sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** A tale of murder and madness involving the brilliant if not a bit mixed up electronic and computer genius Jim Gayam, Jeffery Hunter. Jim who after saving Lorrie Benson's, Anne Francis, life from getting pulverized by an express train in a failed suicide attempt falls crazily in love with her. Jim soon plans to murder Lorrie's abusing husband Cort, Dana Andrews, and use the insanity defense to get away with it.It's Cort who's in fact Jim's boss at Benson's Industries who considers him to be his most talented employee calling him the young Einstein who feels without Jim help his company would go bankrupt. It's later when Lorrie and Jim start having an affair behind his back Cort plans to make both lovebirds lives a living hell and in Lorrie's case leave her both without her high flying and spending lifestyle and the couple's daughter Julie,Victoria Paige Mejeknik. As for Jim Cort does everything possible to discredit him by planing stories that he's nuts and getting nuttier as well as being phone freak calling womens all hours of the day and night and propositioning them for freaky sex. One of those stories that is in fact true,compared to those that Cort made up, is that as a collage student Jim ended up in a mental institution from the results of a nervous breakdown at age 19. This is to show that all the stories about his violent actions and creepiness is true.In planning to get Cort out of his and Lorrie's lives Jim concocts this hair brain scheme of offing Cort and making it look like he was legally insane when he did it. Doing that Jim would end up in a mental asylum for a few years and then after showing that he's recovered from his insanity be released and marry Lorrie who'd be withing for him on the outside. Blowing Cort away at a stock holder meeting Jim's arrested for his murder and now puts on this crazy act to prove that he was insane at the time he did Cort in. With the help of world renowned psycho analyst Dr.Larstardt, Viveca Lindfors, whom the boyishly handsome Jim makes a play for he ends up being certified insane by Dr. Larstardt and a number of fellow psychiatrists at his trial and sent straight to the funny farm, mental institution, just like he planned. ***SPOILERS*** Well things did't exactly work out the way that Jim planned it in that being put in a place with insane people he himself started to lose it and become just as nutty as any of them. Meanwhile Jim's lover Lorrie that he did all this for left him high and dry and took off with her late husband's butler feeling that he's in fact too crazy to marry and bring up a family with. In a desperate attempt to prove that he's normal Jim later breaks out of the loony bin and heads straight for Dr.Larstadt place in a last effort for her to prove that he's as normal as you or I.By then it's obvious to Dr. Larstadt and anyone else watching the movie that Jim's as nutty as a fruitcake as the movie ends with the men in the white suites and asylum security guards taking a very uncooperative Jim away to a padded cell where he can spend all him time reviewing his now shattered life and how he and only he was responsible in making a complete mess out of it. The movie is a lot like the Samuel Fuller 1963 classic "Shock corridor" where in one faking insanity he or she can in the end become insane without even knowing it.P.S Check out the films director William Conrad and 7 foot 2 inch tall Richard Keil in the movie as asylum inmates.

MartinHafer Interestingly, this film was produced and directed by William Conrad--THAT William Conrad. Yes, the one who played Cannon on TV back in the 1970s! "Brainstorm" stars Jeffery Hunter (here billed as 'Jeff Hunter'), Anne Francis and Dana Andrews. It begins with Francis attempting suicide and a stranger, Hunter, saving her and bringing her home to her husband--a man of is extremely rich and powerful. Soon after, Francis begins contacting Hunter. She's bored and wants him to play with her! He resists at first but soon they become lovers. This is a problem since she's married and because when Andrews learns about this, he appears to be a clever and vindictive man and makes Hunter's life very, very difficult. So, Hunter concocts a plan--since Andrews is making people think he's crazy, let's go all the way--fake being crazy so he can then get away with killing Andrews! While all this might sound a bit hard to believe, stick with this film. It's so well-written and directed that towards the end you start to realize that there's FAR more to the movie. I could say more but it could spoil the film. Let's just say that Hunter does a great job and all the loose ends seem accounted for and well done. A nearly perfect suspense film. Just stick with this one, as it only gets better and better as the film continues. Excellent in every way.

bpmovies Certainly, the movie is worth the watch.Insane or not Insane? That is the Question! What is the answer? (See my board post which answers that but contains spoilers there.) Well, you better take notes and watch carefully, because you might have to go back and re-watch a few scenes. Yeah, one of those nice suspense movies. :) The director here is in tune with the message, and will play with you using a tiny bit of Hitchcock like style, but it's a well crafted movie. Yes, there are some rough spots around the edges, but one should certainly watch it for the great story and pretty good acting by both the scientist and the women.Break out the popcorn and watch the end closely! Good movie for the time period. Still fits for today. Nicely directed.

bmacv Like Raymond Burr, William Conrad started out in late-40s film noir as (no surprise) a heavy, and also ended up in series television ("Cannon"). But he also produced and directed both TV and some movies. His Brainstorm arrived in 1965, smack in the transition period from big old films made in the style of the studios to the newer kinds of filmmaking in the 1970s renaissance. It's an offbeat but interesting movie. The first third recalls Max Ophuls' Caught, the middle Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, and conclusion Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor. Jeff Hunter is a computer whiz working in some top-secret aerospace concern run by sinister mogul Dana Andrews. One night Hunter finds a car stalled on a railroad track with a woman (Anne Francis) passed out inside. He rescues her, and she turns out to be Andrews' wife, who was making a suicide attempt. Major complications ensue, with romantic involvement leading to attempts to "gaslight" Hunter which in turn engender a plot to murder Andrews. Viveca Lindfors turns up as an enigmatic psychoanalyst in this roiling plot that, in the spirit of the 60s, poses the question, "Is insanity contagious?"