An allegory for the follies of American individualism. A parody of Bond villain plots. A pisstake on Texas.
This one takes a while to get going but when it does, Billion Dollar Brain goes into outer space.
As a thriller it is a failure, except as a time bomb.
From the beginning we are in different territory - Palmer has left the service and is working as a (failing) private detective.
We are introduced to his cramped, dirty office-cum-apartment as someone is burglarising it.
Of course it ends up being an entree for Palmer to get back into espionage.
This cues the Palmer series’ final hat trick of Bond alumni as we get an energetic title sequence from Maurice Binder (and Ken Adam is replaced by fellow Bond production designer Syd Cain).
If the first two Palmer movies were a reaction to the excess of James Bond, Brain is a Bond movie refracted.
The movie breaks down into three sections.
A somewhat confounding mission to Finland
A hyperkinetic detour to Texas
A surreal remake of the ice battle from Alexander Nevsky
Of all the Palmer movies, this one is the most misshapen. Caine is on record saying director Ken Russell was out of his element with the genre, and it feels like it.
The movie is at its most alive in the bric-a-brac of the locations - Palmer’s dingey apartment/office, the flurried excitement of the anti-communists at lunch.
These moments are lost in the morass as the movie plods through the various trails of Palmer’s mission.
And then the movie heads to Texas, and Midwinter’s compound, and the movie gains a centre.
Midwinter’s rally, filled with anti-communism, the Bible and pure megalomania, feels sadly evergreen.
The editing becomes expressionistic, cutting rapidly between Begley’s sweaty screaming face, Communist posters and other paraphernalia burning in fires, and Midwinter’s supporters marching around.
At no point does it feel like Midwinter’s plan will succeed. The tension comes from whether our heroes will be stuck when it all goes to hell.
If Harry Palmer felt like a minor player in Funeral, he is basically a bystander in Billion Dollar Brain. He accomplishes little other than to bear witness to the follies of the film’s doomed antagonists.
Caine appears to be on autopilot, but his role is so peripheral it almost feels like a choice.
Thankfully, the rest of the cast take up the space he gives up.
Ed Begley is hilarious as the deranged billionaire Midwinter, and Oscar Homolka makes a welcome return as Colonel Stock.
Billion Dollar Brain is a strange conclusion to the trilogy - it would be like if the first two Jason Bourne movies were followed by Octopussy. Some purists might blanche at its eccentricity, but that singularity ends up being its strength.
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