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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Thursday, January 21, 2016

The Brain Eaters (1958)

Starring Edwin Nelson, Alan Frost, Jack Hill, Joanna Lee, Jody Fair
Directed by Bruno VeSota
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A crusading senator takes charge of the investigation into a giant structure that's appeared outside a small American town, and discovers something is taking over the townspeople's brains.

A very interesting independent feature directed by actor Bruno VeSota, the film still stands up today as a compelling science fiction thriller, although it's story may not be entirely original.  According to Wikipedia, author Robert A. Heinlein sued the production for being too similar to his novel "The Puppet Masters."  The picture has a very eerie and unsettling tone, with stark black & white photography, a foreboding score that sounds like a mixture of different classical symphonies, weird sound effects for the "breathing" of the title creatures, and clever use of shadow and fog.  It's a winner, and is notable for a pre-Star Trek Leonard Nimoy in the cast.   

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