The Brain from Planet Arous is a science fiction low budgeter from 1957 and is part of a massive amount of cheesy B movies from that era. It was arguably the biggest year for low-budget science fiction and horror films that includes The Giant Claw, I was a Teenage Werewolf, I was a Teenage Frankenstein, Kronos, The Undead, and The Cyclops. Directed by Nathan Juran, the man behind the abysmal schlocker Attack of the 50-foot Woman, and classic fantasy films The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, First Men in the Moon, and Jack the Giant Killer! In this film, Juran turns this movie with a silly premise into something respectable, not so much because of the special effects which are decent but for the overall story. Often, the science and fiction fantasy films he directed were hampered by poor special effects and poor budget, save for the ones that special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen was responsible for.
In The Brain from Planet Arous, screen legend and ultimate B-movie actor John Agar (The Mole People, Curse of the Swamp Creature, Tarantula, King Kong) stars as Steve Marsh, a scientist who along with friend Dan Murphy (Robert Fuller, The Hard Ride, Emergency!) go to take a vacation at mystery mountain where they find a giant brain named Gor. Gor is a criminal from the planet Arous that escaped captivity. He proceeds to take over Marsh’s body with the intent to use Marsh as a host body in his world conquest scheme, as well as getting some lustful desires with Marsh’s girl Sally Fallon (Joyce Meadows, The Girl in Lovers Lane), that he aggressively goes after and partially rips her top off. Gor, hiding in Marsh’s body intends to rule the Earth, or else he will eviscerate every city capitol on the planet!
Meanwhile, Vol, another large-sized brain from planet Arous, has arrived on Earth to capture Gor. Vol hides within Marsh’s dog and devises a plan to capture the evil Gor and bring the criminal to justice!
I really like The Brain from Planet Arous, for me it is a fun, harmless seventy minutes of pure hokum. The brain creatures are a cool design, and the characters are appealing enough to get you to the rousing climax! The special effects for the film aren’t too terrible and the acting led by John Agar is perfectly fine for this era! Director Juran gets a lot of milage from the cast and within his limited budget, has done a remarkable job with what he had to work with! Yes, the movie is contrived, but it was the fifties, during an anything goes period when it came to science fiction and horror movies. There are far worse films that you can spend seventy minutes on, and I should know because I’ve seen them!
Nathan Juran’s The Brain from Planet Arous receives a Region free Blu-ray release courtesy of Film Detective. This film is presented in both the 1.33:1 full screen and the 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio. Both look as good as it will get, easily surpassing the DVD. The blacks are nice and inky with clear whites and a balanced greyscale. There are some vertical lines that appear here and there, while film grain is present throughout. There is more depth to the image with the higher contrast and has a richer texture to it. I also noticed that the wires that were visible on the brain during the finale are no longer visible and appears to have been removed which I think is a plus to give the movie a bit more realism to it. Seeing wires often runs the fun watching these older movies, no matter how campy it is. Outside of that, no DNR or digital enhancements seem to have been applied!
Film Detective uses a DTS-HD Master 2.0 dual-mono track on their Blu-ray. The audio is clear, with a few aggressive moments such as the musical score by Walter Greene and when the characters scream at the top of their lungs. Walter Greene was the composer of several low-budget movies including Teenage Doll, Teenage Monster and Lost in a Harem. There is a vast amount of depth to the audio making it a satisfactory listening experience. Optional English subtitles are available.
This package offers satisfactory amount of supplements. The Brain from Planet Arous Blu-ray comes equipped with a commentary track by historians Tom Weaver, David Schecter, Larry Blamire, and Joyce Meadows, one of the stars of The Brain from Planet Arous. The commentary focuses on the film, the cast and crew and is worth a listen!
Ballyhoo Motion Pictures Production has also provided some cool extras for The Brain from Planet Arous Blu-ray. Kudos to them for giving us some supplements to this rare gem!
Not the Same Old Brain, is an interview with Joyce Meadows who discusses The Brain from Planet Arous and her short film career.
The Man Before the Brain focuses on the career of director Nathan Juran.
The Man Behind the Brain: The World of Nathan Juran which takes an even closer look at Nathan Juran.
Film Detective has outdone themselves with this offering, giving us the best audio and video quality of this film to date and the superb extras! Let’s hope they continue to dive into the Wade Williams library for more stellar releases. I would love to other Wade Williams’ films such as The Hideous Sun Demon, Lost Continent, Navy vs. The Night Monsters, Devil Girl from Mars and The Crawling Eye get the same treatment as The Brain from Planet Arous! Highly Recommended!
The Brain from Planet Arous
Director-Nathan Juran
Cast- John Agar, Joyce Meadows
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Film Detective
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –6/30/22