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| Courtesy of Lenfilm |
Years before Joseph Green created his 1962 double-feature
sci-fi horror cheapie The Brain That Wouldn’t Die about a mad scientist
who develops the medical technology to keep his fiancée’s severed head alive
connected to a mechanical construct, the concept actually originated with Russian
science fiction novelist Alexander Belyaev’s 1925 novel Professor Dowell’s
Head.
Semi-autobiographical due to the author’s own brief
experience with paralysis, it told of a diabolical surgeon named Kern living in
Paris who revives the head of a famous medical professor named Dowell who
perished under mysterious circumstances only to steal his knowledge and success
while keeping the revived head a secret from public view. After numerous successful surgeries however
including a runaway Frankenstein monster with the head of one woman on another
woman’s body, Kern’s ruse starts to fizzle as his assistant becomes aware of
the gravity of the situation and the whereabouts of his father’s disappearance.
Circa 1984, producer/writer/director Leonid Menaker who
remained active since the 1960s decided with the help of screenwriter Igor
Vinogradsky to move the early 1900s story to the present day in an English-speaking
country despite everyone speaking Russian.
Produced by Lenfilm and sporting an ensemble cast including Olgert
Kroders as the titular Professor Dowell and Igor Vasilev as the evil Dr. Kern, Menaker’s
take on the classic science-fiction story unlike the subsequent Lenfilm brain
surgery sci-fi satire Heart of a Dog is rather liberal with adherence to
the text.
Starting with changing the time and setting completely, some
suspect many of the changes to the characters and events of the story may have
had something to do with The Brain That Wouldn’t Die serving as a
springboard of ideas for this particular Professor Dowell’s Head (now
formally named Professor Dowell’s Testament). Despite the changes, in this case looking
back at early 80s computer driven sci-fi fare ala Tron and Wargames,
Professor Dowell’s Testament is a splendid example of Russia’s very own
contribution to the subgenre.
Take for instance the opening credits which are rendered on
an old school computer monitor coupled with Sergei Banevich’s Casio-keyboard
synth heavy score. As they type across
the screen, the tone of what will unspool is set beautifully by this sequence
alone and they come up again over the course of the movie, a nice surprise bookending
the piece with a distinctive 80s science fiction stamp. Then there’s the film’s look itself shot
gorgeously by Vladimir Kovzel (Morning Star) with a frequently kaleidoscopic
color scheme reminiscent of the Italian giallo thriller, flirting at times with
Bava-esque imagery.
The ensemble cast of the piece is generally solid with
Olgert Kroders making the Professor Dowell a sympathetic figure whose helplessness
echoes that of Dalton Trumbo’s infamous antiwar drama Johnny Got His Gun. Igor Vasiliev makes Dr. Kern a trademark
despicable villain though the real wonder of the film is Natalya Sayko who is
tasked with play two somewhat different variations on the same character when
the plot thread of the hero’s girlfriend’s body being swapped with another head
comes into play. It’s a difficult task
but she pulls it off beautifully and Russophiles will no doubt draw their own
parallels between Sayko and the extraterrestrial lead of Through the Thorns
to the Stars Yelena Metyolkina and their respective short haircuts.
For a Russian science fiction film based on a renowned
classical text, Professor Dowell’s Testament feels at times oddly like a
cross between a giallo and a poliziotteschi, stoking recurring visual motifs and
particularly costumes from both subgenres as well as sneaking in an
unexpectedly violent and explosive drug bust turned shootout with many fallen
bodies. Then there’s the film’s hero who
looks like he walked off the set of American Rickshaw over to this one,
sporting the same kind of long curly hair as that film’s central antagonist. While Russia and Italy have collaborated on
numerous film projects in the past (The Red Tent being among the most
striking), Professor Dowell’s Testament feels like an Italian film shot
in Russian a lot of the time.
Professor Dowell’s Testament won’t wow science-fiction filmgoers or undo the reputation
of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die but as a piece of 1984 Russian science
fiction precluding its obvious companion piece Heart of a Dog, the film
is kind of a clandestine gem of European sci-fi. More than anything, it is one of the most
Italian feeling Russian pictures in living memory which somehow works in shades
of giallo and poliziotteschi into the science-fiction proceedings.
Partially a morality play about science gone awry when it
falls into the wrong hands, partially an allegorical conveyance of what it
means to lose control of your faculties though not nearly as savage as Johnny
Got His Gun, Professor Dowell’s Testament while not always
successful artistically is indeed unique for the outside influences it works in
to an otherwise straight laced genre picture.
--Andrew Kotwicki
