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1

Early Ken Russell spy thriller that looks very nice but gets lost tonally somewhere between serious, Le Carré political critique and the more cartoon elements of Bond in a way that's a bit incoherent. Russell clearly has a lot of fun getting into the mania of Cold War hysteria (all the scenes with the red scare Texas oil baron are hilarious) but he especially comes alive on screen when he gets to shoot Michael Caine being obscenely down bad for Françoise Dorléac.

7

Twenty years ago today, on 22nd December 1999, BBC1 broadcast this film (well, technically you could say that it was actually twenty years ago tomorrow, cos it was on at half past midnight) and I instantly fell in love with it. I was twenty then, I am forty now and I don't care what you say, I still love this movie and I always will love it. It's so incredibly, enjoyably 1960s. It's the Blow-Up of spy movies and I kind of want to live in this film.

Back in '99 I was already a huge fan of Michael Caine and his spy character Harry Palmer, thanks to The Ipcress File and the first sequel, Funeral in Berlin. But it…

3

I sat in on a Newsnight interview with Michael Caine the other day, as he was doing a show at the concert venue where I work.

One of the fascinating things he talked about - which didn't make the edit - was this ludicrous idea that he just plays himself on screen. Rather, he said, he's a bit like Fred Astaire: "You see Gene Kelly running up the walls and you say, 'I couldn't do that', but then you watch Fred Astaire, and he makes it look so easy - and you think, 'I could do that'. Trust me, you couldn't. And that's the same with my acting. 'I could do that.' Trust me, you couldn't."

That's true of his…

6

Billion Dollar Brain doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up.

A mostly disappointing end to the original Harry Palmer trilogy that's far too over-the-top and self-consciously "wacky" to make a decent follow-up to Funeral in Berlin, or The Ipcress File, but also lacking in sufficient quantities of Ken Russell's patented pixie dust of delirious perversion and frantically melodramatic scenery-chewing to earn a place among his more outré offerings. The result is an uneven and poorly-paced series of set pieces that lurch between these opposite extremes without any apparent rhyme or reason, resulting in an unsatisfying mixture of downbeat, sardonic humor that's reminiscent of the first two films, and an attempt at Dr. Strangeloveian satire that fosters…

Review by Mos Co ★★

The plot is heavy whacky in this one. Not sure I knew what was going on half the time though.

2

With Ken Russell at the helm I was expecting a radical departure from the previous two Palmer pictures, and I didn't get that especially. To me it felt less like a sixties film and more like an early seventies film, though I don't have enough of a film vocabulary to explain why.

It does go big in the third act but I don't think Texan-led paramilitary insurgents is any goofier a concept than the mind control bit from the first one. Just bigger (and the way that resolved itself was hilarious). It's certainly the most visually arresting of the three films. Glad to see Ross and Stok return. The end tag got a solid laugh out of me, too.

I bet Adam Reed is a big fan of this one. It feels a lot like early season Archer, minus the non-stop pop culture references.

Review by Gregory Kent ★★★★ Liked

Physically Owned Films

I'm quite surprised the odd mixture of John Le Carre serious style espionage and goofy Bond worked so well for me in this. I'm not sure if my expectations were low with it being the third in the series, or if Russell's direction balanced it well, but either way I had a good time. The direction, particularly anything in the snow was captivating, the over the top music and performances were enjoyable, and the film moved along at a good enough pace to keep you interested while confused in all the double crosses. This is far from perfect, there's not enough for Palmer to do in it, he often seems like a ive participant, and the goofiness occasionally borders on puerility, but Billion Dollar Brain is pretty delightful.

Review by Evan “Raymond Gun-Virus” Pincus ★★★½ Liked

Operation Gideon movie starring Ed Begley as the raving embodiment of neo-fascist anti-communist American intervention. Much, much more Ken Russell in DNA than it seems to get credit for.

Review by Sophie Farrell ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers!

Billion Dollar Brain was the third film in the original run of the Harry Palmer series, before a further two sequels followed in the 1990s. The Harry Palmer films were produced at the height of the 60s spy craze, a result of the enormous success of the James Bond series. The Ipcress File and Funeral Berlin are often considered to be the stronger entries in the series, with the former being rated as one of the best British films of the 20th century. Billion Dollar Brain, on the other hand, is considered to be the weakest of the three. I have always felt that Billion Dollar Brain was a sadly overlooked and underrated film. It…

Review by GordoFlower ★★

Did not know this was the third in a series, and only watched it because it was directed by Ken Russell. And while it doesn't seem like you need previous knowledge of the Harry Palmer character, the story is told in such a convoluted manner that you won't keep up anyway. Or simply won't care to follow it.

I did kind of enjoy it as a spoof of spy movies. Especially when they get to the USA, those scenes were the funniest.

Review by lamentropy ★★★

This is the only 'normie' movie Ken Russell made in order to gain money to make Women in Love - very much valid reason, no any other questions are needed. And though it's a spy movie - third in a row of Harry Palmer's adventures - Russell made the most out of it, adding his unique style and atmosphere on the verge of surreal.

It's the closest to campiness it can get, and I had much fun with watching our secret agent travelling from London to Helsinki to somewhere in Latvia to Texas and back again the same route. Michael Caine is brilliant handsome devil who gets the girl first moment they see each other, but actually, all he truly wants is a piece of quiet and to eat some cereal.

Review by dankwit Liked

Was actually pleasantly surprised by this, particularly by how much Ken Russell auterism shone through its genre trappings. dunno how well it would've played in the Midwest tho