Billion Dollar Brain is a 1967 Ken Russell film based on the novel Billion-Dollar Brain by Len Deighton. The film features Michael Caine as secret agent 'Harry Palmer', the anti-heroic protagonist of the cinematic versions of The IPCRESS File (1964) and Funeral in Berlin (1965).
Movie details
In the cinematic Billion Dollar Brain (1967), Harry Palmer, working as a private investigator, is paid to take a package to Helsinki. He does not know that he is about to encounter his old acquaintance Leo Newbiggin (Karl Malden) -- nor that the package contains virus-filled eggs that have been stolen from the British government's research facility at Porton Down. Later, he is coerced into working once more for the British secret service. He must become a member of the 'Crusade for Freedom' organisation (an ultra-right-wing group led by maniacal oil-billionaire 'General' Midwinter) and thwart its planned attempt at liberating Latvia from Soviet domination; he must also recover the stolen virus for the British.
The film's plot relies heavily upon the sophisticated 'brain' (computer) [1] with which the FFF controls its Latvian anti-Soviet spy network. The film directly refers to the ice battle in Alexander Nevsky (1938), by Sergei Eisenstein. [2] Billion Dollar Brain is the third of the Harry Palmer film series, preceded by The Ipcress File (1964) and Funeral in Berlin (1965). It is the only film in which Ken Russell worked as a mainstream 'director-for-hire', and the last film to feature actress Françoise Dorléac.
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Other films based on works by Len Deighton
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