“Brainstorm” (1965) directed by William Conrad; starring Jeffrey Hunter, Anne Francis and Dana Andrews / Z-View

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Brainstorm (1965)

Director: William Conrad

Screenplay:  Mann Rubin; story by Lawrence B. Marcus

Stars:  Jeffrey Hunter, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, Viveca Lindfors, Michael Pate and Strother Martin.

Tagline: Brainstorm is the most fiendish idea ever conceived by the human brain!

The Plot…

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Jim Grayam is a super intelligent computer analyst for Benson Industries. He’s a rising star within the company.  One night on a deserted road, Jim comes across a car parked on railroad tracks.  An unconscious woman is behind the wheel.

Jim’s attempts to rouse her are unsuccessful.  A train is quickly approaching.  Jim breaks a window, pushes the still sleeping woman over, and drives the car to safety.  The woman is Lorrie Benson. When she wakes up, she admits she wanted to die.  Lorrie is in an unhappy marriage to Cort Benson.  Cort is a very rich man and refuses to give Lorrie a divorce.

As it turns out Cort Benson owns the company Jim works for.

Jim and Lorrie begin meeting secretly.  Jim loves Lorrie, but knows Cort would never release her.  Jim realizes to get Lorrie free, he must come up with a plan… and he does.

Jim will begin to show symptoms of a man losing his grasp of reality.  He will do this repeatedly in front of many witnesses.  Jim will then murder Cort in public. He’ll be caught, tried and found NOT guilty.  Due to reasons of insanity.

After some months in a sanatorium, Jim will stop acting crazy.  He’ll be found safe to return to public life.  Then he and Lorrie will move away, be married and have a happy life.  Plus she will have Cort’s money.

Ah, the perfect plan.

What could go wrong?

Thoughts…

Director William Conrad, best known as an actor, has a cameo in Brainstorm.  Conrad can be seen lying on a bed, smoking a cigar, in the sanitorium.

I think that it’s ironic that you’d have to be crazy to implement Jim’s plan to act crazy so that you’d be found not guilty of murder.  Think about that for a second.

Brainstorm (1965) rates 3 of 5 stars.