The Mind Reader (1933)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The idea of having Warren William play this part was an inspired choice--he was perfect for this part. However, no matter how interesting the idea was and how good William was, the plot just kind of fizzled--and late in the film the picture really lost its way. It's a shame, as the movie could have been very good.The film starts with William selling a variety of bogus products throughout the country. Eventually, he hits on the idea of becoming a fortune teller. He pretends to read the future but mostly just makes things up or has his assistant (Allan Jenkins) investigate and dig up information on people so he can appear psychic. After a while, he learns that a lot of people have been hurt or even killed because of his 'predictions'--culminating in a terrifically harrowing altercation with Mayo Methot (one-time wife of Humphrey Bogart). In the process, he ends up losing his wife--a woman who had thought William COULD predict the future but has since learned he was a phony.Now, at this point of the film, I really liked the movie. The scene with Methot was intense and wild. But, somehow, the great script with the sociopathic leading man lost its way...very badly. First, while William continues to hurt people again and again, even after he loses his wife, he eventually and completely out of the blue announces during one of his shows that he's a fake!! Why would such a selfish and despicable man do this?! People had already died because of him and he knew it--yet kept on lying and swindling people. So why later announce you are a fraud?! In addition, although William's wife (Constance Cummings) left him because he was such an evil man, why did she later in the film love him so unconditionally--even after she knew he had shot someone (and she had no idea whether it was premeditated or an accident)? And, why at the end of the film did William turn himself in to save Cummings when the police thought she was the killer?! This made zero sense--and the film just spiraled into an incomprehensible mess in every possible way.The movie is like a movie that began without a finished script. The first half was good but they just fudged the ending--and it sure looked bad! Pathetic and irritating, as the film had been so good in the first half--darn good.For a much better film about fake psychics, try watching "The Clairvoyant" (1934) with Claude Rains. While the plot is similar, what they do with the story in the second half is satisfying and worth seeing--"The Mind Reader" isn't!

Mind Reader, The (1933) *** (out of 4) Excellent performances highlight this Warner drama about a con man (Warren William) and his assistant (Allen Jenkins) who travel town to town with a circus doing various acts to bring in money. They then notice that the mind reader gag will bring in the most and soon the alias "Chandra" starts pulling people in but there's going to be a price to pay. I had heard so many positive things about this movie that it quickly became one that I searched out and thankfully got to see due to a recent TCM showing. Fans of classic cinema should certainly keep their eyes open for this one as it lives up to its reputation and also delivers some incredible performances. The film is pretty much divided into two halves with the first one dealing with various cons being performed by William. I found all of these games to be incredibly entertaining due in large part to William being able to push them over. It's very important that we believe these cons could actually be pushed over on people and William is so good here that it's never a problem. He slides into this role and never looks back and there's no a single frame in the film where we don't believe what he's doing and saying. Constance Cummings plays the woman he eventually falls in love with and the two share some great moments together and really make their love story believable. The underrated Jenkins does a very good job as well as he has several nice comic moments. The biggest surprise comes from future Bogart wife Mayo Methot who nearly steals the film as a young woman who is given bad advice and comes to let William know about it. I won't spoil what happens but it's pretty unforgettable and she really nails the part. I think the film begins to lose some of its power during the final twenty-five minutes with the last scam starts to be too big and of course there's going to be a moral lesson to pay. Up until then the film is extremely fast, fun and most important features some terrific acting. This film certainly deserves to be better known and hopefully TCM will start to show it more often.

***SPOILERS*** Story of a depression era con artist who tries to make a living off other peoples problems. Many in fact which he himself creates.Calling himself "Chandra the Magnifient" Warren Williams' mind reading act has become the talk of the town in any town that he stays in. That's until his act is exposed and he's run out, on a rail, of it. One of those whom William empresses with his "mind reading" powers is the very naive Sylvia Roberts who's friends pocketbook he had swiped by Frank Franklin who, together with "Sam the Music Man", is part of William's "mind reading" act. With William finding the pocketbook, with his "mind reading" powers, a very impressionable Sylvia falls heads over heels for him. It's only later that Sylvia gets second thoughts about "Chandra" when one of his clients Jenny confronts him at his office in how he destroyed hers as well as her boyfriends lives with his totally inaccurate predictions in them not being suited for each other!This lead Jenny to marry someone else who treated her like dirt and had her boyfriend deeply depressed in Jenny leaving him for another man kill himself! With nothing left to live for and feeling like a fool in listening to this double-talking charlatan Jenny then did the only thing left for her to do: Walk out of William's office and jump down an empty elevator shaft killing herself! With Sylvia now threatening to leave him William decides to go straight as a Garrow Brush door to door salesman only to get back in the mind reading racket at the urging of his friend and partner in the mind rereading business Frank Franklin who's now a limousine driver in NYC.William now calling himself Dr. Munro opens up a private detective office in downtown Manhattan where he uses his "brain power" to find out if his clients, mostly wealthy women, husbands are cheating on them. Off course William or Dr. Munro gets a little help from his friend Frank Franklin. It's Franklin who gets the inside dope, on his job as a driver for the rich and famous, about William's clients husbands knowing exactly when their not at home and then having William use that to fool their wives in telling them that they were out partying with other women.This leads one of William's, or Dr. Munro, women clients Ann Holman to believe that her loyal husband Don is cheating on her due to the false information that he gave her about him. It just happened that Ann is a good friend of William's wife Sylvia who has no idea that he's in fact Dr. Munro. Syliva then goes to Dr. Munro's office to have it out with him in what he did in destroying her friends-Ann-marriage.***SPOILERS*** As things turned out it was Mr. Holman who beat Syliva to Dr. Munro's office and in a violent confrontation with him he ended up getting shot and killed by William who made his escape through the back door without his wife Sylvia ever seeing him! On the lam, in Juarez Mexico, with his wife Sylvia left holding the bag in not telling the police about his whereabouts, which she has no knowledge of, a very distraught and guilt ridden William for the first time in his life gets an attack of guilty consciences and decides to turn himself into the police, back in NYC, and face the music. William ends up receiving a 2 to 10 year sentence on a conviction of involuntarily homicide-or self defense-in Mr. Holman's death. The worst thing in all this is that as William was sent to spend at least the next two years behind bars Prohibition was repealed! Something he's been waiting for almost 15 years to happen.

This early film is rarely seen these days. Thanks to TCM, we had the opportunity to watch it. As directed by Roy Del Ruth, the film tackles the problem of the itinerant con men running wild all over the country peddling home remedies and even serving as dentists to a naive public that were easily swindled.At the center of the story, we see a man that discovers how to make a fast buck by giving readings to unsuspecting folks for a dollar. It's the cruelest of the scams because unsuspecting people put faith in the predictions these charlatans have to offer. We get to know the fate of one woman who comes back to tell Chandra how his reading turned to be a tragedy for her.Warren William plays the great Chandra with charm. He is totally convincing as the person who has the solution for every problem, for a price. Constance Cummings is Sylvia, the young girl whose life is changed by Chandra. Allen Jenkins plays Chandra's assistant in one of his best roles. We get to see briefly Mayo Methot in the pivotal role of Jenny.