Waste of time

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is not among Dirk Bogarde's more famous films. Still, it's very enjoyable and worth a look...and would make a great double-feature with "The Manchurian Candidate".The film begins with a seemingly loyal British professor killing himself...and he was suspected of being an enemy spy. However, Professor Longman (Bogarde) cannot believe that his dear friend would be a spy and suspects that their sensory deprivation research COULD have warped the poor man's mind. A subsequent experiment proves, the hard way, that this could indeed be the case.Unless you are watching the pilot episode of the original "Hawaii Five-O", you won't get a better look at sensory deprivation tanks and their ability to warp a person's mind. A fascinating, cerebral sort of film that is well worth seeing and Bogarde, as usual, is excellent!

***SPOILERS*** After being put through by the British I5 a number of mind altering as well as brain washing experiments Prof. John Sharpey, Harold Goldblatt, starts to believe that he's betrayed his country to the Soviet Union by unconsciously giving it top secret information on it's nuclear and, in compliance with the USA, space programs. Guilt ridden and suicidal Sharpey on a train ride to London jumps out of the moving train thus killing himself. With Major Hall,John Clements, feeling that the late Professor Sharpley was a Soviet Spy and depriving his next of kin or family of a government pension it's Sharpley's good friend Dr. Henry Laidlaw Longman's, Dirk Bogarde, job to go out and prove Sharpley innocence. That's by him going through the very same mind altering experiments that Sharply went through that eventually drove him to kill himself.Put in a water filled tank for hours at at time Longman's mind starts to slip into never-never land losing all his feeling not only toward his country, the UK, but his soon to give birth pregnant wife Oonagh, Mary Ure, as well. The experiments left Longman like it did Prof. Sharpley into becoming a mind numb and unfeeling zombie who had no loyalty towards anyone not even himself. It's only when his terribly and mentally abused wife Oonagh after slipping and falling while running from him went into labor that Longman snapped back to his old self and became a normal and feeling human being again. Something he forgot to be after his brain was experimented on and picked apart while suspended for hours in the warm water tank.Brain washing at its best film that shows how a person's brain can be completely washed and dried and left hanging-on a clothe line-for those working on it to pick it clean of everything it had in it. In the case of Longman as well as professor Sharpley it didn't cause them to betray their country but through the power of suggestion as and loss of memory as well as human emotions make them feel that they did. And in the case of poor and guilt ridden professor Sharpley drive him to suicide.

Dirk Bogarde can be described as a great actor who was never in a classic film. Popular films, like the Doctor series, certainly; good films like The Tale of Two Cities; excellent films like The Servant; fascinating, discussed films like Death in Venice and The Night Porter. But classic films like Casablanca - maybe Darling comes closest, and that's not even his movie."The Mind Benders" is another Bogarde film on the bizarre side. When an elderly scientist is suspected of treason, an investigator endeavors to find out whether his experiments in isolation made him do something - betray his government - that he ordinarily wouldn't have done. One of his coworkers (Bogarde) agrees to go into the isolation tank; when he emerges, he is told things about his wife that, if he believes them, will threaten his seemingly happy marriage.The film holds one's interest; with his science fiction bent, it has the distinctive '60s stamp on it.Mary Ure plays Bogarde's wife. The acting is good, with the usual fine performance from Bogarde, a man who, once he got away from Rank, was attracted to unusual roles and unusual films. This isn't as wild as it gets for Bogarde. It's not great, but it's not bad either.

It took me no less than five attempts in order to watch this film straight from start to finish. This primarily has to do with my personal bad habit of always wanting to watch movies when I should be doing something else (like…sleeping!), but it also has to do with the subject matter, which inarguably isn't the most exciting stuff ever told on film. "The Mind Benders" is a mature, sophisticated and fascinatingly intellectual thriller - but let's remain honest - it's also a tiny bit boring and too often just stating the obvious. Even in 1962, scientists must have been aware that phenomena like isolation and brainwashing are likely to negatively affect the test subjects' mental condition and social skills? The supposedly prominent doctors appear genuinely astonished when Dirk Bogarde's character emerges from a water tank and behaves disorientated and unearthly. Well, what do you expect he acts like? Do a little dance? Make a little love?? Get down tonight, perhaps? The script is coherent, albeit very slow-paced, and the character drawings are likable as well as realistic, but the obviousness of the depicted events inevitably causes your attention to wander off. The opening five minutes are absolutely magnificent (and, personally, my sole motivation to not give up on it) and sets the exact right tone for a thoroughly sober film. Whilst on a moving train and amidst a carriage full of passengers, a clearly confused Professor stands up and… jumps off the train! The investigating Major is convinced Professor Sharpe acted like a Communist spy with remorse, but his young acolyte Dr. Tate refuses to accept this verdict and seeks the help of Sharpe's former colleague and friend, Dr. Longman. The latter volunteers to undergo a devastating experiment and the scientists quickly learn that eight hours of isolation in a water tank has the same nightmarish effect on people as eight months of intense brainwashing methods. They decide to take the test up to an even more dangerous level and make Dr. Longman believe he doesn't love the wife he's been married to since 12 years and has 4 children with. With a slightly more progressive and perhaps more venturous screenplay, "The Mind Benders" could have been listed alongside the most disturbing thrillers of the 1960's (like "Carnival of Souls", "Seconds or "Blow Up") but now it sadly falls a little short. It's certainly a stylish effort, with wondrous cinematography by Denys Coop and a staggering by George Auric, but unfortunately director Basil Dearden can't materialize the story's immense potential. Heck, even the fantastic opening sequence are nearly ruined by the compulsory happy-ending. "The Mind Benders" isn't fundamental viewing in my humble opinion, but definitely interesting. If you do decide to see the film, make sure you're wide awake and/or high on caffeine.