It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

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

There are plenty of rough edges throughout this early CLAUDE RAINS film (released by Gainsborough), before his career went into high gear at Warner Bros. during the '30s and '40s. And yet, the story of a man who starts out as a charlatan and then really begins to see tragic events unfold, does hold the interest.The story moves rather briskly but there's a low-budget look to the proceedings that gives it the flavor of a second feature. The performances are a bit over the top (in melodramatic '30s style), with Rains obviously enjoying his central role as a man who finds he really can predict disasters when a certain woman (JANE BAXTER) is nearby.FAY WRAY is appealing and pretty (as a brunette) in the role of Rains' wife who is a partner in his act and JANE BAXTER does well as the other woman.Summing up: Implausible and a little creaky in the telling, it's an old-fashioned but better than the average programmer thanks to the interest sustained by Rains' performance.