The Man Who Changed His Mind

Boris Karloff is reason enough to see any film of his. The Man Who Changed His Mind is not an exception. At 62 minutes, I did think it was too short, you'd expect a TV episode to be that length but not so much a film, and John Loder is rather stiff as a character that is not particularly interesting. However, The Man Who Changed His Mind is well shot with sets that add to the atmosphere. The music score, while it's never going to be one of my favourites, fits with the mood very well, with some memorable parts and it never overbears the drama. The dialogue is tongue-in-cheek and witty, advantaged also by being delivered with zest by the cast. The idea in variations has been done to death, but you don't care here because the story is suspenseful, fun and always interesting with not a moment when it drags. Other plot points such as the love triangle bring a touching yet never over-saccharine element to it but sensibly kept at minimum. Anna Lee is radiant in looks and proves to be a sympathetic actress also. Frank Cellier and Donald Calthrop are great as well, but Boris Karloff comes off best in one of his best ever performances, when he's on screen you cannot look away from him. To conclude, it is a shame that The Man Who Changed His Mind is seldom seen, it's not perfect but Karloff's performance especially makes for a film that I found myself enjoying a lot. 8/10 Bethany Cox

"There's always something queer about a genius," argues brainy and beautiful young doctor Anna Lee; she is leaving the medical establishment—and ditching her handsome boyfriend—to join exiled former colleague Boris Karloff, whose brilliant past work has been recently overshadowed by his pursuit of ideas and research just a little too weird.

Brilliant and eccentric, yes; but is he mad? "I shall show you strange things about the mind of man," Karloff says. In his complex and visually impressive laboratory, he claims to have developed a process to take the "thought content" out of one brain and put it into another—basically, to switch brains. He tries it on two chimps…but would it work on humans?

Lee and Karloff are both very good, especially in the wonderfully intense scenes in which they spar over the limits, the purpose, the morality of science. Each character derives strength, meets powerful resistance from the other; each actor seems to draw energy from the other's presence as well.

The supporting cast includes John Loder as the boyfriend who would prefer that Lee stay in the city and marry him; he follows her out to the sticks and eventually manages to get mixed up in the plot. Not exactly the standard dashing rescuer—in fact, quite the opposite.

A very exciting climax tops off this suspenseful and well-written thriller. A gorgeous and fully furnished mad scientist's laboratory, too!

What a delightful surprise this little movie turned out to be! I had read in Michael Weldon's "Psychotronic Encyclopedia" that "The Man Who Changed His Mind" was a seldom-seen Karloff film that was considered to be quite excellent, but until last night had never seen it before. The film turns out to be a beautifully done piece on the by-now-overdone theme of mind/body transfer. It is impeccably acted by the entire cast, features gorgeous black-and-white photography and great use of shadow, stylish direction, more-than-adequate effects and a witty script. The picture really does MOVE; there are no wasted scenes or sluggish passages to speak of whatsoever. Anna Lee, who would costar with Karloff again 10 years later in the 1946 picture "Bedlam," is excellent (and beautiful) here as Karloff's assistant, and the actor Frank Cellier almost steals the film as the lord and publisher who receives the mind of Karloff's wheelchair-bound helper. But the film belongs to Karloff, and he runs with it. This may very well be his best film of the 1930s, with the exception of the Franky films and "The Black Cat," of course, and that's really saying something. Fans of classic horror should all rejoice that this terrific and relatively unknown example of British '30s horror is now widely available in a pristine-looking DVD. To be succinct...loved it.

"The Man Who Changed His Mind" is hokey, but quite admirable. Boris Karloff plays the title character, who figures out a way to switch people's brains, but gets rejected by the scientific community. So, he engages in an unauthorized experiment with a high-ranking lord in order to further his own interests. It all comes down to a final showdown.

The movie sort of reminded me of Karloff's later movie "The Man They Could Not Hang". That was another one where he came up with a new, controversial experiment but got rejected by the scientific community (needless to say, he got his revenge).

So, it's a nice, silly way to pass time. As always, Karloff's face is practically half of his character. And Anna Lee is really hot! PS: director Robert Stevenson also directed "Mary Poppins".

This was a low-budget horror film with very modest pretensions. No one involved believed they were making "high art" and with a small budget and running at only 62 minutes, this is a definite B-picture. And in light of these factors, it's an amazingly effective and enjoyable film.

Boris Karloff plays a mad scientist--this is certainly no great stretch. His research involves trying to switch the mind of one person with another--sort of like the plot that was often used in cartoons or cheesy comedies in the 60s. How exactly this was going to be a GOOD thing certainly wasn't a primary concern for th doctor, though later in the film, greed and an over-active libido push this strange doctor to make this switch with unwilling victims.

So despite a pretty corny plot, why did I like this film? Well, the pacing was excellent but more importantly the film had wonderful dialog and was at times very 'tongue in cheek'. In particular, when Karloff's evil and physically twisted assistant changes bodies with the rich philanthropic newspaper owner, I found myself laughing repeatedly because the writers for the film deliberately injected some levity into the horror plot. You just have to see it to understand and appreciate this.