Rent The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
3.5 of 5 from 52 ratings
1h 2min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Dr. Laurience (Boris Karloff) is a brilliant brain scientist who has made a startling discovery; he has learned how to transfer the thoughts and personality from one human to another. To help him with his experiments he recruits a former student, Dr. Clare Wyatt (Anna Lee), herself a brilliant scientist who shares his passion for his work, if not his ethics. Laurience is visited by a wealthy entrepreneur, Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier), who makes him a proposition; Haslewood will fund all of the doctor's experiments, if he will agree to publish his results exclusively in Haslewood's newspapers. The promise of unlimited resources is too much for Laurience, and he agrees. However when the time comes to share his work with the London scientific community, the doctor is ridiculed, further fuelling his madness. To gain revenge Laurience constructs an evil plan which will help him achieve immortality, a plan which results in murder. - Actors:
- Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, John Loder, Frank Cellier, Donald Calthrop, Cecil Parker, Lyn Harding, Clive Morton, Bryan Powley, D.J. Williams
- Directors:
- Robert Stevenson
- Producers:
- Michael Balcon
- Writers:
- L. du Garde Peach, Sidney Gilliat, John L. Balderston
- Studio:
- Strawberry Media
- Genres:
- Classics, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Collections:
- A Brief History of Hammer Horror, A Brief History of Film...
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Reviews (1) of The Man Who Changed His Mind
British Sci-Fi. - The Man Who Changed His Mind review by Steve
After retiring from monster movies, Boris Karloff spent about a decade in Mad Doctor roles, invariably transplanting brains or personalities between screaming victims. Here he swaps identities between monkeys. So how long before he is doing the same experiment with humans, particularly those who obstruct his ambitions?
And how much worse if he is a crazy megalomaniac? Karloff lisps the immortal line, 'They said I was mad' right at the start, and then he really goes nuts. Anna Lee is his attractive assistant, voicing her mounting reservations in an incredibly pristine Received Pronunciation, typical of the English screen back then.
This is the best of Karloff's mad scientist films. It is not a prestigious production, but better budgeted than usual for this genre. The stalwart cast plays it straight. There's a lot of atmosphere in the old dark house. But best of all is the dry, funny script, which Sidney Gilliat worked on: 'I don't mind dying, but I won't be accused of journalism'!
Once Karloff gets into his stride, swapping the minds of most of the credited actors, the film becomes enormous fun. The excellent score does plenty of heavy lifting. And the editors do fine work. Maybe this was intended as horror, but really it is science fiction, and in the '30's it was British cinema which did most to keep sci-fi alive.
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