Rent The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)

British Sci-Fi. - The Man Who Changed His Mind review by Steve

After retiring from monster movies, Boris Karloff spent about a decade in Mad Doctor roles, invariably transplanting brains or personalities between screaming victims. Here he swaps identities between monkeys. So how long before he is doing the same experiment with humans, particularly those who obstruct his ambitions?

And how much worse if he is a crazy megalomaniac? Karloff lisps the immortal line, 'They said I was mad' right at the start, and then he really goes nuts. Anna Lee is his attractive assistant, voicing her mounting reservations in an incredibly pristine Received Pronunciation, typical of the English screen back then.

This is the best of Karloff's mad scientist films. It is not a prestigious production, but better budgeted than usual for this genre. The stalwart cast plays it straight. There's a lot of atmosphere in the old dark house. But best of all is the dry, funny script, which Sidney Gilliat worked on: 'I don't mind dying, but I won't be accused of journalism'!

Once Karloff gets into his stride, swapping the minds of most of the credited actors, the film becomes enormous fun. The excellent score does plenty of heavy lifting. And the editors do fine work. Maybe this was intended as horror, but really it is science fiction, and in the '30's it was British cinema which did most to keep sci-fi alive.