Brain from Planet Arous, The (1957)

Nuclear physicist Steve March (John Agar) and his colleague Dan Murphy (Robert Fuller) visit a remote location to investigate unusual radioactivity. A blinding light kills Dan, and Gor – an evil sex-starved criminal brain from the planet Arous – takes over Steve’s body.

Through Steve, Gor begins to take control of the world by threatening destruction to any country challenging his domination.

Steve’s fiancée, Sally (Joyce Meadows) and her father, John Fallon (Thomas B Henry), eventually contact Vol, a friendly alien law enforcement brain from Arous who enters the body of Sally’s dog, George, and keeps track of Steve-cum-Gor, whose death ray eyes are causing wholesale destruction.

When he’s not molesting Sally or tormenting Steve, Gor blows up a passenger plane, kills the local sheriff, burns up an Army colonel, and sets off a nuclear explosion.

He then assembles representatives from all the world’s countries and informs them they must help him construct a fleet of spaceships so he can conquer Arous . . . and then the universe.

Vol explains that Gor’s vulnerable spot is the “Fissure of Orlando”, and when he leaves Steve’s body to re-energise, Steve liquidates the brain with an axe in a short and unexciting struggle.

It’s completely bonkers 1950s low-budget drive-in fare, but the picture is not lacking in pace or variety, and the cameraman proves as energetic as the cast.

Steve March
John Agar
Sally Fallon
Joyce Meadows
Dan Murphy
Robert Fuller
John Fallon
Thomas B Henry
Colonel in Conference Room
Ken Terrell
Colonel Frogley
Henry Travis
General Brown
E. Leslie Thomas
Sheriff Wiley Pane
Tim Graham
Russian
Bill Giorgio
Professor Dale Tate/Voices of Gor & Vol
Dale Tate

Director
Nathan Juran (as Nathan Hertz)