{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox film | name = Professor Dowell's Testament | image = Professor_Dowell's_Testament.jpg | caption = | native_name = {{Infobox name module|ru|Завещание профессора Доуэля}} | director = {{Ill|Leonid Menaker|ru|Менакер, Леонид Исаакович}} | writer = Leonid Menaker<br>Igor Vinogradsky | starring = {{Unbulleted list|Olgert Kroders|Igor Vasiliev|Valentina Titova|Natalya Sayko}} | music = Sergei Baneevich | cinematography = A. Gorkov | editing = Irina Rudenko | producer = | story = | studio = Lenfilm | released = {{film date|1984}} | runtime = 87 minutes | country = Soviet Union | language = Russian }} '''''Professor Dowell's Testament''''' ({{langx|ru|Завещание профессора Доуэля|Zaveschanie professora Douelya}}) is a 1984 Soviet science fiction drama film directed by {{Ill|Leonid Menaker|ru|Менакер, Леонид Исаакович}}, loosely based on the 1925 novel ''Professor Dowell's Head'' by Alexander Belyaev.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Завещание профессора Доуэля. Х/ф |url=https://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/61123/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022181405/https://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/61123/ |archive-date=2016-10-22 |access-date=2018-03-03 |website=Россия К |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Иванова |first=Ася |date=2013-09-11 |title=7 знаменитых фильмов Леонида Менакера |url=http://vm.ru/news/2013/09/11/7-znamenitih-filmov-leonida-menakera-213485.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030080722/https://vm.ru/news/2013/09/11/7-znamenitih-filmov-leonida-menakera-213485.html |archive-date=2016-10-30 |access-date=2018-03-03 |work=Vechernyaya Moskva |language=ru}}</ref>
==Plot== Professor Dowell creates a solution to reanimate body parts and later dies of an extensive myocardial infarction. In his will, the professor asks to revive him with the solution. Assistant Professor Dr. Korn connects the professor's head to the solution, and leaves the body in the car, ignites the car and throws it off the road outside the city.
Arthur, son of the professor, comes to the funeral of his father. In a charred car, Arthur discovers an object belonging to Dr. Korn, and gives it to the district police officer as evidence. The professor's head informs Dr. Korn of the code from the bank account of the professor, and Korn is able to pay off his debts.
The police tries to detain drug traffickers in a restaurant; as a result of the shootout, two women are killed. The pathologist writes out the death certificates of two women and passes the bodies to Dr. Korn. Korn connects the head from one body to the body from the other, the woman named Eva and revives with the help of the professor's solution. The head of Eva belonged to a singer who came for a tour, and the body to Arthur's girlfriend. Korn wants to learn how to create the life-giving solution; The professor's head is against this and twice gives Korn the wrong formula.
The son of the professor sees Eva, suspects Dr. Korn in the murder of the professor and gives the district photos of Eva. The police conducts an investigative experiment - a car similar to the professor's car, was dropped from the road with a doll at the wheel. Korn is charged with killing the professor. Korn has to show the head of the professor to the district chief, and the charges of murder are dropped.
At a conference of physicians, Dr. Korn demonstrates Eva, and the professor's head appears with the help of video conferencing. The head of the professor does not give Korn the formula of the solution and dies as the supply of the solution made by the professor during his lifetime ends; the same fate awaits Eva. The secret of the life-giving solution remains unsolved.
==Cast== *{{Ill|Olgert Kroders|ru|Кродерс, Ольгерт}} - Professor Dowell *{{Ill|Igor Vasiliev|ru|Васильев, Игорь Алексеевич}} - Dr. Robert Korn *Valentina Titova - Marie Laurent *Natalya Sayko - Angelika, Monika, Eva *Alexei Bobrov - Arthur Dowell (voiced by Yuri Demic) *{{Ill|Nikolai Lavrov (actor)|lt=Nikolai Lavrov|ru|Лавров, Николай Григорьевич}} - police officer Baxter *Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov *{{Ill|Ernst Romanov|ru|Романов, Эрнст Иванович}} - Richardson *Boris Tsymba - Willie
== Production == The film was initially planned to be a television series.<ref name=":0" />
== Reception == A.V. Fedorov criticized the film and its changes from the novel, saying it "failed to escape becoming a kind of exercise in campy exoticism" and arguing that its change in location from pre-war Europe to 1980s Africa lessened the film's historical meaning, in addition to calling the film "needlessly draw[n] out". He did compliment the acting of Olgert Kroders.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Fedorov |first=A.V. |year=2017 |title=The Western World in Soviet and Russian Cinema (1946-2016) |journal=Russian Education & Society |language=en |volume=59 |issue=7–9 |pages=319–464 |doi=10.1080/10609393.2017.1413880 |issn=1060-9393}}</ref>
==See also== * Isolated brain * ''The Brain That Wouldn't Die'' * ''The Brain''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{IMDb title|tt0088447}}
Category:1980s science fiction drama films Category:1984 drama films Category:1984 films Category:Films based on Russian novels Category:Films based on science fiction novels Category:Films directed by Leonid Menaker Category:Lenfilm films Category:Mad scientist films Category:Soviet science fiction drama films Category:Films based on works by Alexander Belyaev Category:1984 Soviet films Category:1984 Russian-language films Category:Russian-language science fiction drama films Category:1984 science fiction films