Steve Marsh (John Agar) is a nuclear physicist who, together with his friend Dan (Robert Fuller) goes to investigate something strange that’s been happening on Mystery Mountain (yep, that sounds too much like a lazy TBD title even for a 50’s schlock film). There’s a mysterious radiation source coming from the place, and they want to find out what it is. So, off they go, with the most barebones of supplies that wouldn’t even be sufficient for a campingtrip in their own garden. In these kind of movies it never seems like the blazing desert heat is any problem at all, aside from some severe armpit-sweat…and the guys also seem to have a remarkable bodily feature where they only sweat on the front of their shirts. Huh! In Sci-Fi everything can happen, even with something as simple as armpit sweat.
They get to a cave, and find the source of the radiation: a giant alien shaped like a disembodied brain! The brain is called Gor, and he’s a criminal from the planet Arous. First the brain kills Dan, and possesses Steve. Now residing in a human body, Gor finds himself fully enjoying life’s pleasures, including Steve’s girlfriend Sally (Joyce Meadows) who notices straight away that something’s not quite right with her otherwise nice and gentle Steve. Gor, as the megalomaniac psychopath he obviously is, wants nothing more than taking over the entire world, and uses his power to cause mayhem and plane crashes. Not everything seems lost, though, as Sally and her father gets an unexpected ally in another brain alien named Vol who wants to help them stop Gor and his evil plans.
The Brain from Planet Arous is an independently made sci-fi movie from 1957, produced by Jacques R. Marquette, written by Ray Buffum and directed by Nathan H. Juran who also made the sci-fi movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman in 1958, one year after this little cheeseball. Because make no mistake – this is a movie where you don’t need a brain, just a love for the good old B-schlock that’s both absurd and gleeful in its presentation of its campy plot. And if you thought for even a second that there would be any actual suspense or scares, those would fly straight out of the window within the first frame featuring the so-called Brain alien Gor. And while that is a cool name that could have belonged to a vocalist from a Death Metal band, it is actually an Armenian boy name meaning “proud“ and also “of the mountain“. Hmm…
The brain aliens here have a surprising amount of screentime, but they function mostly for laughs and chuckles. The only scenes that are at least dipping its toes slightly into the waters of horror, must be when Steve is getting those “possessed eyes“ when the brain is up to the worst mischief. These effects were created by having him wear very thick special black contact lenses, which was of course very painful. Fun fact: these effects were used later by actor Gary Lockwood during the second Star Trek TV series pilot episode.
Gor, using Steve’s body to fulfill his plans since he needed a nuclear physicist to garner the attention from the right people, is eager to display his powers of destruction with his menacing I’m-so-evil-mwa-haa-haa! laugh which he’s just as eager to repeat. He’s bringing fear and worry to the world’s leaders by using his powers to destroy planes and cause terrible accidents, and by using some stock footage from the atomic bombs tests we truly get to witness this evil villain’s power. And yes, it’s just as cheesy as it sounds, but it’s good fun for the right audience. Too bad the right audience came much later, as the movie (not surprisingly) got a pretty bad reception upon release. The director was also very unhappy with the end result of this film, and since Alan Smithee wasn’t a thing back in 1957, his name in the credits was changed to the pseudonym Nathan Hertz. Over time, the movie has gained some cult classic status, and has even been parodied several times and referenced in numerous works. In 2002, the German band Megaherz used Gor’s laugh and a sample of Vol’s line “I have powers that equal and surpass the powers of Gor“ in their song Perfekte Droge.
So, if you’re in the mood for some campy sci-fi schlock, then bring out the popcorn and give The Brain from Planet Arous a watch!
Directors: Nathan Juran
Writer: Ray Buffum
Country & year: USA, 1957
Actors: John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller, Thomas Browne Henry, Ken Terrell, Henry Travis, E. Leslie Thomas, Tim Graham, Bill Giorgio
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050210/
