The Man Who Changed His Mind
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Film: B-
B-movies
and B-length films are always identified with the Classical Hollywood studio
system, but British studios like Gainsborough and Gaumont British also offers
such fare and The Man Who Changed His
Mind (1936, released in the U.S. originally as The Man Who Lived Again) is one of the
winners. Boris Karloff is Dr. Laurience,
a brilliant scientific mind who had figured out a way to swap minds between
bodies. Enter Dr. Claire Wyatt (Anna
Lee, much later the matriarch for many decades of the U.S. TV soap opera General Hospital), who is seeing the
doctor, does not realize how mad he is about to get.
She
becomes interested in Dick Haslewood (John Loger), the son of institution head
Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier), who initially is ready to hear Laurience’s
surprise idea. Everyone at the
institution, including the prestigious Dr. Gratton (British screen legend Cecil
Parker), scoffs at what they hear. This
sets off Laurience to prove to them how right he is the hard way, no matter
what the consequences and who gets hurt.
At 65 minutes, this is a tight, smart work that may be a minor classic
in what is a clichéd storyline.
The L. Du
Garde Peach/Sidney Gilliat/John L. Balderston screenplay is not silly or a
joke, like so many later revisits to this material and theme, which is
nice. Karloff is so young and also so
full of energy that the slow-talking/carefully spoken persona he later became
known for has not kicked in yet. It also
shows what a great actor he really was beyond his iconographic image without
the Frankenstein make-up. Being that the
British film industry then had such a huge wealth of classically trained actors
to pull from, the acting here is easily top-notch. This is a film ready for rediscovery,
especially juxtaposed to later Karloff films where he was just taking jobs for
the money.
The full
screen image is from a clean print, but the transfer is soft throughout for
whatever reason. That is the only
distraction, though, from the fine cinematography by Jack Cox. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono has background
hiss throughout and what sounds like an early optical sound recording. The dialogue is clear, however, despite the
age. There are no extras.
This is
also one of the earliest films of the British director Robert Stevenson, who
left Britain years later and began a huge stretch of hit work for Walt Disney
himself, on films like Darby O’Gill
& The Little People, Kidnapped,
The Absent-Minded Professor, Son Of Flubber, Mary Poppins, That Darn Cat,
The Love Bug, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, and The Shaggy D.A. among others.
Because they are children’s films, he never gets the notice he should
for being proficient in Fantasy genre filmmaking, but he is long overdue for his
due. With The Man Who Changed His Mind finally hitting DVD, maybe the bulk of
his early work will finally be unleashed so we can all enjoy it. This is a solid start.
- Nicholas Sheffo
