Broadcast: 18th May 1944

Starring: Orson Welles

Added: Oct 30 2004

Donovan’s Brain, the famous novel by Curt Siodmak was deemed so unusual by the producers of Suspense that it was made in two 30-minute parts. Orson Welles stars as Dr Patrick Cory who has been experimenting on keeping alive the brain of a dead monkey. When a plane crashed nearby and knowing they’d be unable to save its passenger, ruthless millionaire William Donovan, Dr Cory saw this as an opportunity to keep alive a human brain. Through telepathy he succeeded in communicating with Donovan’s brain but before long it took over his whole mind and began to make him do things that he didn’t know about. When his wife tried to help him Donovan’s Brain in Dr Cory’s mind had her committed to a sanitarium. When Dr Cory and his son David tried to kill the brain the brain paralyzed them against doing this and now had control over David. Dr Cory’s thoughts were less and less his own and his mind was filled with evil fantasy. Finally Dr Cory realizes a way to set him free from Donovan’s aspirations to dominate the world but David fears that the brain also knows and his plan would fail. Dr Cory tells David “it is a chance they will have to take”.

Orson Welles’ performance of Dr Cory and the transition between Dr Cory and Dr Cory possessed by Donovan’s brain is magnificent.