blonde actress was a large part of this, her last film. Shortly after shooting was completed, she was killed in a road accident. And, incidentally, she was the older sister of Catherine Deneuve.

I enjoyed both The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin but not Billion Dollar Brain. Whilst the first two films in the trilogy had a feeling of realism about them, Billion Dollar Brain felt like it was just a send-up of the spy world(which maybe is was meant to be). From the opening James Bond type titles I felt that it was being played tongue-in-cheek. We even have a wild eyed maniac type character who wants to take over the world in the form of Ed Begley. Perhaps if Ipcress and Funeral had not been serious visits into the espionage world than Billion Dollar might be viewed differently.Finally, the soundtrack to this film is pretty bad, which is a shame as it was written by the usually excellent Richard Rodney Bennet who wrote the wonderful soundtrack for the Julie Christie film 'Far From the Madding Crowd'.

This film hasn't much to recommend, aside from some nice location photography in Finland (standing in for Russia). It's too boring and low key to appeal to those looking for a James Bond type of film, and too goofy to appeal to those looking for a serious spy film. The goofy plot would look more at home in a Matt Helm film, except this film doesn't have the bevy of beauties that are rampant in the Helm movies to keep the eye's interest. The sole female of note in the cast is Francoise Dorleac (Catherine Deneuve's sister), who unfortunately died in a car crash not long after shooting most of her scenes. Michael Caine and Karl Malden clearly had fun playing off each other in their scenes, it's just too bad that they weren't doing a better movie.This was Ken Russell's first theatrical film. At the time he was more known as a TV director. Some of his usual trademarks are already present, such as an overabundance of odd characters and experimental editing techniques.With a title sequence at the beginning by Maurice Binder, who was also behind the vast majority of the James Bond title sequences, they give you reason to believe that you're in for something on the level of James Bond. But alas, it wasn't to be. Billion Dollar Brain was the last of the Harry Palmer franchise at the time. Michael Caine returned to the role however, for two USA Network TV movies which i haven't seen (yet).