Billion Dollar Brain (1967) – Ken Russell

“In England, Colonel, the historic mission of the proletariat consists almost entirely of momentary interest.”

Michael Caine reprises his role as Len Deighton’s more dour than dapper spy Harry Palmer with mixed results. The venture is largely kept afloat by Russell’s stylistic direction, which succeeds in lending the first act a darkly unnerving tinge. Unfortunately, as the plot unravels so does this and everything quickly devolves into over-the-top quasi-self-parody, especially thanks to Ed Begley’s laughably one-dimensional bad guy. Caine is his characteristically dry and snarky self, but it doesn’t help when the only characters he has to interact with are walking, talking cliches (mysterious foreign femme: check, goofily endearing Soviet colonel: check, bombastic, expository villain: checkity, check check.) A modern-day recreation of the iconic icefield battle from Alexander Nevsky, with Prokofiev’s theme cleverly incorporated into the score, counts as one of the film’s few highlights.

~ by cahiersdumovies on August 3, 2008.