Billion Dollar Brain

Following on the last couple of weeks, I watched the third and final Harry Palmer movie:

Billion Dollar Brain (1967).

In this movie, Harry (Michael Caine) is tasked with infiltrating a mysterious organization that wants to overthrow communism. The trouble is, this might start WWIII. Harry goes to Finland, where he meets an old acquaintance Leo Newbigen (Karl Malden). Leo is well placed in the organization and recruits Harry. They also visit Riga and eventually Texas. Action, espionage and danger lurks around every corner. I'm avoiding spoilers again.

The very first thing I noticed is that the intro sequence has a very strong James Bond style. Caine was actually worried that he'd be trapped in the Palmer role like how his good friend Sean Connery was with Bond. I haven't read the book yet, but the movie's plot has a very strong Bond feel as well. In fact, the main villain is like a Bond villain if that villain had completely lost his mind. It is seriously a bonkers plan.

As a native Finn, it was seriously cool to see how my home town of Helsinki looked a decade before my birth. So similar and yet so very different. Harry walks past places where, as a kid I played, and visits locations I know very well. For some reason they chose to film certain scenes in Turku Castle, and considering Turku is 168 km west of Helsinki, that is a bit odd. There was nothing about the scenes that even required a castle...

When Harry visits Riga, they shot in the Finnish city of Porvoo, located some 50 km east of Helsinki. This is understandable since in the 60's Riga was actually in the Soviet Union and filming there would have been impossible. I just have no idea why they chose to pretend that Turku Castle was in Helsinki.

Overall, Billion Dollar Brain is an okay movie, the recurring characters are played by the original actors which is always nice. The other actors are good as usual, even veteran actor Ed Begley who chews the scenery so hard its a miracle he didn't lose his teeth in the process. I guess you have to do that if you're playing a fanatic with megalomania.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes and no. If you want to complete the Harry Palmer trilogy or see what Finland looked like in '67, then sure. Billion Dollar Brain is not a bad movie, it is just not very good either. It was directed by a very unwilling Ken Russel and it shows. The balance is off, the plot is ridiculous, (though that may be the fault of the book), and I get the feeling the plot didn't even need Harry to begin with. Not great not bad, just kind of in the middle mediocre. I'm glad I watched it, but the two previous movies particularly Funeral in Berlin are so much better.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!