I spent most of the film trying to work out who had taken more recreational drugs, Ken Russell or most of the actors. Even Caine seems ill at ease in this turgid crapfest. Forget whether it's Anti-American or not it's just poorly acted & directed

Harry Palmer is a character played by Michael Caine who is very much unlike James Bond. While Bond is amazingly athletic, sexy and,...well...PERFECT, Palmer is a spy who is none of these---just very lucky! "Billion Dollar Brain" begins with Harry no longer working for MI-6 but is now a private eye--albeit one with no clients. When the agency tries to get him to return, he's insistent on remaining a free agent--and soon gets an odd case involving making a delivery. The recipient turns out to be an old associate (Karl Malden)--one who is working for a VERY eccentric megalomaniac Texan (Ed Begley Senior). Apparently, Begley insists that the Soviet Union is about to fall apart--all they need is some assistance from him and his private army. However, his intelligence is wrong--all the information his agent (Malden) is giving him is made up and Malden is pocketing the money supposedly going to pay the insurgents in Latvia--though there are NONE! When Harry tries to tell the nutty Texan, he won't listen--his computer (the billion dollar brain) tells him the plan WILL succeed. What's Harry to do? What about the potential of this nut starting WWIII? And what of Harry's Soviet friends--such as the rather avuncular Colonel (Oskar Homolka)? The film has some good acting going for it. Caine is wonderful and although Begley's part is far from subtle, his scene-chewing is captivating. The only real serious shortcoming in the film is the unlikeliness of it all--and the computer angle certainly doesn't help. But, if you turn off your brain and just watch, then it does deliver solid undemanding entertainment.By the way, on a sad note, this would be Françoise Dorléac's last film. The pretty blonde actress was a large part of this, her last film. Shortly after shooting was completed, she was killed in a road accident. And, incidentally, she was the older sister of Catherine Deneuve.

Former British Secret Service agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine ) now a private investigator is given a package to deliver to a man in Helsinki. Palmer''s suspicions however get the best of him. He discovers that the package contains live virus and is intended by some ultra right wing Texan to help him destroy the Red machine beginning with the invasion of Latvia. In the era of the secret agent craze Caine's Palmer was the anti Bond more scruffy than polished, the plots more gritty than glamorous. In this the last of the series it flirts with the Bond formula and falls on its face. Palmer's rumpled incertitude partially works due to the first half of the films convoluted structure but when dealing with a powerful megalomaniac with weapons of mass destruction in the latter third it becomes strictly a job for 007.Billion Dollar Brain's biggest misstep however is Ken Russell's direction. The idiosyncratic director's penchant for outlandish composition and expressionistic caricature are ill suited for action and suspense and his montages and tempo are flat and murky most of the time, his acerbic wit evident on occasion but out of place much of the time as it veers in and out of spoof. Billion Dollar Brain isn't worth a nickel of your time.

This film hasn't much to recommend, aside from some nice location photography in Finland (standing in for Russia). It's too boring and low key to appeal to those looking for a James Bond type of film, and too goofy to appeal to those looking for a serious spy film. The goofy plot would look more at home in a Matt Helm film, except this film doesn't have the bevy of beauties that are rampant in the Helm movies to keep the eye's interest. The sole female of note in the cast is Francoise Dorleac (Catherine Deneuve's sister), who unfortunately died in a car crash not long after shooting most of her scenes. Michael Caine and Karl Malden clearly had fun playing off each other in their scenes, it's just too bad that they weren't doing a better movie.This was Ken Russell's first theatrical film. At the time he was more known as a TV director. Some of his usual trademarks are already present, such as an overabundance of odd characters and experimental editing techniques.With a title sequence at the beginning by Maurice Binder, who was also behind the vast majority of the James Bond title sequences, they give you reason to believe that you're in for something on the level of James Bond. But alas, it wasn't to be. Billion Dollar Brain was the last of the Harry Palmer franchise at the time. Michael Caine returned to the role however, for two USA Network TV movies which i haven't seen (yet).