Classic Horrors Club

If I knew more about film noir, I have a feeling parts of Brainstorm (1965) would seem familiar. I say “parts” because, from the noir I have seen, this one explores new territory as it escalates into pure horror, at least from one character’s point of view. William Conrad also explores new territory when compared to the second of three thrillers he directed in 1965… I liked it much better than Two on a Guillotine.

The film opens with a terrific scene in which Jim Graham (Jeffrey Hunter), a research analyst with Benson Industries, drives home at night and discovers a car stopped over train tracks. Inside the car he finds a woman unconscious in the passenger seat. About this time, of course, the headlight from an oncoming train shines in the distance, growing closer. Jim can’t wake the woman; will he rescue her in time?!?

If not, it would have been a short movie. It’s not a spoiler to tell you that he does, or that the woman is Lorrie Benson (Anne Francis), his boss’s wife. At first, she’s not too happy that Jim saved her life. The aforementioned boss, her husband, Cort Benson (Dana Andrews), is a cruel man who drove her to attempt suicide as her only means to escape him. I thought we’d find out he staged it all, but that’s not a turn the movie takes.

The turn is more predictable: Jim and Lorrie fall in love. He fights it at first; after all, he’s a smart man… a shining star at work. However, when she and her friends “abduct” him as a living “scientific device” for their drunken scavenger hunt, he can’t resist the attraction between them. When he finds out, Cort tries to force resistance as he orchestrates embarrassing and job-threatening situations for which Jim denies responsibility.

I’m not ashamed to say I watch the addictive Netflix show, You, and there was an eerie parallel that I caught in an episode I saw the day after watching Brainstorm. In both, the “good guys” are driven to a point that there’s no other way to save themselves than to kill the “bad guy.” I’ve yet to see how You plays out, but in Brainstorm, it doesn’t play out well, due as much to the execution of the plan as to the plan itself.

That’s all I want to say about the plot so that you can enjoy it yourself. I greatly enjoyed it myself. It was written by Mann Rubin, who (shameless plug for #tvterrorguide) wrote 16 episodes of Tales of Tomorrow, as well as for many other television series. I’m never exactly sure what “story by” means, but it’s credited to Lawrence B. Marcus, who adapted Witness to the Prosecution to the screen for Billy Wilder in 1957.

I focus on the writers because, for me, that’s the strength of a movie like this. The writers must convince us that no matter how unbelievable the circumstances, unbelievable things can happen. Then, the actors must buy into it as if those things are actually happening to them. I particularly enjoyed Hunter in his role. Brainstorm is not going to usurp any other films from “best of” lists, but it’s darned entertaining and I hope you’ll watch it.