This blog was begun Sunday afternoon, March 22nd and continued later that evening :
Elizabeth, I love your idea of recording outside! I saw your prior post, where you had set up a studio in your Mom's closet. Maybe that turned out to be too confining, or not resonant enough? Well anyhow, I'll look forward to hearing your song if you decide to post it. :)
Right now it's raining pretty hard here. I was lucky to get in a three mile CSUN walk at 1pm, or I'd be going pretty stir crazy by now, haha. In your post you weren't able to check the "spring weather" box, and neither can we. Even though we had beautiful blue skies for a couple of days, it's still been "three layer" cold, meaning you (i.e. me) need two t-shirts and a sweatshirt to avoid freezing. And, now it's raining again anyway, like it has been for most of the last ten days. About those blue skies, though, I've gotta say that I can't remember when I've ever seen it looking like that. The blue was almost translucent, and didn't look flat. It was like you could see through it, and the puffy white clouds made the sky look three dimensional, like looking through one of those old GAF Viewmasters. Nice to know how fast the air clears up when nobody is driving.
My building is dead quiet, the exact opposite of how it usually is, with people running up and down the stairs, doors opening and closing, voices in the courtyard. I feel like The Last Man on Earth, haha, like if I opened my door and looked out, I'd be in the middle of a Twilght Zone episode.
Last night's movie was "Bullet Code"(1940), a George O'Brien serial Western, so there isn't much to describe because these films are formulaic, but Big George was great as usual, helping a rancher and his daughter fend off an Evil Land Surveyor who has designs on their property. In the script formulas for hour long serial Westerns, very often the Bad Guy is the local surveyor, lol. George O'Brien can always see them coming a mile away, just like Tarzan.
Tonight's movie was "Donovan's Brain"(1953), taken from my own personal collection and selected because it has Brains in it. As you know, anything with Brains is automatically good, regardless of other factors, and while this film doesn't reach the heights of "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" or "Fiend Without A Face" it still has an appropriately evil plot. Lew Ayers is a research scientist, working from home in his state-of-the-art laboratory (pronounced La-BORE-a-tory. You should never say "LAB-ra-tory" in the context of a sci-fi movie). He is assisted by his wife (future First Lady Nancy Davis) and best friend Gene Evans, a neurosurgeon. They are experimenting with monkey brains, trying to keep one alive independent of the body in order to study the cerebral wave functions. One day there is a knock on the door - it's the local ranger, informing Ayers that a plane has crashed in the Chatsworth hills. One passenger has survived, but just barely. As the only doctor in the vicinity, Ayers' help is needed at the scene. He brings the survivor back to his lab where he and Dr. Gene try to save the man, but their efforts are in vain. The guy dies, and before Nancy can call the coroner, Ayers gets an idea.
"What if we had a human brain to study"?, he asks. "It could advance our research by years"!
Nancy and Dr. Gene look at him like "you've gotta be kidding", but he isn't. Nancy even tries telling him that "it's against the law to operate on a corpse! You'll go to jail"!, but that doesn't deter him either. Dr. Gene invokes medical ethics : "It's wrong to steal a man's brain"! Still Ayers is determined. "Leave the room if you don't want to be part of it"!, he cries, and they do. They leave, and he removes Donovan's Brain, which is not only the name of the movie but also the name of the guy who owned the brain in question, Mr. Donovan.
Now, Mr. Donovan was a very wealthy man, worth 100 million dollars, and that's in 1953 money. But according to people who knew him, he wasn't a nice man, ruthless in fact. He was known for trying to ruin his competitors financially. Ayers doesn't care about any of that - at least for now. All he wants is to study Donovan's Brain for it's wave patterns, as he was doing with the monkeys. He believes that it will one day lead to brain transplants that will save the lives of clinically "dead" patients. In a whopping turnaround, both his wife Nancy and his partner Dr. Gene are now on board with the experiment. They're okay with the brain, and are helping Ayers to keep track of it's progress. It seems to be eating well, consuming several milliliters daily of the nutritional solution it's soaking in. They've got it submersed in a fish tank, hooked up to electrodes and oscilloscopes and all the stuff any self-respecting Mad Scientist would use when studying a brain. It's also exhibiting an extraordinary amount of electrical activity, which is showing up as beta waves on the scope. Ayers has a feeling that it's trying to think.
Well of course it is! This is a Movie About A Brain, for crying out loud. You didn't expect it to just sit there, did you? So yeah, it's trying to think, which gives Ayers a further idea. "What if I was able to know what it's thinking? We'd be on the verge of a major breakthrough"! He then sets about trying to read the brain's mind, using mental telepathy. Though he will have success, it will prove to be a double edged sword, as The Brain will now have access to his mind as well. And remember, this particular Brain belonged to the ruthless Mr. Donovan, who made his fortune by screwing people into the ground. The question must be asked, what will he now do to Dr. Ayers, or rather.......what will Dr. Ayers do to others, to anyone who opposes him? You see, The Brain is now going to use Ayers to take care of Donovan's unfinished business, and then reinstate Donovan in Ayers body. It's a downright fiendish plot, I must say, and while I won't tell you much more, I should mention that there's a Nosy Reporter hanging around, played by Steve Brody, who might try to blackmail Ayers, once he gets word there's a brain in the lab. This gives the film a Noir aspect as well, a nice little touch not usually seen in sci-fi movies.
Again, it's not a classic like the abovementioned pictures, but it's good enough to warrant Two Solid Thumbs Up, and a recommendation from me to all fans of 1950s science fiction. You also get some great Wilshire Boulevard location shooting by the great Joseph Biroc, and in rich black and white no less. I've seen it several times over the years and it hit the spot tonight when escapist fare was badly needed. Man....I'd like to see this Brain (or any Movie Brain for that matter) kick this virus in the butt. In fact, I'd like it if Tarzan, George O'Brien and Donovan's Brain all ganged up on it. Screw you, coronavirus, you'd be toast! /////
I hope you're hanging in there. It was hard to miss church again this morning. I hope we still have a congregation when this is all over. Please may it be sooner rather than later. God bless everyone, stay well and I will see you on FB in the morning and then back here tomorrow night at the Usual Time.
Tons of love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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