Brain (1969)

A great David Niven comedy. If you like those 60s cops and robbers comedies like the Pink Panther you will probably enjoy this.

Headlined by Jean-Paul Belmondo and Bourvil at the height of their fame, The Brain aka Le Cerveau is a slightly silly 1969 French caper comedy with one eye firmly on the English language market with the casting of David Niven and Eli Wallach, though Olive's new Blu-ray and DVD release is of the French-language version that's some 15 minutes longer than the simultaneously shot abridged English language version released in the US, with Niven and Wallach rather impressively delivering their French and Italian dialogue themselves rather than being dubbed. Niven is the Brain of the title, the criminal mastermind behind the Great Train Robbery whose cerebrum is so large that in moments of stress his neck can't support it, and Wallach the Mafioso he wants to launder his loot from an encore of his greatest triumph with a NATO train carrying a $16m payroll. Unfortunately Belmondo's escaped small time convict and his reluctant pal Bourvil are planning to take the same train using the Brain's earlier plan, and even more unfortunately the highly possessive Wallach isn't too wild about the interest all of the would-be robbers take in his innocent sister (Silvia Monti) who's desperate to lose her innocence...

There's nothing terribly original here even in 1969 but there are a couple of nicely executed cartoonish touches, including a nice animated sequence (who'd have thought master criminals had teams of animators in their gangs?), and an enjoyably destructive bit of business with a pet leopard and a giant fishtank en route to the robbery and a Statue of Liberty finale. Belmondo gets to perform a few stunts, Niven gets to display his effortless charming scoundrel routine and, thankfully, director Gerard Oury keeps it all from going too far over the top even if it does drag a bit in places. It's a good looking glossy film, and Olive's region-free Blu-ray is very nice indeed no extras, but it's a good 2.35:1 widescreen version of the longer French-language version, although there are some curious translations in the odd subtitle here and there.

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Inept late 60s slapstick which brings out the worst in the four stars Belmondo, Niven, Bourvil and Eli Wallach. More interesting for the cars than the inane plot and cardboard effects. Apparently it was supposed to be a take off on then-popular heist films. It succeeds on almost no front.

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