In a creepy lab in Arizona, scientists Erich Von Stroheim and Richard Arlen succeed in keeping a dead man’s brain alive in a jar. Their big problem: The brain eventually starts to send telepathic messages to Richard Arlen, possessing him, turning him into a criminal, and—worst of all—making him severely overact. This is the first film adaptation of Curt Siodmak’s entertaining novel, Donovan’s Brain, and it only makes a big ol’ mess of it. The best thing here is the memorably nasty performance from Erich Von Stroheim. Director George Sherman, who mostly made low-budget westerns, hacks this one out for the Republic Pictures B-movie factory. A better film of Siodmak’s novel would be made in 1953 by Felix Feist.