The Mind Reader (1933)

Warren William is "The Mind Reader" in this pre-code film also starring Constance Cummings and Allen Jenkins.William is a snake oil salesman (a con artist) during the Depression, using his skills of persuasion to sell products. One day, his associate, Frank (Jenkins) is reading about mind readers and thinks it might be a great profession, so William becomes Chandra. He is very successful. When he meets the beautiful Sylvia (Cummings), he falls in love. After an unfortunate incident, he promises her that if she'll stay with him, he'll quit. But the con and the money are seductive.This is an early talkie and very well directed by Roy del Ruth. Unlike some early talkies, it's not stagy and the actors don't have trouble with the dialogue rhythm. Often in these early films, there are big pauses in between lines, but not here.Warren William is one of my favorites. He played these dark characters in silents and the early years of sound, and then we were able to hear his wonderful laugh and see his humor in films like the Perry Mason series (though he and the scripts weren't Erle Stanley Gardner's idea of Perry Mason), Satan Met a Lady, The Lone Wolf series, and others.Constance Cummings was both beautiful and amazing, and she does a lovely job here. She deserved to be a bigger star, but she left Hollywood early on and moved with her husband to England, where she made some films and appeared in her husband's (Benn Levy) plays. When she was around 70, she appeared on Broadway in a play about a stroke victim, Wings, for which she won a Tony Award. This was a great opportunity to see her on film.Interesting film, kind of a forerunner to "Nightmare Alley" in a way - those movie fortunetellers are always fakes.

***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.

William Warren plays a fraud who must choose between his girl and his fraudulent - but lucrative - profession. Interesting use of crooked camera angles to depict crooked dealings. Warren displays a wider acting range than in other movies.