Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

mark.waltz Almost ten years after his last "Dr. Kildare" film, Lew Ayres is back in the medical field, here playing Patrick Corey, a scientist who experiments on living organs. His whole personality is taken over by the evil brain of a deceased millionaire who appears to have been a bullying criminal, blackmailing former associates and even trying to kill one of Ayres' associates. Ayres gives a complex performance which outshines his leading lady, future first lady Nancy Davis (Reagan) whose acting is extremely inconsistent. In one scene, she's told that she'll end up outshining Madame Curie. Well, her mixed performance will never be compared to Greer Garson! The sound effects are quite eerie, some of the scientific explanations somewhat palatable, and the brain itself is a stagnant monster of such unrelenting evil that you really hope to see it explode. Add in some revelations about the dead man's family which expose much about the way the brain controls, and you have a creepy "B" feature that you just can't turn away from, no matter how corny it gets.

dougdoepke Well-crafted sci-fi with minimal special effects. Of course, the premise of a disembodied brain taking thought control of its master has kicked around more than a few times. However, this is arguably the best version, thanks to a tight screenplay and a fine central performance. Ayers must go from nice guy doctor to tyrannical business tycoon whenever the evil brain takes control. And he does both in highly convincing fashion—sure a long way from young Dr. Kildare. Nancy Davis (Reagan) also delivers as the loyal wife. Her films may never have been very distinguished, but she was always a credible low-key performer. Note also that usual tough guy Gene Evans gets the thankless "Igor" role as the lab assistant.I guess I could have done with fewer close-ups of the pulsating brain. Unfortunately, the effect comes across in fairly hokey 50's fashion. Then too, that all-out thunder and lightning sequence amounts to more than just a storm. Instead , it looks more like a rage in heaven, like someone above is really angry at what's going on below. The heavy-handed theatrics is really out of sync with what's gone before. Despite the two drawbacks, the overall result is better than expected, thanks to the A-grade performances in a B-grade movie.

funkyfry This is a film for sci-fi fans who are able to put up with some outdated effects and technology, not for people who like "so bad it's good" films. The film is not campy at all, and is handled very straight and serious. Good thing too, because it does have a lot of disturbing elements.Dr. Cory (Lew Ayres) and his wife (Nancy Davis, later Reagan) are engaged in an experiment in preserving living animal brains when fortune puts an irresistible opportunity in his path -- a private plane crashes and he is able to harvest one passenger's brain after his body expires and before the brain dies. Unfortunately for him the brain happens to belong to Donovan, a Hearst-esquire multi-millionaire with a really bad attitude and a lot of mental prowess. The brain soon learns to communicate telepathically with the doctor and eventually begins to control him, even inspiring Cory to begin wearing the dark suits and smoking the cigars that were trademarks of Donovan's extravagant lifestyle. The brain also begins to take control back of his financial empire and to scheme for a permanent house for itself, seeking to control the international financial world with his new mental powers and his old financial cunning.It's a bizarre but very interesting and effective premise, from Curt Siodmak's (The Wolf Man) novel. The directing is only average as far as actors are concerned but it is well enough handled in the terror sequences, such as when the brain sets out to kill one investigative journalist who gets too close to the truth by "driving" him to suicide, literally. Ayres is good as well as Davis, and all the actors treat the material with respect and add a level of dignity to the film that other "living brain" films lack. There's also a very interesting parallel between Dr. Cory's tendency to enable the alcohol addiction of his assistant (Gene Evans) and his wife and the assistant's enabling of his increasingly strange behavior with regards to Donovan's brain. Good solid 50s sci-fi without the laughs, for those who are interested.

sol Bearly surviving a plane crash Warran H. Donovan, a multi-millionaire financier, is brought to the home of Dr. Pat Cory, Lew Ayres, since it's the closes to the crash site and Dr. Cory preform emergency surgery in order to save his life. Dr. Cory realizing that Donovan doesn't have a chance to survive has his brain put in a fish tank with electrodes attached to it. The brain responds to his treatment by continuing to function after Donovan's heart stops beating. Together with his close friend and wife Dr. Schaatt and Janice, Gean Evens and Nancy Davis,Dr. Cory keeps the brain alive without it's body to study it for future advancements in the field of neurosurgery, but unknown to Dr. Cory & Co. the brain has a mind and ideas of it's own.The in-your-face and aggressive brain slowly takes over the mind of the meek and harmless Dr. Cory and uses him as a puppet to do the dirty work. The dirty dealings that it, or Warren H. Donovan, was planing to do before his death. Dovonan when he was alive, as a full human being, had plans to corner the monetary and stock markets as well as destroy the IRS and now with his brain working through Dr. Cory he, or the brain, was going to do just that.Early mind-control movie that's still as effective today as it was back in 1953 with Dr. Cory suffering from a severe identity crisis. The brain submerged the fish tank manipulates Dr. Cory to do things that he would never have dreamed or even thought of doing; destroying the US economy and throwing the country into another 1929-like great depression. The brain also uses high placed stooges that it blackmails, through Dr. Cory, who were working with Dovonan and now thinking that he's dead felt he no longer has any control over them. Dovonan's brain takes care of anyone else who threatens it, the brains grandiose schemes,by taking over that persons mind and inducing him to kill himself.Annoying and obnoxious news photographer Herbie Yocum, Steve Brodie, who had an idea about what was going on between Dr. Cory and the dead Donovan, Yocum had photos of Donovon's body in the city morgue minus it's head, has the brain takes over his mind and drives him to drive himself off a cliff and kill himself.Dr. Cory struggling with the Donovan's brain needs all the help he could get in preventing the brain from using him as a conduit for it's earthly and criminal actions.It's only with the help of his wife Janice and Dr. Schaatt that he finally can get Dononan's evil brain out of his head as well as is hair forever.