Sadly Over-hyped

Pretty Good

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The cast is promising (Claude Rains and Fay Wray), and so is the script idea of a fake clairvoyant who gains the ability to really see the future in the presence of one particular woman. But the director, Maurice Elvey, doesn't provide much atmosphere (except for a few close-ups of Rains' face when he goes into his predictive trance); most of the time this plays like a marital drama rather than a supernatural thriller. The best sequence - a mine shaft accident - is actually lifted from a French movie! (thank you IMDb). Also, the alternate title "The Evil Mind" is a misnomer. ** out of 4.

The Evil Mind AKA The Clairvoyant (1935) Maximus (Rains) started out as a phony clairvoyant - scamming people for money with his fake stage act. He was ridiculed harshly in front of an audience one night and the trauma was so bad he ended up with the real gift of foresight and proved it in front of all that very night. After that night he began predicting real events unfolding. But when he predicted a major disaster and decided he had to warn those involved he is accused of distracting the workers and causing the accident - now he must stand trial. Can he prove he is innocent? Can it be proved he is a real clairvoyant? Wonderful roles for Claude Rains and Fay Wray. A very good mystery-thriller of the 1930s.7.5/10

Following their respective successes in THE INVISIBLE MAN and KING KONG, Claude Rains and Fay Wray teamed up for this minor British effort that bears something of an odd alternative title, THE EVIL MIND. The fact that Rains' character isn't evil kind of negates this moniker, which I guess was invented to tie in with his villainous invisible role the year before. Anyhow, THE CLAIRVOYANT is a decent kind of film, well-shot and spooky throughout, the kind they don't make anymore. Director Maurice Elvey had been working for decades and he handles his light material with aplomb.Rains gives an excellent performance as the titular character who discovers he really can foresee the future when he's in the presence of a newspaper owner's daughter. He foretells disaster, firstly on a train he's travelling in, and later in a big-set piece where miners are drilling below a river when a massive cave-in literally brings the roof down. Who says that the FINAL DESTINATION films are original? This film, especially the bit on the train, proves otherwise and the producers of that modern franchise ought to acknowledge the ideas they borrowed from this flick in their credits.The short running time means we've got a nicely-paced movie that even has an interesting love-triangle sub-plot. Although it doesn't go anywhere, this sub-plot certainly isn't boring. I didn't really care for Jane Baxter in this film, but Fay Wray truly is lovely and puts in a nice turn as Rains' put-upon wife. For a thriller, there's a fair amount of suspense built up along the way, along with some good effects in the frightening cave-in sequence. Things climax with one of those courtroom scenes so beloved of early film-makers, and I was utterly gripped as I waited to see how things would turn out for our hero. I wasn't disappointed; THE CLAIRVOYANT isn't a horror film, but it's a decent little thriller all the same.

Another typically solid production from Britain's Gainsborough Pictures, this adaptation of Ernest Lothar's novel has a terribly dated third act set in the British Royal Court but is otherwise quite entertaining. Claude Rains is fittingly mercurial as a phony psychic who is suddenly hailed as a prophet after he predicts both a train crash and a racehorse winner; however, after he attempts to save miners from a shaft he is certain will collapse, the newspapers and public turn on him as a publicity seeker. There's an odd thread involving a strange young woman who proves to be a conduit to Rains' psychic mind--her hypnotic stare provides him with the power he needs to go into a trance--yet the movie just shucks it off as second-hand business. Instead, a subplot with Claude's faithful but jealous wife is given an over-abundance of screen-time (it just makes her look like a ninny); and when Rains is lauded by a prestigious men's club, we're not sure exactly what they're celebrating or offering to him. Still, the direction is very tight (even though the crowd shots and second-unit footage is sloppy)...and when Rains goes into one of his wide-eyed, transcendental arias, look out! **1/2 from ****