'The Brain From Planet Arous' DVD and BD: Dogged Effort to Save Earth

The Film Detective provides folks man (or woman) enough to admit to non-ironically loving low-budget '50s scfi an especially delectably cheesy treat next week. The June 21, 2022 separate DVD and Blu-ray releases of "The Brain From Planet Arous" far exceed all expectations. The "but wait there's more" extras this time include full-screen and wide-screen versions of this film that criminally is not mentioned in the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" opening theme. 

The only thing that would have made "Arous" any better would have been the outer-space threat originating from either Pluto or the Dog Star. 

An even special treat for your not-so-humble reviewer is an interview with delightful "Brain" star Joyce Meadows. 

The following SPOILER-LADEN Detective promo. provides an excellent sense of the bizarrely eerie tone of this "goofy" cult classic. We additionally get copious looks at the hilarious intro. by Meadows, who shows great elan, and the other special features. The latter shows that Detective partner-in-crime Ballyhoo Motion Pictures ALWAYS comes through.

 

Our story begins with nuclear scientists Steve March (John Agar) and Dan Murphy detecting an anomaly. This prompts this pair, who are more Nelson and Healey than Einstein and Grossman, to trek (of course, pun intended) to the aptly named Mystery Mountain. This soon leads to exploring a cave that seems to be the center of the oddity. One spoiler is that two men enter, one man leaves. The rest of this story is that subsequent events surely cause Steve to wonder what possessed him to enter the cave. 

Meanwhile back at the ranch, main squeeze Sally Fallon (Meadows) is waiting for her man to return. The usually bland Steve being aggressively amorous is an early sign that something is wrong. The audience additionally learns that a trip to Vegas can be analogous to going to live on a farm. 

Our Lois Lane and her non-military father John Fallon then retrace the steps of Steve and Dan in an effort to determine what they must do to put right what once went wrong. This results in a "sliding doors" moment in which they learn the nature (and the extent) of the threat. 

This leads to one of the weirdest twists in any film. The general idea is that a good shepherd undertakes the task of saving humanity. 

All of this results in the final countdown that involves Sally essentially having to take a crash-course in brain surgery and making Steve the teacher's pet to avoid all of humanity being subject to the tyranny of the evil Gor. Of course, the latter element became especially hilarious in 1992. 

This leads to a well-executed essentially split-second confrontation with the expected setback before the population of earth experiences either death or an even worse fate. It is fair to say that two lassies deserves thanks for this outcome that can be considered a tale of two hemispheres. 

"Arous" works because low-budget scifi veteran Agar and Shakesepearean actress Meadows make the audience believe that they believe that an enormous floating brain that fluently speaks English is a real threat. Agar deserves special kudos for playing dual roles very well. 

For her part (of course, pun intended), Meadows strikes a PERFECT balance between a shrieking wimp and a kick-ass Ellen Ripley. The aforementioned other special features are equally educational and entertaining looks at "Arous" director Nathan Juran. Learning of his dual professional life and of his connection to 1313 Mockingbird Lane are highlights.