That is for everything but Claude Rains' performance in this British drama about a profession in entertainment that is most likely long gone. Rains has spent years perfecting a code that will help him and his wife with a lot of an act that has her giving him clues of what audience members are holding in their hand. The act is obviously phony, but all of a sudden, due to the presence of a stranger (Jane Baxter), Rains is able to forecast pending disaster. He saves their lives on a train about to crash, and goes on to predict several more serious accidents. But there's one too many and he ends up on trial for delaying the start of miner's work day, and that delay results in there being trapped and possibly dead.
Slow-moving and deliberately moody, this British drama would have been half a rating down had Rains not been cast in the leading role. He is riveting to watch, and his eyes intensely express his horror of having to deliver such awful predictions. Why it was retitled "The Evil Mind" can only be credited to the fact that producers wanted it to be thought of as a horror film which it is not. It is a psychological drama that needed some faster pacing and more realistic situations surrounding Rains to make it better. The two women are swallowed up by his intensity. That makes him and perhaps the photography the only things worth recommending about this film.
Slow-moving and deliberately moody, this British drama would have been half a rating down had Rains not been cast in the leading role. He is riveting to watch, and his eyes intensely express his horror of having to deliver such awful predictions. Why it was retitled "The Evil Mind" can only be credited to the fact that producers wanted it to be thought of as a horror film which it is not. It is a psychological drama that needed some faster pacing and more realistic situations surrounding Rains to make it better. The two women are swallowed up by his intensity. That makes him and perhaps the photography the only things worth recommending about this film.