Dr. Laurence (Borris Karloff) once a respected doctor is now an outcast who is experimenting on the soul and mind. He asks for unexperienced Dr. Clare Wyatt (Anna Lee) to be an assistant to help out on his work. He claims he can transplant one mind to another person and vice versa and the testing on two monkeys proves that to Dr. Wyatt. Though, when trying to convince other scientists of this ambitious breakthrough he is ridiculed and from that he becomes a mad doctor. So now he is testing his device on people who get in his way with terrifying consequences.
"The Man Who changed his mind" was a rather disappointing and lacklustre effort from the RKO studios and director Robert Stevenson. It wasn't the direction or presentation that bothered me, but to where the story was heading. It just got a bit repetitious and rather bogged down too many times. With some of the story coming off as undeveloped, blunt and lacking cohesion. Though, you can always expect the reliable Borris Karloff to give a strong performance and make the dour film slightly riveting. As usual he glows as the ridiculed mad doctor whom anger gets the better of him. Anna Lee was uneven in her performance and hardly convincing. She just came across as mostly deadpan. But they would later team up again in Val Lewton's "Bedlam" and in my opinion it's a far more gripping movie, which the chemistry between them was superb. 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. The abundant of atmosphere was top-notch and that was helped out from a poignant music score that totally built on the mood. The tremendous camera-work was a plus with its intrusive zooms and fade away.
Overall the story just didn't pull me in or make me care what happens. As it came across as very slow and the scientific theories we hear from the doctor are interesting at first, but then the unconvincing tale becomes less involving. I just didn't sympathise for these characters and found the story to just linger about with some thrilling sequences that are few and too short. There are "some" unexpected twists that turn up, but the horror of it all doesn't quite come off for me.
The ending was decent enough where it finally liven up a bit, though it is quite dumbfounding because of what happened early on in the film, just say they don't believe the doc's experiment but now they suddenly do. It just made me groan. It could have left out that sappy speech at the end.
Overall it's a mild slow grinder that looks good and has some solid performances, but still it's rather forgettable.
"The Man Who changed his mind" was a rather disappointing and lacklustre effort from the RKO studios and director Robert Stevenson. It wasn't the direction or presentation that bothered me, but to where the story was heading. It just got a bit repetitious and rather bogged down too many times. With some of the story coming off as undeveloped, blunt and lacking cohesion. Though, you can always expect the reliable Borris Karloff to give a strong performance and make the dour film slightly riveting. As usual he glows as the ridiculed mad doctor whom anger gets the better of him. Anna Lee was uneven in her performance and hardly convincing. She just came across as mostly deadpan. But they would later team up again in Val Lewton's "Bedlam" and in my opinion it's a far more gripping movie, which the chemistry between them was superb. 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. The abundant of atmosphere was top-notch and that was helped out from a poignant music score that totally built on the mood. The tremendous camera-work was a plus with its intrusive zooms and fade away.
Overall the story just didn't pull me in or make me care what happens. As it came across as very slow and the scientific theories we hear from the doctor are interesting at first, but then the unconvincing tale becomes less involving. I just didn't sympathise for these characters and found the story to just linger about with some thrilling sequences that are few and too short. There are "some" unexpected twists that turn up, but the horror of it all doesn't quite come off for me.
The ending was decent enough where it finally liven up a bit, though it is quite dumbfounding because of what happened early on in the film, just say they don't believe the doc's experiment but now they suddenly do. It just made me groan. It could have left out that sappy speech at the end.
Overall it's a mild slow grinder that looks good and has some solid performances, but still it's rather forgettable.