Blogging the Future of The Past, Donovan’s brain by Curt Siodmak

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

So, I realize it’s been a long long time. Mostly because I ran into a spate of books where I couldn’t find the book OR any other book by the writer or in the series, either in ebook or paper. So, I got discouraged and then … well, mom’s death (I’m still working through that. There are days) and the desensitization therapy, and you know stupid thyroid tricks, and stuff, and I got really out of the groove.

So, if you don’t remember what this is about: this is the explanation. And these are the past reviews 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

And if for some reason after reading my review (or before) you want to read it, it’s available as an ebook here: Donovan’s Brain by Curt Siodomak

First the obligatory bio (I find so much stuff in these things.)

Writer and Director. Nationality: American. Born: Kurt Siodmak in Dresden, Germany, 10 August 1902; brother of the director Robert Siodmak. Education: Attended the University of Zurich, Ph.D. 1927. Family: Married Henrietta de Perrot, 1931, one son. Career: Reporter, freelance writer, and railway engineer; 1929—first film as writer, People on Sunday; 1930—first novel published; 1934–37—writer for Gaumont-British; 1937—moved to the United States, and writer for Paramount, 1938–40, and Universal, 1940–46; 1951—first film as director, Bride of the Gorilla; 1952—formed production company with Ivan Tors.

I knew of course from the name that Siodmak was German in origin, obviously. but I didn’t know he was actually born in Germany. Nor that he only moved to the US as an adult. Every time I start feeling like the lone ranger, I run into another science fiction author who came from elsewhere altogether.

I had no idea at all he was also a director, and I know at least one of my commenters is going to yell at me for saying this but I never saw any of his books, nor do the titles ring any bells. (But I’m not a great movie person. In fact, I might be the opposite of a movie person, since I will do every other form of entertainment, including but not limited to tiddly winks than watching a movie. I usually passive watch movies, like people inhale passive smoke. Dan watches the movies, and I, being a cat, have to look up at the images now and then, while I follow the sound.)

Donovan’s Brain was published in 1942. Perhaps some of the aspects of the writing are influenced by WWII, which had to be hard to cope with, particularly for a German author in America.

Or maybe I’m refining too much on it. Or perhaps the feeling of dread and horror that filled me reading the book last night has more to do with the fact I was feeling very ill, (I have the going around thing) and read because I couldn’t sleep, I don’t know.

The book filled me with dread and depression, almost from the beginning. It is the story of Doctor Patrick Cory who is doing experiments to find out if he can keep a brain alive and improve it.

I hated the character from the moment he gains a very sick cappuchin monkey’s trust then kills him. Look, I don’t know what the author was trying to convey. And I am not a bleeding heart who is against all animal experimentation. I’m not even against primate experimentation. I recognize that things have to be tried and that we have the medical science we have thanks to experiments on animals. BUT — but — this is a very personal and visceral thing. I’d have been fine if he’d just met the animal, grabbed it and killed it while it struggled. Mind you, for a first chapter it would still be off putting. BUT not the absolute turn off of taming the animal and nurturing him, then cuddling him and killing him as he falls asleep. To me that type of thing is an absolute betrayal of trust and revolts me. Yes, euthanasia. Note, please that none of our cats go in till they’re in obvious and unbearable pain the painkillers can’t touch. And then only because I know they don’t understand their suffering. It’s not something I can explain to them. And I’m certainly not going to befriend a random sick animal and then kill him.

Sure, he wants to use the monkey’s brain to test his theories, fine. I suppose the first chapter is supposed to show us he’ll go to any lengths to do his experiments. Ah, ah ruthless, etc. I’m not sure I’m reading it properly, but if I were writing this, and wrote it that way, it would be because I meant to make this guy repulsive.

The fact that his relationship with his wife seems to be that he exploits his wife, and doesn’t really try to have a relationship with her, makes me actively dislike him even more. (And also the ninny who puts up with that treatment.)

After this there is a plane crash and somehow the doctor ends up being first responder. one of the men is lethally injured, but not dead so he kills him by removing his brain and hooking him up to his apparatus.

After that, the book rapidly devolves into a horror novel, specifically a possession novel. He tries to communicate with the brain (which is the brain of a rich man who has done some shady things) and then somehow manages to establish a telepathic connection, through which the brain ends up controlling the scientist.

They (the brain possessing the body) kill someone, and then just before he kills his wife, the despised/ignored assistant he left behind kills the brain (and himself in the process.)

The scientist then has some kind of breakdown, and ends up in the hospital, but ends up rewarded with a nice position and home, happy end all around.

I have only two problems: First it’s a horror novel and not even, really, a science fiction horror novel. All the touch stones of the story are traditional, spiritual horror. I don’t like horror, and of all horror that makes me recoil possession is absolutely the worst.

And yeah, okay, I took had a character get his mind highjacked. I’ll just say neither the character being possessed nor the possessor were half as repulsive as this pair.

The second is that the main character didn’t die screaming, with his death detailed in excruciating and loving exactness on the page. Because by halfway through the book, I hated him with the fire of a thousand suns.

I think in the end the truth is that Siodmak (whose name drove me nuts as a little dyslexic girl in Portugal, since I confused him with Simak and no, no, no.) to my mind — and this is entirely my opinion — might have come to the US; he might even have naturalized, but in the end his mental map was that of an early 20th century — and to an extent even now — European. For a book to be good almost every personality in it must be repulsive and make the author want to drown them in a vat of lake water filled with eels.

Maybe that’s just my opinion and maybe that is also a function of my being sick and feeling out of sorts, who knows.

Interestingly, though, though I remember reading Siodmak, I don’t remember a single one of his books, and I’m almost sure I either never read Donovan’s Brain before, or gave up on it after a couple of chapters.

Anyway, that’s done. Next up, secured at great expense (used, in paper, on Amazon) Anthro, the Life Giver written by John J. Deegan.

I’ll try to get to it next week, like a normal person. If you want to follow along at home, there is ONE used copy here. And I suppose you can hit up your local used bookstores and see if they have it. (If you want to know the list I’m following, it’s here. The site will translate.)

This is the Portuguese edition of Anthro The Lifegiver is below. The Portuguese title translates to Explorers of the universe, which is pathetically generic. But considering how outre science fiction was even years later when I came along, I won’t blame them for trying to make it sound tame and reasonable.

Anyway, looking forward to it. (With my luck it will be horror again. Ah, well, it’s paper. I can always wall it if it upsets me that much.)

104 thoughts on “Blogging the Future of The Past, Donovan’s brain by Curt Siodmak”

  1. Yes, this story seems to be a study in how to turn off readers. Beware that you can do this to your readers after gathering a following. I have been a fan of JOHN Grisham legal thrillers for years. I faithfully buy every new book. The setting is usually small town lawyers and the main character acts morally. This newest book the main character discovers another lawyer preying on a widow with a huge inheritance. Instead of acting as her fiduciary he sets out to get her money himself, only trying to do so in a way that will draw somewhat less damage to his professional standing. It makes it clear by foreshadowing he intends to cut his wife out too. I stopped the book two chapters in and tossed it in the trash. He lost me as a reader. I don’t want to read about scoundrels.

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    1. Sometimes with smaller things: I loved the Stephanie Plum books. They were a little weird, but funny, and I read them like popcorn.
      Yes, she slept with a guy she wasn’t married to, but she had been in love with him since she was little, and you KNEW she was going to end up marrying him.
      And then she casually sleeps with another guy. I stopped reading the series. Cold.

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      1. I wondered if Morelli and Ranger had brain damage; my reaction to Stephanie [as described in the books] varied between “no” and “hell no!”

        On the other hand, I ROFLed when Stephanie’s grandmother accidentally blew up the funeral home with a rocket launcher.

        After Evanovich sold the series to her publisher and ghostwriters took over, the books simply repeated each other with minor variations. Sort of like the “Eve Dallas” books; if I picked one up, I could seldom be sure I hadn’t read it before.

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        1. On the other hand, I ROFLed when Stephanie’s grandmother accidentally blew up the funeral home with a rocket launcher.

          8-)

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        2. I think you simply don’t speak diffident chick. I recently found a picture of myself when I thought I was fat. There is no way to post it, but…. well, it was the year I got married, and while Dan couldn’t circle my waist with his hands (normal male hands) but close, but my mental image was … well, what I’m now. Over 200 lbs land whale. Thank you blown up thyroid.)
          Decoding from how Steph sees herself and how people react to her : She’s model gorgeous, just WEIRD as heck.
          ALSO I didn’t know she’d sold it to her publisher. Dan bought one at a thrift store … 5? 6? years ago. Recent then. It was horrible. Mostly fart jokes, no charm.

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      2. Like the last “Cat Who…” book where the author had the main character’s love interest (they had an established, long-term affair with the clear implication they were monogamous but mutually afraid of commitment) suddenly fly to Paris to work with a French librarian and Qwilleran took up with another woman by the end of the book. No sign of grief, anger or loss. If it hadn’t been the last book I’d have probably quit.

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      3. My reaction to Stephanie sleeping with Ranger was different. Stephanie is pulled along by the currents around her. She exercises little agency herself. So it seemed natural for the character. Not good, not praiseworthy, but definitely in character.

        As to the Siodmak story, what you’re describing sounds like a close narrative of a sociopath who meets a stronger sociopath.

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    2. Novels like that really get up my nose. I’ve bagged on it before in other places, so let me bag here on a best-seller and critic’s darling I had the misfortune to read: Outerbridge Reach by Robert Stone. Halfway through I realized I absolutely loathed every character in the book, though I managed to slog through to the end.

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          1. Caught that scene on the first episode. Went “Nope”, changed the channel or turned off the TV, forget which. Never read the books.

            In fact, for this reason alone, I’ve never picked up a George Martin book since. Anthologies, with authors I recognize, depending on anthology them, then yes. Otherwise, nope.

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            2. I read and enjoyed the earlier Haviland Tuf stories, but when he decided to do permanent birth control, wiping out the population of a planet, I decided I strongly disliked H. Tuf’s approach, and never read anything by GRRM afterward.

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      2. That pretty much describes Gibson’s “Neuromancer.” Most of the characters were abhorrent for one reason or another. Or several, for that matter.

        There were two incidental characters that almost redeemed the book, though. Hiro, who was basically a meat machine; bred, trained, programmed, kept in cold storage between assassinations. A stone killer… but Hiro was innocent in the old meaning of the term; and despite his programming, merciful.

        The other was Maelcum, the Rastafarian pilot. Maelcum was strung out on ganja, but he was fulfilling his duty to his elders, and he and Hiro hasdtheir High Noon encounter at Villa Straylight. The entire encounter was over in a couple of sentences. Maelcum knew he had no chance, but stepped up anyway.

        Two men, about as different as it was possible to be, each one doing his duty as he saw it. I’m not sure Gibson even intended it to come across that way, given none of the other characters had any redeeming features at all. Well, maybe Wintermute, but Wintermute wasn’t described enough to tell.

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        1. It was a good scene, the more so because Hiro (as he explained) attempted to accomplish his task without harming Maelcum.

          <maxwellsmart> “Missed it by that much.” </maxwellsmart> :-)

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  2. In movie nerd circles Siodmak is best known for his screenplay to the downbeat and fatalistic “Wolfman” (source of the cursed, involuntary wolf shifter who turns at the full moon and can only be killed by silver). The degree to which modern shifter RPGs and novels (not yours of course) are reactions against Wolfman is probably his largest legacy.

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  3. Yes, truly a horror story! My reactions were much the same. I was thinking Mengele as I read it.

    I too re-read. Just finished Slan and Weapons Shops… he casually threw in concepts worth an entire library of SF. In my youth I devoured the Lensman series, then stumbled on Blish with Tiger, tiger. Read Astounding from 1948 (I think) on courtesy of a friend who’d rescued them from on estate sale in Phoenix for $2.

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      1. I still rate Tiger, Tiger / The Stars my Destination as being one of the top few SF novels ever written.

        The stuff Bester used as throwaways could have underpinned modern trilogies. And it reads well, all the way through.

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  4. I remembered the title as one of the movie they eventually made from it, so I went to the all-knowing, but somewhat more benign, electronic brain known as imdb and found that it was one of those horror movies that late night movie hosts in the sixties (1964-1974) made fun of, which is doubtlessly where I came across it. Oddly of interest is that the movie featured Nancy Davis (Nancy Reagan by the time the movie came out). I also found out that in Brazil the movie was called O Cérebro Maligno. Also, apparently one of the characters says the line, “I’m a doctor, not an electrician.”

    This week I’m living in 1968 to prepare myself for writing my second novel which takes place in June of 1968. I actually lived through 1968, but the details are, of course, fuzzy. I find it interesting how, in in the year 2025, you can actually time travel of a sort, immersing yourself in the top 40 radio of 1968, watch the movies that were on screens back then, and even remind yourself of what places looked like. Hopefully I will come out of this better than the characters in Donovan’s Brain although I’m not saying my characters will. Thanks for the distraction.

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  5. I don’t remember reading the book or seeing the movie, but I’m in no hurry to go out to get the book. 😉

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  6. Has anyone noticed that whenever Greenland starts to come up and the end of NATO is on everyone’s lips, Trump orders something blown up or otherwise taken? Two tankers today. One of them protected by a Russian submarine. The big one was taken in the North Atlantic with NATO support — shocking — it originated in Iran tried to get to Venezuela but didn’t make it and was on its way back to Russia. My bet is Iranian drones but some are speculating on Irans nuclear material.

    makes one go hmmm.

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    1. The picture I saw showed the tanker pretty high in the water. Shadowed by a Russian submarine, I think it is safe to speculate that oil wasn’t much involved.

      Saw on Small Dead Animals today that it has been “alleged” that #Maduro/Venezuela funded the start of #BLM and funneled money into the #DemocRats to do it. (I use the word alleged in scare quotes because they brought receipts.)

      So we can all thank #Maduro AND the #DemocRats for burning down Uncle Hugo’s. Not to put too fine a point on it or anything.

      Which explains why the #DemocRats and their useful idiots are so salty that Maduro is in NYC jail today. Biscuit wheels ran out of gravy, baby.

      But it doesn’t explain why the CBC and BBC (and probably Australia’s ABC but I haven’t heard) are even saltier. Canadian and British state-run media are banging on hour by hour about this. Makes you go “Hmmm” doesn’t it?

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      1. Just saw this in the Telegraph:

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/64c6455ce13e914e

        Danish soldiers will be required to shoot first and ask questions later if the United States invades Greenland, under the army’s rules of engagement.

        On Wednesday, the Danish defence ministry confirmed the existence of a 1952 rule requiring soldiers to “immediately” counter-attack invading forces without awaiting orders.

        The defence ministry also said that the rule “remains in force” when asked about its status by Berlingske, a centre-Right Danish newspaper.

        This week, Donald Trump, the US president, has repeated his intention to annex the Nato territory of Greenland, which he views as essential to US national security, including by military force if necessary.

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        1. We’ll buy Greenland, probably from the citizens (who will then form a self-governing territory). The Danish defenses might be better than in WWII, when it took them months to realize Germany had taken over, but in the end they might even sell the island out from under the residents.

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      2. Read part of a piece by Jonah Goldberg, who apparently thinks that Canada is next on Trump’s little list of bombing prospects.

        Seemed to me to be an inadvertent acknowledgment that your poor nation is suffering under a vicious Marxist dictatorship. With some characteristics of a brutal “Green” theocracy. (Take that “Green” descriptor as either human hating ecofascists or Judeo-Christian hating Islamists. Although perhaps “and” should be embraced.)

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        1. I still think the best way to “understand” Trump is to see him as playing chess, poker and go–simultaneously. Strategy/moves, risk and power, encirclement and control.

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      6. The prospect of Maduro and wife start talking, and the possibility of blackmail held material seized, the local democrats, Canadian, British, Australian, etc., leaders, should be worried. They don’t know yet exactly what has already been gathered, is waiting to be gathered, so they aren’t running, yet. But they are going to be.

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        1. To be clear, “blackmail material” that Maduro was holding. Not that the US can’t turn to Canada, etc., and go “Look what we found! Let’s talk. Or shall we release this to the wild?” Diplomatically, naturally.

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            1. It will be amazing if future historians or court proceedings can actually show that Starmer isn’t working for the PRC.

              He might simply be a bitter statist europhile wanker of a communist. His patterns could also be explained by such a model, without appealing to him implicating himself with the Russians or the Chicoms.

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              1. Think of Gerhard Schroeder, the former Chancellor of Germany. I recommend his Wikipedia page for details about his business dealings with the Russians.

                As to Starmer, I have no way of knowing. Ideology can lead people to strange places.

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        2. If we ever hope to hear him testify, we’ll have to guard him carefully against “madmen” and “lone wolves”, who will probably themselves be targets of assassination.

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      8. Given the usual suspects seem to be trying for Floyd 2.0, I wonder where the money’s coming from this time.

        For those who haven’t been online too much today, female protester in Minneapolis tried to block ICE agents with her SUV. They began to surround the car, one reached into the car, she panicked and tried to escape. In the process, she hit (or nearly hit) an agent, who opened fire.

        She’s answering before a Higher Authority and a couple of folks are going to have, ah, interesting insurance claims. (She hit a couple of parked cars).

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        1. Most policies I’ve seen have clauses saying they don’t pay out in the case of riot or civil unrest. Given that it will be a Minneapolis jury pool, they may lose at trial, but court time will be next.

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        2. The usual suspects are claiming “victim didn’t have a gun!!!!”. Correct. Perp was using a car as a lethal weapon. “Should have shot out the tires!!!!!” Blink. Seriously? Idiots. The agent, who fired the shot, was hit by the vehicle (not fatal, did not go down, undetermined seriousness). Did not even have a gun in hand. Had a phone out running video capture. Had to pull the firearm to fire it. Seen at least one video very clearly showing this.

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          1. I wonder how many more idiot ‘protesters’ will have to be shot before the moonbats get a clue and stop assaulting armed federal agents? 😡

            Niven’s Laws, #23 and 24:

            Never throw shit at an armed man.
            Never stand near somebody throwing shit at an armed man.

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        3. Nah, Gov Twinklehandz is skipping straight to Fort Sumter….

          https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2026/01/07/what-insurrection-really-looks-like-tim-walz-threatens-to-mobilize-national-guard-against-ice-n2423655

          Links to his actual statements in the article. I do have to wonder if Chief Justice “Taney Jr” Roberts’ deciding that before Trump can federalize the National Guard, the “regular forces” of the Federal government must be unable to maintain order affected this. Link in next comment.

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          1. https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/supreme-court-rejects-trumps-effort-to-deploy-national-guard-in-illinois/

            More than a month after the final briefs were filed in the case, and on the last day before the Supreme Court closes for Christmas, the court turned down the Trump administration’s request to block Perry’s order. The majority “conclude[d] that the term ‘regular forces’ … likely refers to the regular forces of the United States military. This interpretation means,” the majority said, “that to call the Guard into active federal service” under the law on which Trump relied, the president “likely must have statutory or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the regular military and must be ‘unable’ with those forces to perform that function.” But at this early stage of litigation, the court wrote, the government has not pointed to such a source of authority.

            What this apparently means is that Trump can’t even do what Kennedy did in 1963: federalize the Guard and order it to remain in its’ barracks. At least not without declaring a full insurrection.

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          2. Lincoln’s legal theory of the war is fairly interesting.

            The one articulated in, IIRC, a speech to congress early in the war.

            Which is far from the same thing as being the definitive legal authority on that point.

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          1. Yeah.

            I was a little hopeful for ‘cut off the government funding for terrorism, and the terrorism will stop’, and we have had much more success with this than a 100% fanatic model would have predicted.

            The folks who have huffed the academic theory, and have self-hypnotized their way to true fanatic do exist, and we have been seeing some evidence of them.

            If the deceased and the cheerleader were a lesbian activist couple, that is maybe outside the previous narrower circle of idjits. (Or maybe inside.)

            Ghostdancing, adn also the escalating in magic seeking when the amgic ‘stops working’, and they figure that they need to medicine harder to make the spells ‘work again’.

            Anyway, would be interesting to learn about what sort of incitement they may have received from sources. I am a little afraid to learn about any child abuse angles.

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    3. Reporting in the shipping world has both these tankers recently flying false state flags with no actual registration or valid insurance under their old names, with a long history of shady stuff, then suddenly renaming and flying Russian flags once the U.S. announced they were being sought.

      Pretty much the modern definition of sketchy tankers, completely aside from their efforts to avoid boarding and inspection.

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      1. What I’ve heard is that Russia’s equivalent of the Coast Guard/DOT entered them on their registries remotely (inspections) and thus legalized their flying Russian flags last week. As usual, legal is what you’re willing to fight to make legal, and Trump called their bluff.

        The British probably wouldn’t have helped if not for the Russia / Ukraine aspect.

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    4. I actually think it’s the other way ‘round, with Greenland being reintroduced into the memetic flow whenever nothing else is anticipated for a bit, just to keep the idiots, communists, and j-skool media (birm) off balance and stuck in reactive mode.

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    1. Donovan’s Brain the novel was published serially in Black Mask in 1942. The film was made in 1953.

      The Brain That Wouldn’t Die released in 1962. (And is hilariously awful, and much deserved it’s MST3K treatment.) That’s less “sharing” and more “had its plot points lifted by”.

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      1. He probably wasn’t riffing on Last and First Men (I read a lot of Stapledon at one point in my life), where a future human species with a natural gift for genetic engineering and a strong (but submerged) streak of sadism create a “human,” whose brain has been enlarged and “improved,” at the expense of a useful body. There’s no possession involved, but the Great Brain takes over the government, clones itself and eventually both destroys its parent species and creates a new one. Which destroys the Brains in turn.

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          1. Eventually, it clarified my beliefs, so it had some benefit.

            At one point I was sitting on the beach, thinking high-minded, agnostic Stapledonian thoughts, when my shorts got filled with sand fleas. Apparently Himself shares your opinion. (And/or my guardian angel has a low sense of humor).

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            2. Himself has a rude sense of humor, and may have inspired Mycroft Holmes IV* about putting itching powder in a pressure suit.

              I’ll skip how I came to that conclusion. :)

              (*) Does God talk to computers? Somebody has to counteract Microsoft.

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              1. I finally bothered to figured out how to disable and remove MS Cloud off my new laptop. Now I need to isolate the old MS Surface Tablet mom now has, and hubby’s computer (son can deal with his own). Not near enough storage by default, and not paying for more. That is what USB drives and external drives are for.

                Do need to add Google Drive, but only to access the phone picture backups VS direct connect (“easier”, for degrees of easier, than pulling the appropriate data cable from the car).

                Also don’t care for the AI, but at least it isn’t attempting to save stuff on the cloud by default. Which then I can’t find because it isn’t physically on the laptop. Dang OS. (I know. Don’t use Windows or iOS. I do not want to work that hard.)

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                1. Microsoft trying to cram OneDrive storage/installation down my throat at every turn (and doing the same with Copilot) have been the last straw. I have an older ThinkPad laptop I’m going to install Linux Mint Cinnamon on, and if that goes well I’ll do the same with my main laptop. There are a few legacy games I need to get running in wine emulation, but I’m pretty sure they’ll do so.

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      2. I never read Donovan’s Brain, but memory says somebody put a throwaway reference to it in a story/article. (Faint possibility it was in a Start Trek TOS book that summarized the episodes, so “Spock’s Brain”.)

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  8. Sarah said: “And I’m certainly not going to befriend a random sick animal and then kill him.”

    I will just point out that the Nazis did not spring forth, fully formed, from the brow of Hitler. Chances are your average 1940s German adult would think this sort of thing sad but “necessary for the March of Science!!” and therefore commendable.

    And not just Germans, unfortunately. Talk to a tech-bro from Silicon Valley about “users rights” some day. There’s a reason we have problems with computer privacy, walled gardens and Right-To-Repair. They’re dirtbags just like monkey-killer guy.

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    1. In TEfL, RAH had Lazarus musing that the Germans had something wrong in their heads. It was noticible in the Great War, and went wild afterward. IMHO, what’s been going on with them since, seems like the pendulum went to the other extreme, channeling Edgar Allen Poe.

      (I need to reread “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Can’t remember how it came out. OTOH, I could think of a few people who need a Cask of Amontillado…)

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  9. James Schmitz and Willy Ley were both Germans who emigrated to America as adults.

    Isaac Asimov was born in the Soviet Union, but his parents brought him to America when he was three years old. Hugo Gernsback was ten when his parents brought him over from Luxembourg.

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    2. James Schmitz? The guy who looked around at all the tropes in the SF of his day (like the big reveal being PIVOTAL CHARACTER WAS A WOMAN!) and said, nah, SF is about exploring possibilities, and who went on to write books with characterizations and plots that felt decades ahead of their time? Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee and little old granny tinker characters who happen to be intergalactic agents preventing invasion… yeah, I like that guy.

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      1. Or the female near-human agent who was a member of the Vegan Special-Forces/CIA who was using the organization she served to find her missing husband & son.

        And then when she found them (ie their location) as prisoners of the Big Nasties, slept through the “fight” against the Big Nasties because all of her colleagues of the Vegan organization she served got together to help her rescue her husband & son.

        IE She ordered her robot spaceship to let her sleep until the ship encountered the fleets of the Big Nasties but her colleagues dealt with the fleets of the Big Nasties.

        🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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        1. With friends like the Goddess Loppos, and Senator Thartwit (who had been maneuvering the opposition to assassinate him for months and had to put it off to go help).

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          1. Yep, and some of the ships of the other agents (like the Goddess) didn’t look like “Real” spaceships thus the Big Nasties were wondering if they were facing vengeful ghosts of their victims. 🤣

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  10. Bride of the Gorilla is a fun, doofy, interesting movie starring Raymond Burr and Lon Chaney, Jr., as well as Barbara Payton’s amazing chest. The most interesting aspect of it, which is also quite clunky, is Lon Chaney, Jr., playing a “native” of the fictional South or Central American country it takes place in. He was educated in America, but still retains what he calls his “native mind”, which is a fairly big internal conflict between reason and superstition, mostly expressed through overwrought dialogue in a couple of scenes. It is almost impossible not to view this as Siodmak wrestling with his own acculturation to America, even though Germany-to-America would be, in detail, completely different from Latin America-to-America.

    (Ms. Payton is a sad cautionary tale. She apparently thought her beauty (and chestical assets) entitled her to act like an A-list diva, and got herself blacklisted in fairly short order. Less than a decade after this movie, she attempted to clean up and mount a comeback, appealing to Raymond Burr for a role on Perry Mason, which he attempted to provide [Raymond Burr was, quietly, a mensch], but was overruled by the producers of the show, so toxic was her reputation. After decades of hard drinking (and probable use of other drugs), she died in 1967 at age 39, of heart and liver failure.)

    The film is entertaining if you like 1950s B movies, and in the public domain, with a pretty good copy on the Archive.

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  11. Wow. Now I am wondering if Niven’s short stories about the cyborg ship (which are utterly different from this in flavor), _The Coldest Place_ and _Becalmed in Hell_, where the titular character is, literally, “Donovan’s Brain” are named that way by coincidence or if they were intended to be a wildly different take on the theme.

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  13. Interesting. Your loathing of the character and dislike of the story reminds me of Choke, the one Chuck Palahniuk novel I made the mistake of reading. A quarter of the way in, all I wanted was for the main character to just cease existing somehow. ANY how. And the supporting cast had even less to offer. I skimmed through the remainder hoping to at least find some modicum of reward in the death of the character and/or at least one of the other human-shaped bags of excrement populating that execrable yarn, but no joy.

    Anyway…there’s a band called Zero Hour that wrote an epic prog metal album on a similar theme to this album. I highly recommend it, and vouch that it will not inspire loathing (unless maybe you just dislike aggressive rock or what might be termed “math metal”; if that’s the case, do not pass go).

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    1. Reminds me of a South India film I watched, where the second half was about the hero reincarnating as a fly to torment the baddie who had him murdered (so, in practice, you had this D-list prettyboy as the conventional romantic hero of the first half, and this C-list character actor as the villain protagonist of the second half). A situation like that really needs a delicate balance of a villain odious enough to deserve every kind of bad thing and entertaining enough to make watching his suffering worthwhile. Any major horror actor from Todd Slaughter to Robert Englund could probably have pulled it off, and it’s not actually very different from what Joe Pesci and Jeff Daniels do in the Home Alone movies. This guy was so annoying and unpleasant I just wanted him dead, quickly, with a minimum of fanfare.

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