Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

best movie i've ever seen.

Absolutely the worst movie.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

In this third film featuring the character "Harry Powell" (Michael Caine) he has now become a private detective who has been contracted to travel to Helsinki to deliver a package to an unnamed contact. When he gets there he is met by a beautiful woman named "Anya" (Francoise Dorleac) who instructs him to follow her in order to collect the remainder of the money he is owed. He is then met by his old friend "Leo Newbigen" (Karl Malden) who tells him that a super computer has devised a plan to foster a rebellion within the Soviet Union and that the package Harry was carrying contained deadly viruses intended for use against the Soviet army. It's at this point that things become quite complicated as various other characters and agencies become involved in this complex scheme. Having said that the film itself contains numerous subplots which appear with little if any introduction and eventually disappear with little impact in the grand scheme of things. As a matter of fact, even though the actors performed quite well, the story itself seemed to totally disintegrate in the last 20 minutes or so which really affected the entertainment value of the entire movie. On a more serious note, although Michael Caine has appeared in a host of additional movies—to include two more as Harry Powell in "Bullet to Beijing" and "Midnight in Saint Petersburg"—this was, sadly, the last film made by Francoise Dorleac who died in a fatal car wreck only weeks after its completion. What a shame.

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 was watching this movie on evening as nothing was on and was very amused. The movie had a certain grittiness and at the same time was fun and quirky and that is the appeal of this movie. The locations in Finland were terrific. The story had a lot of twists and turns and a lot of double and triple crosses which made the movie fun. Everyone in the movie looked like they enjoyed making the movie and it shows on screen. The movie started with the Micheal Caine character being a private detective who gets a strange computer generated call and the movie ignited from there. Though one thing i noticed in the 60's that it was not east vs west somehow a lot of the spy movies had a sinister third party manipulating behind the scenes and this can be also seen with spectre in the bond series too but that is part of the charm of these type of movies. The leading lady is also the sister of the iconic Catherine Denueve and she is as fetching as her sister too bad of her demise in real life..Though a nice popcorn movie and i would watch it again.

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).