The Brain from Planet Arous (1957)

 

A spectral alien entity of pure intellect, the interplanetary supervillain Gor (voiced by Dale Tate) from the planet Arous, comes to Earth and possesses the body of pioneering nuclear research scientist Steve March (John Agar).

Steve and his buddy Dan Murphy (Robert Fuller) investigate anomalous radiation readings from the ominously named Mystery Mountain out in the heart of the New Mexico desert.

There they come across a recently-blasted new cave formation and inside they are attacked by the non-corporeal brain creature Gor, who fries Dan and takes control of Steve,

Steve returns home after a week's absence, but his fiancée Sally Fallon (Joyce Meadows) is immediately suspicious by his increased libido. And the disappearance of Dan, of course.

Steve's story that he has "gone to Las Vegas" seems flimsy at best. But I guess this was the 1950s!

The brilliant John Agar as Steve March

Eventually, the local sheriff, Wiley Pane (Tim Graham), challenges Steve about the whereabouts of Dan... and meets a similar fatal end.

Using a combination of his own nuclear-based superpowers and Steve's contacts at the highest echelons of America's military, Gor has hatched a plan that would not only give him control of planet Earth but allow him to strike back at his homeworld and then take over the universe! Bwahahaha!

Gor

However, hot on Gor's heels is a police officer/bounty hunter from Arous called Vol (also voiced by Dale Tate), who's possibly not the sharpest tool in the box: needing a body of his own to possess, he passes on Steve's hard-done-by, but loyal, fiancée Sally and her dad, John (Thomas Browne Henry), and instead chooses their family dog, George!

The clock is ticking, as Gor - through Steve - demonstrates his incredible powers to the American military at the White Sands Missile Range, before delivering an ultimatum to the major nations of the world.

Luckily, for Earth, Vol has revealed his species' Achilles Heel to Sally, but the window for delivering the death blow is very small, and Sally's plan to save the planet is rather reckless.

Vol

A breathtakingly bizarre piece of retro, Atomic Age sci-fi, 1957's The Brain from Planet Arous was previously available in 2022 as both a special edition Blu-ray and DVD, featuring a crisp 4K transfer, and has now been officially released online (see above) by Film Masters.

First off, major kudos to John Agar - former husband of Shirley Temple and later a stalwart of B-movies such as The Mole People, Revenge of The Creature, and this - for an impressive turn as Steve March, particularly when Gor is driving the meat-suit. 

A truly unnerving villain, Agar demonstrates a subtle mastery of the sly sneer and maniacal grin, and somehow manages to be both the bad guy and the good guy of this pulp adventure.

With a runtime of a mere 70 minutes, The Brain never risks outstaying its welcome, and perhaps deserves to be held up as exemplar of tight pacing in this age of overly-long and unnecessarily padded "epics".

The deft directorial touch of Nathan Juran becomes obvious when you realise he would go on to direct such classics as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad  and Attack of the 50-Foot Woman the following year.

Nevertheless, even with its brief duration, the protagonists of this delightful B-movie still manage to spend an inordinate amount of time eating and saying the name "Mystery Mountain" (seriously, it needs to be a drinking game).

Ray Buffum's script delivers a surprisingly coherent rationale behind Gor's plan, which makes a lot more sense than Vol eschewing a human body for a canine one. 

All I can imagine is that he'd seen how Gor's possession of Steve turned him rather horny (quite shocking, I thought, for a 1950's movie, but then you just have to consider the name of their homeworld to see where this came from) and Vol simply preferred the idea of getting belly-rubs while he was posing as Georgie the doggo.