The Mind Reader

A trio of con artists (Warren William, Allen Jenkins and Clarence Muse) travels from city to city in middle America swindling suckers with a bogus mind reading act featuring William as "Chandra the Great," complete with turban and crystal ball. We the screen audience get to see the trickery behind his apparent clairvoyance, but a pretty, unemployed stenographer (Constance Cummings) is not so fortunate, and besotted with William's talents, joins his itinerant enterprise. Eventually she finds out what is really going on, but by then it's too late because she has fallen in love with her employer, and he with her.

To elaborate further would spoil the impact of this unusual pre-Code film, but I will say that its chief problem is that Cummings is just too smart to be as innocently unaware of certain things as the screenplay tries to make her, so we stop taking the story seriously. However, there remains much witty and mature dialogue, striking cinematography, and this interesting group of performers.

William gets the opportunity to play the on- and offstage modes of his character and also makes the most of an extended drunk scene. Cummings, largely wasted here, projects a tart intelligence that is probably more than the role deserves. Jenkins, the eternal sidekick, gets a generous share of the verbal zingers and Muse's role goes beyond the subservient nonsense usually assigned to black supporting players at that time. Mayo Methot, the future Mrs. Humphrey Bogart, appears briefly as a grief-deranged victim of Chandra's charlatanry.

Like so many feature films of the early 30's, this one moves along briskly so that none of its improbabilities have time to sink in and ruin the fun.

A con-man works his way up the fortune-telling ladder only to find his life is not made better.

The con-man role is tailor made for the commanding Warren William. His Chandra The Fortune Teller is such a masterful stage presence who in the audience would dare challenge his psychic gift. Never mind that his shifty confederate Frank (Jenkins) is feeding him answers telephonically. It makes for a heckuva show, and the rubes keep coming, sometimes ruefully so. Oddly, I found myself being anxious when there's problems with the messaging relay from Frank. That is, do I really want Chandra to succeed in his criminal con job. Yet I couldn't help being torn. Anyway, notice in passing, how the map shows Chandra first touring smaller border state towns, nothing big yet. That will come later, once he hones his act. Cummings (Sylvia) makes an attractive love interest, even if the script presents her flip-flops in a pretty implausible light. Also, the familiar Allen Jenkins plays his part pretty straight, unlike many of his comedic side-kick parts.

Now, you might think, courtesy the screenplay, that every upper-class husband in New York has a silken mistress, leaving a broken-hearted wife behind. Then too, I suspect that dark suspicion played well with Depression era audiences. But once Chandra goes big-time, there are no more rubes, only the sleek and well upholstered. Frankly, I didn't like the big turnaround that comes last. After all, this is pre-Code, so abject mea-culpa endings aren't required as they soon would be. Up to that point, the story really deserves a climax more ironic than the implausibly conventional. (Check out the similar Nightmare Alley {1947} for a more apt ending.)

Anyway, William has to be one of the neglected delights of that long ago period. Passing away in 1948 means he had no post-war credits to speak of. Thus he's largely unknown even to many old movie fans. It's that pre-Code period, before his serial programmers (Perry Mason, the Lone Wolf), where he really shines, usually as an ethically challenged big-wig (Employee's Entrance {1933}; Skyscraper Souls {1932}). And there's no one better. Plus, he's good enough here to make even the flawed, albeit interesting, script well worth watching.

Warren William's character is traveling around the country doing various cons - painless dentistry, miracle hair tonic, the world's longest flagpole sitter (don't ask). Then he notices that a self described mentalist is cleaning up. He researches the trade some and comes up with an act as a mind reader and christens himself Chandra the Great. He asks the audience to write down their questions about the future or just the unknown parts of the present such as where did they misplace their keys and to sign their names to the paper. He then seems to burn the pieces of paper. In fact he sends them down a chute to his assistant Frank (Allen Jenkins) below, who then tells Chandra through a microphone what questions are asked and who wrote it. Chandra repeats what Frank says and then comes up with a bogus answer. The key to his success is dramatic and believable delivery, and with years of experience as a conman, he has delivery down pat. But then one day he meets a beautiful woman, Sylvia (Constance Cumming) who lost this month's rent money - his partner Frank stole it - and he falls in love. Complications ensue as Chandra must appear legitimate to Sylvia if he is going to win her love.

This is another great Warren William performance where, yes, he is doing hideous callous things trading on Depression era audiences who want to believe that somebody has answers to their problems, but you also empathize with him as a man who really has no skills other than being a conman whose motivation changes from merely wanting the easy life for himself to wanting nice things for his wife in an economic time that is extremely unforgiving. Of course if you tell enough lies to enough people who act on what you told them as though it was gospel, there are going to be some victims and they are not going to be happy about it and may hunt you down.

There is some wry social commentary going on here such as rich people having hundreds of dollars to blow on mind readers during the Depression, where average people had to scrape to come up with a dollar for the same thing. Also note that there is a smidgeon of racial equality here as Chandra has an African American partner (Clarence Muse) as well as Frank, and shakes hands with him when he says goodbye. That doesn't seem like much, but it was a lot even for the precode years.

With Allen Jenkins as Chandra's larcenous friend and assistant, Natalie Moorhead as one of Chandra's rich clients, and Constance Cumming in a rare Warner Brothers appearance.

Warren William turns in a superb performance. Allen Jenkins, always fun if a bit tedious in later comic gangster tales, does fine. The fine black actor Clarence Muse is given a meaty role and does beautifully by it. And Constance Cummings, whom I saw several decades after this in a magnificent performance on Broadway, is excellent.

This is a dark, twisting tale. William is a grifter who's tried a few rackets before he hits on mind reading. He and Jenkins pull some shady business in Cummings's hometown (emphasis on town) but she falls for him. She thinks he's the real thing, for a while, and he tries hard to go straight for her.

There is no wrong move. It's taut and disturbing. Roy del Ruth was a sensationally good director at this time, though this is darker than what he generally worked with.

No happy Hollywood ending is slapped on. William is seen about to pay for his evil ways but it sure doesn't look as if he is going to get a last-minute reprieve, nor does he seem particularly changed in his soul.

Keep an eye out for this one!

(1933) Mind Reader DRAMA

Con artist and fake fortune teller, Chandra (Warren William) along with his sidekick, Frank (Allen Jenkins) comes to an emotional as well as ethical stumbling block as soon as he begins to fall in love and takes Sylvia (Constance Cummings) in as his personal secretary. Despite it's year, the interesting moments are the showcase of scams they pull which requires more than one person. And I also like the fact that the African American character, Sam (Clarence Muse) wasn't dumb nor degraded down as a second class citizen, it would've been nice if the film showed more of him.