Saltzman, who co-produced the James Bond film series with Albert R. Broccoli, wanted the Harry Palmer movies to serve as a more realistic and serious take on the spy genre with Palmer relying on his intelligence more often than weapons or his fists. The emphasis was on the often complex twists and turns of the plot and not the high-tech gadgetry, sexy female heroines or tongue-in-cheek one-liners that distinguished the Bond films. For Billion Dollar Brain, Saltzman wanted a fresh approach and that meant a new director (The Ipcress File was directed by Sidney J. Furie, Funeral in Berlin was directed by Guy Hamilton). Director Andre De Toth, who was serving as co-producer on the film, recalled in his autobiography Fragments, that the screenwriter "John [McGrath] had an idea about a director and had shown me some exceptional BBC films on composers (Elgar, Bartok, Delius) by a man I had never heard of - Ken Russell." Michael Caine also supported the choice having seen and liked Russell's film on Debussy. Saltzman had serious doubts, however, when he screened Russell's first theatrical feature French Dressing (1964), an unsuccessful slapstick comedy. Still, he went ahead with an offer that would allow Russell to film his dream project - a movie on Nijinsky - if he'd direct his Harry Palmer thriller first. It marked the beginning of a very stormy and turbulent relationship between the two men that lasted through the entire production of Billion Dollar Brain.
The first challenge was crafting an acceptable screenplay from Len Deighton's novel. Russell, working with scenarist John McGrath, recalled, "The book was totally illogical. The reasons people did things, went places and said things had no rationality whatsoever. There was a lot of business about infected eggs, for instance, that had nothing to do with anything...But John got down to the business of trying to insert some logic into the events while at the same time we'd throw in something that tickled our fancy. For instance we both liked Eisenstein so we put in a modern "Battle on the Ice." And the script gradually became more and more anti-American and pro-Russian, in that the film deals with American interference in affairs which are not its concern. In this case it's Latvia whose internal politics are interfered with, but for 'Latvia' one could easily read Vietnam. I think it was the first anti-American spy film ever and I'm told that many young people in America liked it for that reason, though it died the death in most places."
There were disagreements between Russell and Saltzman over the choice of cinematographer. Otto Heller, who had shot the two previous Palmer films (as well as Michael Powell's Peeping Tom [1960] and Alfie), was on board again and Russell said, "He was a very old, tired man. I liked him very much. He'd done some good work, crude but gutsy. We went together on a scouting trip to Helsinki where we were going to shoot most of the action but he never got out of the car. He'd come out of a cat nap, look out the window at a location and say "No problem," then go off to sleep again. It was all a bit creepy..." The production manager insisted that Heller have a physical when he returned to London and "he had everything possible wrong with him: his liver, kidneys, spleen, heart, lungs - the lot," Russell said. "He didn't realise how sick he was, but in fact he was dying, and though he actually managed to hang on until 1970 he was a write-off for this film." Saltzman replaced him with Robert Krasker, the Oscar®-winning cinematographer of The Third Man (1949) but his working methods and aesthetics clashed with Russell who was looking for a documentary type of cameraman who could capture the frozen Baltic environment. Krasker quickly withdrew from the project, making Saltzman furious at Russell: "Best cameraman in the world not good enough for you, huh? What're we gonna do now? We've not making Nanook of the North, y'know." Russell was eventually able to convince him that the ideal man for the job was the relatively unknown Billy Williams, after screening some of his television work for Saltzman. Williams would go on to shoot Russell's Women in Love (1969), The Wind and the Lion (1975), On Golden Pond (1981) and Gandhi (1982).
Saltzman was a big advocate of shooting movies on location but Helsinki in the dead of winter proved to be a major challenge and not a pleasant experience for either the cast or crew. Caine, in his autobiography, recalled the miserable working conditions: "The cold in Finland was difficult to understand. If you did not wear a hat you got a splitting headache as your brain started to freeze, and the sea, which is after all a moving body of salt water, froze to depths of eight to ten feet. In the winter they run roads for ordinary traffic straight across the bay on which Helsinki stands, like a free bridge."
The plan was to shoot the outdoor sequences on the ice and snow first before the Spring thaw which usually began around March 15th and then the interior scenes at Pinewood Studios in England. However, the thaw began three weeks earlier than expected and threw everyone into a panic. Russell said, "We drove out to do our scenes on the ice and the wheels of the vehicles sank up to the axle hubs. Ships were also passing us on either side, which was a bit unnerving. Harry flew out one day to see how we were getting on and drove out to the location. "All this slush!" he said. "Can't you shoot it someplace else?" "But Harry" I said "The scene is set on the sea. We need this vast expanse." "The sea! You mean we're on the sea?" He didn't realise he was out on the ice with three thousand fathoms of Baltic Ocean at fifty degrees below beneath his feet. "Get out!" I got out and he drove back to Helsinki as fast as he could. We were walking about up to our ankles in slush, and at the end the ice did start to crack up. Michael Caine, to his credit, was jumping from ice floe to ice floe as the ice melted around us. The Coast Guard came down and said "If you're not done by tomorrow, forget it." As he left he said "Drive back with your doors open." "Why?" "Well, if your car sinks through the ice you might be able to get out." We just did it. The next day would have been hopeless."
The climactic battle on the ice sequence was shot back at Pinewood studios but Russell rejected the art director's decision to use radio-controlled toy models for the various vehicles. "It was actually cheaper in the long run to shoot the whole thing with real vehicles on a deserted airfield which we coated in salt," Russell said, "and it looked more real; you can't have men jumping out of model trucks. We built ramps around the tank and ran real lorries down into the water which was filled with pieces of polystyrene ice. I think it worked very well."
After the film wrapped, a London premiere was arranged with Saltzman and Russell in attendance. It was a complete disaster with reels shown out of order and the Cinemascope framing completely ruined by an incompetent projectionist. "It was the last time I went to a premiere," Russell said, "and from then on, whenever one of my films is being shown, I put the whole theatre staff through a terrible drilling. I also get all the sound and projection equipment overhauled, but even then it doesn't always work."
Although United Artists was pleased with the final result, Billion Dollar Brain didn't fare any better with the public or critics in America than it did in Europe. The Variety critic wrote "It doesn't matter so much that the storyline offends belief - so do the Bond gambols - but it is deployed by director Ken Russell with such abrupt speed that it doesn't make immediate sense in its own frivolous terms." Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times agreed, writing, that Billion Dollar Brain "is a spy movie that commits the unforgivable sin of losing track of its plot. How can you take it seriously when the spy's mission is never made clear?"
Billion Dollar Brain enjoys a much better reputation today and is often considered the liveliest and most stylish entry in the Harry Palmer series. Even Ken Russell has changed his original negative assessment of it. "Making the film was such a struggle and its reception so dispiriting that for years after I automatically ran it down to everyone. But when it was revived on television recently I saw it again and was very agreeably surprised. It's totally incomprehensible, of course, but quite stunning in parts - particularly the Midwinter sections. I also liked the Russian general's speech about Lenin in the hotel bedroom. The film must be just about the only one of its kind ever to treat a totally commercial subject in that way. I could kick myself for apologising for it all these years."
Some additional trivia on Billion Dollar Brain: It was the last film for French actress Francoise Dorleac, sister of Catherine Deneuve. She was killed in a car accident shortly after completing the picture.
Karl Malden became a familiar spokesman for American Express in TV commercials indirectly due to this film. "...when I was making Billion Dollar Brain in London...my hotel room had been burglarized. The thief had indeed taken every penny of cash but had not touched the travelers' checks," Malden recounted in his autobiography. "Maybe I was just talking myself into it, but this appeared to be a product and a service I could stand behind."
Producer: Harry Saltzman, Andre De Toth
Director: Ken Russell
Screenplay: John McGrath; Len Deighton (novel Billion Dollar Brain)
Cinematography: Billy Williams
Art Direction: Bert Davey
Music: Richard Rodney Bennett
Film Editing: Alan Osbiston
Cast: Michael Caine (Harry Palmer), Karl Malden (Leo Newbigen), Ed Begley (General Midwinter), Oscar Homolka (Colonel Stok), Francoise Dorleac (Anya), Guy Doleman (Colonel Ross), Vladek Sheybal (Dr. Eiwort), Milo Sperber (Basil).
C-111m.
by Jeff Stafford
SOURCES:
What's It All About? by Michael Caine (Ballantine Books)
An Appalling Talent: Ken Russell by John Baxter (Michael Joseph)
Fragments: Portraits from the Inside by Andre de Toth (Faber and Faber)
When Do I Start?: A Memoir by Karl Malden (Simon & Schuster)
IMDB
