Zeus

The Brain (1969)

• Director
  • Gérard Oury
• Writers
  • Gérard Oury(a film by)
  • Marcel Jullian(scenario adaptation)
  • Danièle Thompson(scenario adaptation)
• Stars
  • Jean-Paul Belmondo
  • Bourvil
  • David Niven

  The Brain (Le Cerveau) is a tongue-in-cheek caper film with more twists and turns than a rural Oregon highway. David Niven plays The Brain, so named because it was he who mapped out the British Great Train Robbery (it says here). Now The Brain plans to lift a fortune in NATO money, which is being shipped by train from France to Belgium. Complicating matters are a pair of free-lance thugs (Jean-Paul Belmondo and Bourvil), who hope to steal The Brain's plans and claim the money for themselves. A plot device derived from The Lavender Hill Mob involves a 50-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty. An amusing closing-credits bit caps this exhilarating exercise.