Director: Ken Russell
Cast: Michael Caine. Karl Malden. Francoise Dorleac. Ed Bagley. Oscar Homolka.
Harry Saltzman knew he was on to a good thing. Worldwide spy film mania was going through the roof. Even the Europeans had got on the “Bond wagon”, starting an entirely new sub-genre known as “Euro Spy” films. Their most infamous film? Operation Kid Brother (1967) starring Neil Connery (yes – Sean’s younger brother) and the cast from Bond movies as Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny), Bernard Lee (M), Adolfo Celi (Largo) and so on Under these circumstances, Saltzman produced the third Palmer movie based on the fourth Len Deighton book, expecting it to take off due to the craze. It didn’t. It was a flop.
It was one of those unhappy productions that everyone likes to disown. Michael Caine admitted he wasn’t happy, and it shows in his somewhat lacklustre performance, devoid of the Palmer swag. The heroine Francoise Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve’s sister, died in a horrific car crash (burnt to death in the car crash) while the film was under production. The director, British Cinema’s bad boy, Ken Russell, kept complaining about the screenplay, the cast and everything else. In retrospect, it is one of Russell’s most accessible “straightforward” films.
However, the end result is anything but unhappy. Shrewdly Saltzmann had married his Bond film expertise to create a hybrid that should have appealed to the Bond audiences brought up on megalomaniac villains out to destroy the world.
Here it is, Texas billionaire and self-styled General Midwinter (Ed Bagley), who wants to storm Latvia from Finland using the auspices of Leo Newbegin (Karl Malden) and his network of Latvian agents. Leo has already recruited the unemployed Harry Palmer (Caine) to visit Latvia secretly.
Leo doesn’t know that Palmer was immediately warned off and then arrested by his old nemesis Colonel Stok (Oscar Homolka) but put on a plane to Helsinki.
As Palmer has also been shanghaied into working for MI5 again by his boss Colonel Ross. Midwinter has created the Billion Dollar Brain – a massive Honeywell Computer – that will process all the agents’ information and lead them into an uprising against the Soviets in Latvia. Newbegin trusts his girlfriend Anya (Francoise Dorleac), but Palmer thinks otherwise.
I saw the film sometime in the mid-1980s in Sterling Cinema, Mumbai and was surprised at what an enjoyable romp it was. A repeated viewing (on DVD) has only confirmed what I suspected – the film truly deserved better from everyone. Today, lovers of spy films and spy fiction only hate the movie. There are very few who like it and even love it. Here’s why you should take a better look at it.
First: the locales. During the bad days of the Cold War, stories set in the Soviet Union were usually filmed in Finland and Austria. Since part of the story is actually set in Helsinki, the Finnish scenes work beautifully. It is impossible NOT to be floored by the stunning photography – stark snow-clad landscape as far as the eye can see. A ship ploughing through the icy sea with large ice floes floating around it. The bleak landscape warns of the possible life-threatening hazards that Palmer is about to endure.
Second: the electronics. Yes – by today’s measure, the “brain” is laughable. The key scenes were shot in the Honeywell computer complex. Honeywell is thanked in the end credits for its use of the Honeywell H200 series (Another day, another time, we can do a laborious exercise as to what would be the modern equivalent of that computer). It is fun to see that time’s “most modern” technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell_200
Here’s ths scene from the film that shows the model number and how it had to be run. Compare that with your modern PC or laptop. The comments in the You Tube Link are worth reading
Third and perhaps the most important – the villain General Midwinter. In the mid-1960s, with the Cold War MADly (Check out MAD) underway, Midwinter seemed well set in his world. Midwinter found dangerous echoes in many American politicians who wanted to wipe out Communism off the planet. Within a year of the movie’s release, with Richard Nixon in the White House, perhaps such fears were not unfounded (Nixon wanted to drop the big one on Vietnam till he was persuaded otherwise https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nixon-wanted-to-drop-nuclear-bomb-on-vietnam-9217890.html
As if to further compound the problem, the neoconservative language of the late 1990s and early 21st century looks and sounds somewhat like Midwinter and his rantings.
Fourth and perhaps the last one – the marriage of the bleak Palmer Universe with the giant sets of the Eon productions. Maurice Binder, the usual title designer of the Sean Connery Bond films, lends his expertise to the title design. Midwinter’s computer rooms, his lair, the gigantic climax with loads of soldiers with sane uniforms – all forming a vast ecosystem that fused the Palmer and Bond styles.
As always Palmer shows a remarkable above average inclination for self preservation above any “cause”
The Billion Dollar Brain is an enjoyable romp mating the best of the Palmer and Bond universe. Too bad that there were no immediate sequels to them.
Trivia : the “computer voice” that asks people to CONFIRM or ACCEPT instructions is that of actor Donald Sutherland !
The film is available below link https://www.mxplayer.in/movie/watch-billion-dollar-brain-movie-online-ec690414a560a5f681db328508979628?watch=true
Script – 4 out of 5
Story – 4 out of 5
Direction – 4 out of 5
Photography – 5 out of 5
Overall: 4.3 out of 5
Epilogue: Caine reprised his Palmer persona in two 1990s follow-ups that are avoidable and, at best, have curiosity value as they were shot in the disintegrated Soviet Union. Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996) both had Caine (Palmer) and Jason Connery, Sean Connery’s son, going through the motions and trying to justify a pathetic script. Both were available on YouTube, but I suppose even YT felt they were terrible movies. Watch at your own peril or if you have nothing else to do on a Sunday and want to pass the time.
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