For a special editorial about Billion Dollar
Brain click here
Pressarticles about Billion Dollar Brain click here
Featurette
Very
rare 'Making' of documentary about Billion Dollar Brain!
Check out this very rare1967
making of documentary about Billion Dollar Brain. The featurette is in
black&white because the original 16 mm film had become too red
to make a good viewing. Enjoy!
'Caine Below Zero'
Karl Malden, the Academy
Award-winning actor died Wednesday 1 July 2009. He was 97.He played the
part of Leo Newbegin in Billion Dollar Brain.
Malden died of natural causes surrounded by his family at his Brentwood
home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
He served as the academy's president from 1989-92.
While filming Billion Dollar Brain (1968) at Pinewood Studies with
Michael Caine, Malden's London hotel room was burgled and his cash
stolen, but his travellers' chcheques were left untouched. The incident
persuaded him to become the face of American Express travellers'
cheques a few yeas later for a long-running series of commercials with
the punchline "Don't leave home without them".
Interviews
Rare
promotional interviews on set with three of the main characters of
Billion Dollar Brain
Interview on set in Finland with
Michael Caine -audio only-
Interview on set in Finland with Karl
Malden (Leo Newbegin) -audio only-
Interview on set in Finland with
Oscar Homolka (Colonel Stok) -audio only-
Video/DVD
Billion Dollar Brain has been released on dvd in
Europe, Australia and the USA. A source on the Internet reports that
Billion Dollar Brain has never been rereleased on video or on dvd
before due to the licensing rights of the Beatles song that can be
heard in the movie. They were said to be too expensive. A big shame but
nevertheless MGM owns a wonderful scope videomaster of the movie which
has now finally been used. For both region 1 and 2 dvd's the scenes
with the Beatles track have been edited, but you can see these 32
seconds below this text. Funny enough there was a rental videotape,
released in 1986, which contained the whole track/scene.
24
Feb'07 Andrew S. added: "Actually The Beatles themselves (or
more accurately Apple Records) who actually made the use of that song
in the film too expensive. Apple (The Beatles company) still owns the
rights to their recordings, while Michael Jackson owns the publishing
rights. So if you wanted to use a recording of The Beatles, you would
have to get their permission (and of course Michael Jackson would get a
slice of the money). However if you just wanted to use a Beatles song
but have somebody else record it, then you would only need to get
permission from Michael Jackson's company. This is what happened in
that Sean Penn film "I Am Sam". The producers wanted to use actual
Beatle recordings, and I believe that Ringo, Paul and Yoko had all
agreed, but they were waiting on George's agreement. But at the time he
was very ill with cancer so they never actually got his go-ahead. So as
a result, they couldn't use Beatle recordings so they just licenced a
number of Beatle songs and got other people to record them."
When
you click on the right you can the see the 'famous' 32 seconds that
have been cut from the European and USA dvd-releases. On the dvd the
scene was cut from the moment where Harry enters the red wooden house
and continues just after the Beatles song stops (the reason of cutting
in the first place). As you will see these 32 seconds don't interfere
with the story but just to make your idea of the original movie
complete, here it is!
A very (strange) short history of the
Billion Dollar Brain dvd...
11
December 2001 The Harry Palmer Movie Site was informed by a
well-informed source that MGM has made a dvd-testdisc of Billion Dollar
Brain. The rights for the Beatles song in the movie and "a lack of
appeal" seem to be the only reasons which can stop the release of
Billion Dollar Brain on dvd in 2002.
23
July 2002 I am afraid that I have heard that MGM has dropped
the plans for a dvd release in the near future...
30
May 2004 There are strong signs that Billion
Dollar Brain will be officially released on DVD! The release
date that is mentioned is 6 September 2004...Thanks to Bob
Engesser
11
July 2004 Billion Dollar Brain will be officially released
on DVD! The release date is indeed 6 September 2004...
6
September 2004 Billion Dollar Brain dvd released, region 2 / 4 dvd
(Germany 7 September), 30 sec. 'Beatles-scenes' deleted.
4
October 2005: B$B dvd region 1(USA) released (no extra's but widescreen
and fullscreen version)
Region 2 Version
Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic
Languages: English, German, French, Spanish
1 hour and 46 minutes (approx)
Region 2 encoding (Europe, Japan, South Africa and
the Middle East including Egypt), PAL
Release date UK 6 september 2004, Germany 7
September 2004
Memorabilia
The teaser trailer and a
colour version of the rare featurette (little documentary and 'making
of' stuff) of this movie can be found on the videotape "Spies, Sleuths
and Private Eyes" (Spy Guise and Cara Entertainment). You can order
this tape at the Spyguise shop. It also features a trailer of
Funeral in Berlin.
Music
For
information about the soundtrack of Billion Dollar Brain go to
Soundtracks.
Trivia
For
trivia and other strange stuff about Billion Dollar Brain go to the
Trivia page !
Film
locations
To
see where all the scenes were shot, including 'then and now' shots and
their Google Earth coordinates! See film
locations.