The Mind Snatchers (1972)

**SPOILERS** A bit ahead of it's time in how the government uses it's people, like the GI's in the 1950's atomic bomb test in Utah & Nevada, in experimental tests to farther its both military and scientific knowledge. The bad thing about all this is that these tests are done without those people used in them knowing about them.Pvt. James H. Reese has been having disciplinary and behavioral problems both on and off the army base that he's stationed at in Frankfurt Germany. Accused of assault by a woman at a party he attended Reese is taken into custody while staying at his girlfriends, Lisa, apartment by the army MP's. Ending up with his left arm broken Reese is, instead of being taken to the local military base's medical facility, taken to this out of the way German castle run by Army Intelligence.It turned out to Pvt. Reese's surprise that beside himself there's only two other patients at the castle, now subbing for a mental institution, Sgt. Miles and Let. Rhodes. Depressed at being locked up Reese soon realized that he and his fellow GI's, Miles & Rhodes, are being used by the US military as guinea pigs in mind control experiments.A cross between "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Ninth Configuration" the movie "The Happiness Cage" brings out things about how were used by our own government that at the time of its release, 1972, was a bit hard to take by the movie going public. Reese who at first was anything but interested in how the government operates becomes very in-tuned in it's methods in how it's trying to steal his as well as his fellow GI's minds.These experiments are the brainchild of the kindly and understanding Dr. Fredrick, Joss Akland, who despite what he's doing in destroying peoples minds thinks that he's actually curing mental illness. It's not long that Reese, broken arm and all, makes a escape attempt from the castle grounds only to find out that's it's secured, by guards police dogs and barb wire, as tight as a minute man nuclear missile base!Put under around the clock guard Reese soon sees that his fellow patient, Sgt. Miles, at the castle is going off his rocker in his not having had a woman in more then a year. Miles taking advantage of the Red Cross lady Anna Kraus who comes over to play checkers with him, a service provided by the US Military,attacks and rapes her while Reese is being examined by Dr. Fredrick and his assistant orderly Shannon .Finding out what Miles did Reese despite his broken arm has it out with him only to find, after socking Miles, that he's slowly dying from terminal cancer. With Let. Rhodes, who seemed to be lobotomized, dying of a brain tumor Miles is then sent to Dr. Fredrick's laboratory in Rhodes' place for a mind control experiment. Ashamed and feeling very guilty for what he did, raped Anna Kraus, a Zombie-like Miles lets himself be hooked up with electrodes by Dr. Fredrick. Pushing the button himself, Dr. Fredrick insisted on that, Miles shocks himself to the point where he ends up brain dead. With only Reese left to experiment with he , despite being wired, refuses to push the button and end up together with both Rhodes and Miles; Dead or lobotomized. ****SPOILER ALERT****Just about having enough of Dr. Fredrick's, who refuses to push the button himself, concern for Reese the Major, who really runs the place, finally takes control of things. The Major sends a jolt of electricity through Reese's gray matter turning him into a docile and mindless slave who'll do or say anything that he's superiors, like the Major, tells him too. And so ends the movie with Reese, looking like he's here on earth in body with his brain is on another planet, answering questions from the news media with the Major and Dr. Fredrick looking on.An almost teen-age looking, he was 29 at the time, Christopher Walken as Pvt. Reese is extremely effective as the mentally disturbed sociopath who, because of his stay at Dr. Fredrick's castle, becomes a feeling and sensitive human being. Joss Ackland as Dr. Fredrick put the usual mad scientist, in the part he played in the film, to rest with a sympathetic interpretation of the tortured doctor. Ronny Cox as the deranged Sgt. Miles was both funny and tragic in that he was losing control of his ability to remain normal. It was without a doubt Ralph Meeker as the spic & span, as well as blood & guts, Major who in spite of his short time on the screen dominated every scene he was in. Meeker, as the Major, knew what his bosses, the army brass, wanted from him and did it, like a robot, without a second thought. It was the Major who in the end did what Dr. Fredrick & Co. failed to do. Turned the wild and uncontrollable pit bull-like Pvt. James H. Reese into a harmless and obedient laboratory rat. But the Major had to destroy and wipe clean Reese's mind in order to do it!

CONTAINS SPOILERSThe best reason to see this is an early and characteristic performance by Christopher Walken. The film itself is a sombre, small scale piece, developed from a play. It betrays its origins through plenty of dialogue, some suspense, but little real action. This is one of those early seventies films revealing a fashionable anger against the industro-military complex, but which offers no radical agenda of its own. Like the director's 'Name for Evil' made around the same time, ‘The Mind Snatchers' is about mental confusion, but here the emphasis is on deliberate manipulation of the brain rather disorientation. There is no inexplicable mental collapse on show here. Instead we are confronted with a state-sponsored ‘trip', a mind control experiment, undertaken in Germany on American soldiers conveniently designated ‘psychotic' by the powers who need subjects to operate on. As the alienated and violent James Reese, Walken breaks his arm in a dispute with the Military Police and instead of the cooler, soon finds himself in an enigmatic hospital, one of only three patients.Outside of the opening scenes, showing Reese's fraught social interractions then arrest, and the last, showing him on display at a press conference, the film never leaves the institution's grounds. Shot atmospherically on location, the place is a large, empty echoing establishment, whose sanitorium-like atmosphere is at odds with the doom it threatens. It is a cold, efficient clinic, reminiscent of Cronenberg's world of white coated attrocities just starting on film at the same time. As a hospital it is as much understaffed as it is underpatiented (although barbed wire and dogs keep the few people in.) Besides Dr Frederick, the orderly Shannon, a nurse and red cross visitor, no one else is in evidence. For a supposed high priority government project this is disconcerting, to say the least. Like Reese we expect something more than this to rail against. He shares a room briefly with a third patient (whose unpredictable yells are a disturbing touch), then is left to interract with Miles, a sergeant with dangerous mood swings. A bond gradually forms between these two men - but not until Miles' health suddenly deteriorates and he has volunteered for the experiment, which has already killed the last patient.The cool, dangerous and distanced persona of Reese is perfect for Walken. This was his third film (after ‘The Anderson Tapes') and as the incarcerated Private he inculcates exactly the right degree of repressed rage and wariness the role demands. Although the film is dialogue heavy, the central relationship, that between Reese and Miles works well. Miles' taunting sexuality, nervous anticipation and jittery humour contrasts well with Reese's objective assessment of his exploitation. We sense Reese's reserves of strength, which makes the end of the film all the more shocking. As Miles, Ronnie Cox is also a strong character, but we know that he probably does not have the survival instinct of our hero, and his fate justifies our suspicions. Together the two hold the screen for long minutes, making it a shame that Joss Ackland's stodgy Dr Frederick lowers the suspense and tension on each appearance. In fact, Frederick's ignorance and belated conscience struggle, after `23 year's research on one small part of the human brain', is one of the least convincing aspects of the plot. Bemused and lethargic, he seems to have strolled in from a far more gentele story, and his concerned crackpot character never really catches fire. The same might be said for the oily Major, played by the normally excellent Ralph Meeker who has little to do here save trigger the experimentation on Reese.First however, it is Miles who is hooked up to the mind-snatching machine, which has an effect (albeit more sinister) similar to the ‘orgasmatron' familiar from Woody Allen's ‘Sleeper'. As a violence-inhibiter and psychosis-reducer, the effects of the self activated machine is certainly effective. It is described by Miles as like being in `a huge woollen glove', before he clutches his crotch in self-absorption. (`Get the bugs out and I'll be the first in line, Doctor' admits the grim Major with unconscious irony.) Reese has a greater sense of himself as an individual however, and initially refuses the treatment, saying `pain defines me – it makes me what I am'. The final press conference is abrupt and chilling. Reese is caught in a freeze frame while the Major proclaims blithely that `The Military is always interested in the betterment of Mankind', and so on. In a way which might have reflected the disbelief on the face of a contemporary audience, Reese's fate has been the loss of individuality, of emotion and power. This is an ultimate fate familiar from many other movie distopias, and is perhaps where the film most clearly reveals its roots. These days we may prefer our messages less hammered home, but for those who enjoy their brain washing movies cold and without the trimmings, this can be recommended.

A bit talky, but certainly well acted and thought provoking.Walken, looking all of 19, does his usual standout performance in this ethical drama. While not without it's drawbacks - the pace is a bit slow at times and the score is annoying, the questions raised about the ethics used by both the well-meaning Doctor and the frightening military will certainly cause future reflection.

I saw this movie under the "Demon Within" title. I believe the movie was based on a play and at times, it shows. The movie is slow in some parts, but overall is good. The character of Ronny Cox is often annoying. However, he does a good job in portraying the pity of a man losing his mind. Walken gives an non-typical performance of a comparatively straight-laced man who never really loses his mind but instead has it robbed from him. It is not really worth a long search. But if you do come across it, check it out.