Leofwine_draca 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.

Spikeopath The Clairvoyant is directed by Maurice Elvey and adapted to the screen by Charles Bennett and Bryan Edgar Wallace from the novel written by Ernst Lothar. It stars Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter.Maximus: King of the Mind Readers.Out of Gaumont British and Gainsborough Pictures, The Clairvoyant is a compact 80 minute picture that tells of a bogus clairvoyant played by Rains who suddenly finds he does in fact have the gift. However, it's a gift he can only bring out when he is in the presence of a woman named Christine (Baxter), something which greatly unsettles his marriage to Rene (Wray). Film is structured in two wholesome parts, the first finds Maximus and Rene bluffing their way on the entertainment circuit, with Maximus then finding the gift and predicting events that really occur, both good and bad. Then the film greatly shifts in tone to play out as the gift being a curse, Maximus' private life comes under great strain and a turn of events see him come under snarling scrutiny by his peers. The seamless shifts from moody to jovial and back again is a credit to the makers, with Rains turning in a powerful performance in one of the last British films he made before heading to America and the big studio contract.It will not surprise with the ending, and the running time means that some interesting themes are not fully born out and expanded upon. But it's very well performed across the board and has genuine moments of tension and horror once the jovial atmosphere dissipates. 7/10

JoeKarlosi **1/2 out of ****Claude Rains is an entertainer named Maximus, who has a fake stage act where he reads people's minds in the audience. Fay Wray plays his wife and pretty assistant. Things become more prosperous for Max each time he sets his eyes upon another woman who inexplicably endows him with the ability to "really" predict events; he then becomes something of a celebrity. The woman falls in love with him and it jeopardizes his marriage. Worse still, Maximus goes from preventing tragedies to becoming accused of causing them.I expected a little more from this thriller, though it was nice to see Rains and Wray together in it.

dougdoepke Professional mind-reader Maximus (Rains) suddenly becomes a genuine foreteller of the future, causing a bunch of problems.That early scene of Maximus on stage is a little gem of staging, editing, and directing. The backdrop of a giant The Thinker is impressive, suggesting that a mental force much larger than the dwarfed Maximus is in play, as indeed it is. His transition from professional trickster to derided dunce to man possessed is riveting, especially as echoed in the gamut of audience reactions. Riveting also is Christine's (Baxter) trance-like stare, which oddly becomes Maximus's pathway to the future. I just wish the movie's remainder equaled this early atmospheric plateau.The main problem is that the screenplay, having set up the compelling premise of genuine clairvoyance, is unsure where to go with it. As a result, events meander into a love story culminating in an utterly conventional ending that unfortunately undercuts that brilliantly ominous stage sequence. Then too, as others point out, the coal mine and court trial sequences are poorly thought out, making that part pretty murky. Just why Maximus is blamed is never made clear-- (although the mine owners responsible for the dangerous conditions could have been implicated for shifting blame). Claude Rains as a leading man takes some getting used too. Nonetheless, he's excellent at alternating Maximus's many moods, and I especially liked his moment of uncharacteristic gaiety when he thinks he's out-foxed the money men. And, of course, there's the gorgeous Fay Wray—a man like Maximus is truly possessed who would think of leaving her. Plus, Jane Baxter who I haven't seen before is also compelling in a very well-cast film. All in all, the movie comes across as an uneasy combination of the brilliant, the conventional, and the muddled.(In passing—one direction for the uncertain storyline would have been the question whether the future is ruled by the inalterable hand of fate. If so, then future events cannot be changed no matter how hard we try. Maximus thinks his prophetic ability provides the opportunity to alter the future. However, suppose we factor in the possibility of a future ruled instead by fate. Then the question of how Maximus fits into fate's inalterable equation becomes an interesting one. Anyway, it's a thought.)