Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

classicsoncall I saw this picture under the title "The Evil Mind", though "The Clairvoyant" seems to fit it somewhat better. Claude Rains portrays the title character Maximus, along with Fay Wray as wife Mademoiselle Rene, using a mind reading gimmick to entertain paying customers. Their act is a phony, but the first time Christine Shawn (Jane Baxter) shows up, Maximus is able to make a startling prediction that comes true, resulting in national headlines. Miss Shawn provides an undefinable psychic link that allows Maximus to see future events, and as luck would have it, Rene senses her presence to be a threat to the marriage. The idea gains some traction when Christine tells Maximus she indeed loves him, causing the couple to question whether Maximus' gift comes from God or the devil.I'm not convinced that the story's direction was made plausible by implying Maximus' final prediction a causal factor in it's occurrence. Foreseeing a mining disaster resulting in many deaths, Maximus goes on trial for somehow being the one who caused the cave in. The argument by the prosecuting attorney relied on the idea that the miners and their bosses who ignored the warning and went back to work, somehow became less cautious in observing safety rules on the job. For my part, if I was one of those miners, I'd want to be MORE careful, not less. For the sake of the story, I guess you could say that the miners who ignored Maximus' warning wound up getting the shaft.The story's resolution relied on a final hasty vision following a reconciliation between Christine and Renee, who rightly took herself out of the romantic triangle that never really was. In one of those 'it could only happen in the movies' moments, Maximus 'sees' additional trapped miners who make their way to safety. News had to travel fast in these pictures to create a happy ending, and voila! - Maximus is innocent of causing the disaster in the first place.Aside from the less plausible elements of the story, the picture is actually quite watchable. Fans of Claude Rains should enjoy it, and as I see Fay Wray in more pictures of the era, I come to a better appreciation of her talent than just the blonde coiffed actress who tamed King Kong. Baxter also does a credible job as the conflicted Miss Shawn, stepping aside the way she does as the right thing to do.

calvinnme Claude Rains stars as Maximus, a vaudevillian who pretends to have psychic powers as part of his act. He really is not a fraud per se, anymore than a magician that pulls rabbits out of a hat is a fraud. Maximus is happily married to Rene (Fay Wray), who assists him in his act. One night during a performance she accidentally gets locked out of the theatre and then has to argue with the cashier that she is an actor in the show, not someone trying to sneak in to see the show for free. While all of this is going on, the act stalls of course. The crowd becomes rowdy and a blindfolded Maximus - the blindfold is part of the act - stumbles around on stage and finally takes off the blindfold. His eye catches the piercing stare of a pretty girl in the balcony (Jane Baxter as Christine). Maximus for the first time in his life issues two real and correct prophecies - one about a man's sick wife and another about a train wreck. When the train wreck prediction comes true Maximus is bombarded with offers for higher paying jobs as a bonified psychic. He takes one of these jobs only to find that he has no more visions at all. He's about to be fired when he meets up with Christine again and correctly predicts the winner of the derby.The situation is now complicated - Maximus only has visions in the presence of a beautiful girl who loves him, and that girl is not his wife. But things get worse. The next vision Maximus has involves a potential construction disaster in a tunnel. Since this is the first prediction that Maximus has had that will cost rich people money, none of the powers that be - not the press nor the owners of the construction project - want to stop work on Maximus' word. Maximus goes to the construction site before the shift starts and warns the workers himself. The workers are of course nervous about the prediction, but they are threatened with being fired if they don't report for their shift.The accident happens as predicted, and Maximus is blamed and put on trial for what he has done. The theory being that the disaster happened because the workers were so nervous about the prediction that they made mistakes that caused the explosion. What we see in the tunnel doesn't contradict that statement. Will Maximus' wife leave him? Will Christine get him? Will neither of them get him because he goes to prison? Watch and find out.This film approaches the question of predestination versus free will - did Maximus' vision of the disaster take into account his own actions before he even made a decision of what to do, or would the disaster have occurred anyways? In other words, was Maximus' action predestined or was the disaster itself predestined, or both? Do people have connections to one another that they don't really understand that bring out their own supernatural powers? Is there something more to the phrase "you bring out the best/worst in me" than meets the eye? All interesting questions, and in the tradition of the subtlety of British film they are not explicitly asked, but they are left out there hanging.Finally there is the issue of Claude Rains' performance here. In the hands of a less capable actor you might dislike his character or find his trances hammy. Instead you feel his internal struggles and believe the guy really wants to do the right thing, he's just truly confused as to what that right thing is. Fay Wray is good here as Maximus' wife, but she's just a little too good to be true when she's faced with another woman - Christine - who admits to her that she wants to take her husband away from her. I'd recommend this one quite highly.

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.)

Neil Doyle 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.