BRAINSTORM
(William Conrad / 1965 / USA / 106 mins / 16mm / cert 15)

Unforeseen complications throw a macabre wrench into a young scientist's plot to kill the husband of his lover. There is lots of pleasure to be gleaned from this strangely compelling mid-60s noir sleeper. Amongst others, the unusual cast features Sci-Fi veterans Jeffrey Hunter and Anne Francis (the cause of Walter Pidgeon's "Monsters of the Id" from FORBIDDEN PLANET) team up in this effort to cheat the system by having Hunter feign insanity. Viveca Lindfors is
particularly effective in the sympathetic yet ultimately cold-blooded shrink. It is a clever little script which takes a alternative approach to psychotherapy and insanity which is well-suited to the low budget. The music, cinematography and fashions are all pure mid-60s, a compliment to a bygone era full of excesses but also occasionally blessed with productive experimentation.