The Man Who Changed His Mind

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Laurience (Karloff), a once-respectable scientist, begins to research the origins of the mind and soul in an isolated manor house, aided only by the promising surgeon Clare Wyatt (Lee) and a wheelchair-using confederate named Clayton (Donald Calthrop). The scientific community rejects his theories and Laurience risks losing everything for which he has worked so obsessively. To save his research, Laurience (pronounced "Lorenz") begins to use his discoveries in brain transference for his own nefarious purposes, replacing the mind of philanthropist Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier) with the personality of the crippled, caustic Clayton. With Lord Haslewood's wealth and prestige at his command, Laurience becomes an almost unstoppable mad scientist.
Despite a powerful patron and a state-of-the-art laboratory, chain-smoking Laurience remains the typical absent-minded professor, with eraser dust on the back of his wrinkled jacket, and in constant, desperate need of a strong hairbrush. However, he is not immune to the feminine charms of the lovely Dr. Wyatt. He attempts to take control of the body of Lord Haslewood's handsome son Dick (John Loder) in an effort to seduce Clare, but finds it impossible to disguise his own strange physicality even in the body of another man. Nor can he go without a cigarette in front of Clare although he is aware that young Dick Haslewood never smoked. Unfortunately, before transferring his mind with that of Dick, Laurience strangled Clayton, who was inhabiting the body of Lord Haslewood, so that Dick, afterwards a prisoner in Laurience's own body, would be hanged for the murder of the man presumed to be his father.
Realizing the truth, Clare and her friend Dr. Gratton (Cecil Parker) return Laurience's mind to its proper body, but that body has been badly broken in a panicked fall out of a high window, taken while Dick Haslewood was in unwilling possession. Admitting he has wasted an incredible invention on a selfish and murderous scheme, the shattered Laurience tells Clare he should never have meddled with the human soul. He takes his knowledge to the grave, having changed his mind for the last time.

Tags: comedy, revenge, suspenseful, murder, romantic

Review:
It may be shorter and far less grandiose than Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and especially Bride of Frankenstein (1935), but it touches on many of the same themes as the Frankenstein films while allowing his Karloff his turn in the role of a mad doctor.Karloff is Dr. Laurience, a well known neuroscientist who had a reputation for being brilliant but whom we learn has developed a reputation as an off-his-rocker quack in the last few years.
As The Man Who Changed His Mind opens, we meet the charming young Dr. Clare Wyatt (Anna Lee).
Everyone warns her not to go, especially Wyatt's boyfriend/fiancé-hopeful Dick Haslewood (John Loder), a budding reporter who works for the newspapers owned by his father, Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier).Wyatt is determined and a bit stubborn.
Wyatt soon learns why Laurience has a questionable reputation--he's been experimenting with siphoning off the mind, or the "soul", as he calls it, from monkeys by using sophisticated scientific equipment.
What will be the result of the experiments?Director Robert Stevenson, whose career interestingly went from hard-boiled genre films to serious dramas before he finally settled into almost exclusively directing live-action Disney classics throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, engenders a thematic and atmospheric kinship to the early 1930s Universal horror classics in the earliest moments of The Man Who Changed His Mind.
Dracula features a similar journey at the beginning, even if the surface mechanisms involved in the conflict there are not scientific, but bureaucratic, centering on a real estate deal.The Man Who Changed His Mind, like the Frankenstein films, uses "gobbledy-gooky" contraptions to fuel its bizarre metaphysics.
The script also has more biting humor than one might expect, but you have to listen closely to make sure you do not miss some of the odder and more scathing jokes.As it is heavy on dialogue and light on environment changes and things like special effects (aside from the Frankenstein devices), films like this must ultimately succeed or fail on the performances.
Donald Calthrop is excellent as a feisty quadriplegic, and Cellier does a fantastic job in a demanding role that requires drastic changes of character.If there's a flaw, it's merely that the short running time makes the film feel a bit lighter than it should.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dr. Laurience (Boris Karloff) creates an invention that can transpose the mind of one person to the body of another.
A very rich man Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier) finances Dr. Laurience's experiments.
Finally he shares his secret with his beautiful assistant, Clare(Anne Lee) who appeared with Karloff in "Bedlam" who lives in London at the age of 90 years.
Long before some of our favourite classic horror films were ever invented there was The Brainsnatcher (The Man Who Changed His Mind).
Boris Karloff gives off a brilliant performance as a mad scientist and is aided by great performances by Anna Lee, Brian Pawley and Donald Calthrop.
"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.
What's most interesting about THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS MIND is that it is not as much science fiction as it is an observation of what we might today call the "PR machine," and it takes some lacerating swipes at journalism, publicity and self-promotion.Karloff is Dr. Laurience, a reclusive scientist who believes he can transfer the consciousness (or soul?) from one brain to another.
Before the dust settles, Haslewood feels swindled, Clare feels suspicious and Laurience feels used, vowing to employ his work to his own ends rather than for the benefit of mankind.Boris' performance is exuberant, and supporting players Anna Lee, John Loder and Donald Calthrop are effective, but Frank Cellier, as Lord Haslewood, walks away with the picture whenever he is on screen.
Without giving too much away, let's just say that Cellier is called upon to portray more than one personality, and provides the film with its most enjoyable scenes.THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS MIND definitely has its moments, along with a little something to say.
Boris Karloff plays Dr. Laurience (pronounced Lorenz), a brilliant scientist working on a mind-transference machine.
The increasingly unstable Laurience can't have that so he uses his machine to switch Haslewood's mind with that of crippled Clayton.Wonderful British sci-fi horror film that is not well-known today but is one of Karloff's best mad scientist movies.
Frank Cellier is also very good, especially after Clayton's mind has taken over Lord Haslewood's body.
Boris Karloff plays the title character, who figures out a way to switch people's brains, but gets rejected by the scientific community.
I am a huge Boris Karloff fan so i try to watch every movie he was in and i recently seen this mini masterpiece on the internet archives.and also stars one of my favorite British actresses;Anna Lee who i thought was an awesome and beautiful presence.well Karloff is at his best as a mad scientist conducting illegal experiments first on chimps then of course to people,it has something to do with mind and soul transference,kind of sci fi.its pretty bizarre.Boris Karloff did this little gem for the same British studio that made the ghoul also a Karloff film,this was made in 1936 so he did this while he was still on universals contract,between the black cat and son of Frankenstein.if your a fan of Boris Karloff and sci fi then i totally recommend this movie.Boris Karloff was the king of horror,and was an awesome actor.he should've won an academy award for some of the films he did.I'm giving this gem 10 out of 10..
Star Boris Karloff's second British horror film, following THE GHOUL (1933), proves a more satisfying vehicle and quite an underrated (if minor) classic; apart from director Stevenson (later to helm some of the Walt Disney studio's most popular live-action films), its imposing credentials include producer Michael Balcon (one of the most influential in British cinema) and co-screenwriters John L.
Balderston (a genre fixture who had worked on some of Hollywood's finest entries) and Sidney Gilliat (later a Hitchcock collaborator and an important film-maker in his own right, often teamed with Frank Launder)!Production-wise, it's a modest effort  mostly confined to studio interiors  but one which, in its brief running-time, exhibits both style and substance in a gripping (if familiar) plot line that manages to encompass drama, comedy, romance, chills and suspense!
In fact, the star's 'mad scientist' character here (named Laurience but pronounced Lorenz!) was the second in a string of similar roles he played from 1936-1942; I've only watched the first two and the last one but I have two more coming up tomorrow and the day after, while the rest will be released as part of Columbia's Karloff set next month!
Anyway, he's excellent as always  driven, menacing or poignant as the situation demands  but he's ably supported by a wonderful British cast: Anna Lee (the director's own wife and with whom Karloff would reteam, memorably, in Hollywood in the Val Lewton-produced BEDLAM [1946]), John Loder, Frank Cellier, Cecil Parker and especially Donald Calthrop; the latter almost manages to steal the show with his crippled and cynical doctor's assistant, whose brain is then put into Cellier's body: the scenes where he tries to act up his new persona provide some delightful  and unexpected  moments of black comedy!
Obviously, this is NOT what this early collaboration between horror veteran Boris Karloff and the respectable director Robert Stevenson is about.
A wonderful little horror/science fiction oddity, featuring newly-crowned horror king Boris Karloff in a deliciously over-the-top performance as a mad scientist performing illegal experiments.
Clayton is Dr. Laurience's wheelchair bound assistant and the only person that knows the doctor's experiments actually work outside of one woman,Dr. Clare Wyatt, that begins to believe Dr. Laurience but can she stop him on time?
Boris Karloff has come up with a mechanism for transferring the minds, the souls of two beings.
When the scientists walk out on his lecture, and newspaper magnate Frank Cellier ends his funding and claims his work, he goes a bit barmy, and proceeds to swap the minds of Calthrop and Cellier.It sounds like a Universal creepy-crawly directed by James Whale.
While "The Man Who Changed His Mind" of 1936 may not be as brilliant as the most essential masterpieces starring Karloff (such as "Frankenstein", "Bride Of Frankenstein", "The Mummy" or "The Black Cat"), it is doubtlessly a terrific example for both Karloff's genius, and for the variety of innovative ideas that dominated the Horror industry in the 30s.Karloff plays the eccentric Dr. Laurience, who is dedicated to the idea of separating the mind from the body, and transferring it to other bodies.
The chain-smoking Dr. Laurience alone is a character as eccentric and interesting as only the good old days in Horror, and Karloff is, as always, brilliant in the role.
Anna Lee plays Clare, a young female scientist, and aspiring assistant to Laurience.
Overall, "The Man Who Changed His Mind" is a wonderful film for everyone who appreciates Classic Horror that comes with my highest recommendations!.
The thirties was, without doubt, one of the golden ages for the horror genre; you've got all the classics that are still iconic to this day with films like Dracula, King Kong and Frankenstein, and then you've also got a core of overlooked yet excellent films such as Mad Love, Island of Lost Souls and this one; The Man Who Changed His Mind.
Disheartened, the once upstanding and honest doctor decides that it's about time he started looking out for number one; and uses his invention for personal gain.The film stars horror icon Boris Karloff, and Karloff is, as always, excellent in the lead role.
The story that is sprung from the base concept is really well done too; the film only runs for just over sixty minutes so obviously there isn't a great deal of time to explore too much, but the plot we do get it witty and entertaining, and certainly ensures that The Man Who Changed His Mind is a fun film to watch.
The supporting cast, which includes Anna Lee, Cecil Parker, Frank Cellier and John Loder all fit into their respective roles well and that helps to make The Man Who Changed His Mind satisfying on the whole.
Boris Karloff returned to Great Britain for a few films, this one The Man Who Lived Again being one of them.
Literally taking the experiences imprinted on our gray matter and with some mad scientist type equipment putting two animals or two men as it were and exchanging all the life experiences that sum up a human being and swapping it with another's experiences.He's even impressed young doctor Anna Lee with his genius, but she runs when she learns the nature of his experiments.
There are good supporting roles from John Loder, Frank Cellier and Donald Calthrop.The production valves were reasonably good with its art and set direction, especially that of the doctor's laboratory.
Where this print or negative was found, I don't know, but I do know that I'm ecstatic over it!WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!!!Boris Karloff is EXCELLENT as Dr. Laurience, a scientist trying to get the scientific community to accept his process of transferring "thought content" from one brain to another, ostensibly to preserve the knowledge and personality gained over a lifetime instead of leaving it to rot with the body after life has expired.
Coupled with the rejection of his romantic advances by his lovely assistant Clare, this, in the time-honored tradition of horror and sci-fi stories, proceeds to send the doctor over the edge...Boris Karloff manages to make his character by turns likable, detestable, frightening, and sympathetic, according to the demands of the story; at all times he is believable and utterly compelling.
Anna Lee, as Dr. Clare Wyatt, the good doctor's assistant, makes for an intelligent, sophisticated, well-dressed, and above all luscious damsel-in-distress.
But it was the 30s and it was Great Britain, so I'll let it slide.This early "mind switch" movie has a great performance from Karloff (which is no surprise) and also from two of the supporting actors (one playing a wheelchair bound paralytic, the other the lead actress' father and millionaire crusading publisher).
This isn't to say that everyone isn't fine in "Man", just that the nature of these three parts means that a) they get all the best lines, and b) they all get to play each other (what with the mind transplants and all).The director keeps things moving and the scenes stay energetic and snappy, the black and white photography makes the sets look moody and interesting.
Although this Gaumont-British film presentation is neither as memorable nor sentimental as "The Ape," future "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" director Robert Stevenson's "The Man Who Changed His Mind" with Boris Karloff still qualifies as a taut, entertaining tale about a stereotypical mad scientist who harnesses the power of electricity to swap the minds of two separate individuals.
The theme of "The Man Who Changed His Mind" is about man playing God. Karloff's mad scientist begins with the best motives but after society scorns him, he turns evil and wants to alter things to satisfy himself rather than mankind.
Karloff's performance is sterling, and "The Man Who Changed His Mind" boasts an outstanding supporting cast, including John Loder, Anna Lee, Frank Cellier, and Donald Calthrop.
Dr. Gratton (Cecil Parker of "The Saint's Vacation") observes to Dr. Clare Wyatt (Anna Lee of "King Solomon Mines") with an air of finality, "Well, that's the last time we shall operate together." Clare is leaving the hospital to join Viennese brain specialist Dr. Laurience (Boris Karloff) out in the boondocks at his manor house to assist him with his eccentric experiments.
Newspaper baron Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier of "The 39 Steps") likes the story and wants to finance Laurience's research since scientific success is front page news.
A British newspaper mogul bankrolls his research, only to find his mind exchanged for the mad doctor's crippled lab assistant.Karloff's performance is what makes this movie.
Boris Karloff, three years after making The Ghoul, returned to England to make this intelligent and interesting horror/sci-fi chiller.
The sci-fi is very much to the fore (probably to placate the notoriously sensitve British Film Censor), as Karloff's Dr. Laurience experiments with mind-exchange.Karloff chain-smokes throughout, which actually leads to a clever plot reveal towards the end.
Anna Lee also features, and was to later star with Karloff in Val Lewton's Bedlam (1946).A stylish piece, suprisingly glamorous-looking for a British studio from this era, and well worth a watch..
Thanks to the experiments of scientist Boris Karloff, the minds of living creatures can be changed.
Pretty assistant Anna Lee has a great deal of respect for him (at first), until he goes off on a room full of scientists, indicating that he is mad.
We get that through the clever use of special effects, and this leads to twists and turns that makes this film extremely powerful.Karloff's character is pretty much the same as he has been in many films, most obviously "The Man They Could Not Hang" and "Before I Hang".
As for Lee, it was one of two films in which she co-starred with Karloff, the other being the Val Lewton cult classic, "Bedlam".
Until the climax, in fact, the best thing about the movie are Boris Karloff's studiously mannered, theatrically nervous performance (director Robert Stevenson indulges him with lots and lots of close-ups) and Donald Calthrop's unnerving study of a twisted, wheel-chaired patient.
Being a British film there does seem a slight lack of budget and perhaps that little bit of something that is exclusive to Hollywood studios is missing but director Robert Stevenson - who'd later make some very memorable Walt Disney films in the 1960s and 70s - makes the best of what he's got and Karloff is a good asset and never goes camp or over the top unlike in the 1933 British horror flick THE GHOUL It's interesting that Dr Laurience was previously working in Genoa but had to leave for undisclosed reasons .
On a similar matter Lord Haslewood must be based upon Lord Beaverbrook and again I thought this was going to lead to a subtext about one man having too much power but being a mad scientist plot the film concerns itself with concept and plotting As for the plotting it's a strange mix of good and bad .