The Clairvoyant (1935 film)

Last updated

The Clairvoyant
The Clairvoyant poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Maurice Elvey
Written by Ernst Lothar (novel)
Charles Bennett
Bryan Edgar Wallace
Produced by Michael Balcon (uncredited)
Starring Claude Rains
Fay Wray
Jane Baxter
Cinematography Glen MacWilliams
Edited by Paul Capon
Music by Arthur Benjamin
Production
company
Distributed byGaumont British (UK)
Fox Film Corporation (US)
Release date
  • 15 July 1935 (1935-07-15)(US)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Clairvoyant (US title: The Evil Mind) is a 1935 [1] British drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Claude Rains, Fay Wray, and Jane Baxter. Based on the novel of the same name by Ernst Lothar, it was made at Islington Studios. [2] The film's sets were designed by the German art director Alfred Junge. Bryan Edgar Wallace contributed to the screenplay.

Contents

Plot

Maximus, "King of the Mind Readers", performs an English music hall mind-reading act with the help of his wife, Rene, using a secret code. One night, he sees the beautiful Christine Shawn in the audience, and his act becomes reality. He is able to tell what is in a sealed letter without Rene's assistance.

Maximus does not think much of it, until he and Christine meet by chance on a train and he foresees an impending crash. He pulls the emergency cord to stop the train, but nobody believes him. He, his family and Christine disembark, and a few minutes later the train crashes. Christine tells her father, who owns a newspaper. He publishes the story, making Maximus famous.

Maximus realizes that his power only works when Christine is near. As they spend more time together, Christine falls in love with him and Rene becomes jealous. Maximus' mother believes that no good can come of this new gift, but Maximus pays little attention, enjoying his well-paid success.

Another of his well-publicized predictions comes true: a 100-to-1 long shot wins The Derby. He chooses to ignore his own prophecy of his mother's death; when it comes true, he is so distraught that he decides to follow her wishes and abandon his ability. He feels compelled to act, however, when he foresees a great mining disaster. He is unable to convince the mining company to evacuate the mine. When the disaster occurs, hundreds are killed and more are missing and presumed dead.

He is publicly accused of causing the accident and is brought to trial. The prosecution claims that Maximus himself caused both tragedies, by delaying the train and by panicking the miners into making a mistake. Maximus predicts in the courtroom that the missing miners will be found alive. When this becomes true, he is released. Maximus decides to give up his gift and he and Rene slip away into obscurity.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fay Wray</span> American actress (1907–2004)

Vina Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international recognition as an actress in horror films. She has been dubbed one of the early "scream queens".

<i>Four Daughters</i> (1938 film) 1938 film by Michael Curtiz

Four Daughters is a 1938 American romance film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a charming young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives. His cynical, bitter musician friend comes to help orchestrate his latest composition and complicates matters even more. The movie stars the Lane Sisters and Gale Page, and features Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield, and Dick Foran. The three Lanes were sisters and members of a family singing trio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude Rains</span> British and American actor (1889–1967)

William Claude Rains was a British and American actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as Dr. Jack Griffin in The Invisible Man (1933), he appeared in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Wolf Man (1941), Casablanca (1942), Kings Row (1942), Notorious (1946), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

<i>White Banners</i> 1938 film by Edmund Goulding

White Banners is a 1938 Warner Bros. drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Claude Rains, Fay Bainter, Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville, Henry O'Neill, and Kay Johnson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Springhill mining disasters</span> Any of three mining disasters in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada (1891, 1956, 1958)

Springhill mining disaster may refer to any of three deadly Canadian mining disasters that occurred in 1891, 1956, and 1958 in different mines within the Springhill coalfield, near the town of Springhill in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. In the 1891 accident, 125 died; in 1956, 39 were killed; and in 1958, 75 miners were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Coal Board</span> British statutory corporation, 1946–1987

The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "vesting day", 1 January 1947. In 1987, the NCB was renamed the British Coal Corporation, and its assets were subsequently privatised.

<i>Phantom of the Opera</i> (1943 film) 1943 horror film directed by Arthur Lubin

Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 American romantic horror film directed by Arthur Lubin, loosely based on Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera and its 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney. Produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film stars Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, as well as being composed by Edward Ward.

<i>Dirigible</i> (film) 1931 film

Dirigible is a 1931 American pre-Code adventure film directed by Frank Capra for Columbia Pictures and starring Jack Holt, Ralph Graves and Fay Wray. The picture focuses on the competition between naval fixed-wing and airship pilots to reach the South Pole by air.

<i>Bulldog Jack</i> 1935 British film by Walter Forde

Bulldog Jack is a 1935 British comedy film produced by Gaumont British, directed by Walter Forde, and starring Jack Hulbert, Fay Wray, Ralph Richardson and Atholl Fleming.

<i>The Price of Coal</i> 1977 British TV series or programme

The Price of Coal is a two-part television drama written by Barry Hines and directed by Ken Loach first broadcast as part of the Play for Today series in 1977. Set at the fictional Milton Colliery, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, the episodes contrast "efforts made to cosmetically improve the pit in preparation for a royal visit and the target-conscious safety shortcuts that precipitate a fatal accident ".

Erik (<i>The Phantom of the Opera</i>) Fictional character

Erik is the titular character of Gaston Leroux's novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, best known to English speakers as The Phantom of the Opera. The character has been adapted to alternative media several times, including in the 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney, the 1943 remake starring Claude Rains, the 1962 remake starring Herbert Lom and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical.

<i>The Yearling</i> 1938 novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The Yearling is a novel by American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published in March 1938. It was the main selection of the Book of the Month Club in April 1938. It won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.

<i>Sons and Lovers</i> (film) 1960 British film by Jack Cardiff

Sons and Lovers is a 1960 British period drama film directed by Jack Cardiff and adapted by Gavin Lambert and T. E. B. Clarke from the semi-autobiographical 1913 novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence. It stars Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller, Mary Ure, and Heather Sears.

<i>The Stars Look Down</i> (film) 1940 film by Carol Reed

The Stars Look Down is a British film from 1940, based on A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel of the same title, about injustices in a mining town in North East England. The film, co-scripted by Cronin and directed by Carol Reed, stars Michael Redgrave as Davey Fenwick and Margaret Lockwood as Jenny Sunley. The film is a New York Times Critics' Pick and is listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.

<i>Once to Every Woman</i> (1934 film) 1934 film by Lambert Hillyer

Once to Every Woman is a 1933 American pre-Code film adaptation of A. J. Cronin's 1933 short story Kaleidoscope in "K". The film was made by Columbia Pictures and stars Ralph Bellamy and Fay Wray.

Maurice Elvey was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He also produced more than fifty films – his own as well as films directed by others.

<i>The Legion of the Condemned</i> 1928 film

The Legion of the Condemned is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by William A. Wellman and produced by Jesse L. Lasky, Wellman, and Adolph Zukor and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Written by former World War I flight instructor John Monk Saunders and Jean de Limur, with intertitles by George Marion, Jr., the film stars Fay Wray and Gary Cooper.

<i>Gold Is Where You Find It</i> 1938 film

Gold is Where You Find It is a 1938 American Western Technicolor film that gives a fictionalized account of a true event — an ecological disaster whose effects are still felt in California today. Directed by Michael Curtiz and starring George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, and Claude Rains, with a screenplay by Warren Duff and Robert Buckner based on a story by Clements Ripley, the film is set 30 years after the first California Gold Rush, when hydraulic mining sends floods of muddy sludge into the Sacramento Valley, destroying crops and homes, ruining land and water sources and killing people caught in their path. The film highlights the conflict between the mining companies and the wheat farmers by adding a romance between a mining engineer and the daughter of a prominent farmer. She is herself dedicated to the idea that fruit can be raised in the valley. This Technicolor feature film was released on February 12, 1938, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

<i>Come Out of the Pantry</i> 1935 British film by Jack Raymond

Come Out of the Pantry is a 1935 British musical film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Jack Buchanan, Fay Wray, James Carew and Fred Emney. It is based on a 1916 novel of the same name by Alice Duer Miller, and features musical numbers by Al Hoffman, Al Goodhart and Maurice Sigler.

A clairvoyant is someone who allegedly has the power of clairvoyance. Other meanings include:

References

  1. Alison Peirse (30 August 2013). After Dracula: The 1930s Horror Film. I.B.Tauris. pp. 125–126. ISBN   978-1-84885-531-1.
  2. Wood p.85

Bibliography