The Man Who Changed His Mind (a.k.a. The Brainsnatcher, The Man Who Lived Again and Doctor Maniac) is a 1936 British science fiction horror film starring Boris Karloff, Anna Lee and John Loder. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Gainsborough Pictures.
Dr. Laurience (Karloff) is a Mad Scientist who has successfully devised a method for transferring the mind and soul of one person into the of another. However, his discovery is treated with derision and ridicule by the scientific community, who refuse to believe it. Deciding to use his discovery for his own ends, and to win the love of his young laboratory assistant, Dr. Clare Wyatt (Lee), Laurience transfers his mind into the body of journalist Dick Haslewood (Loder); the man Clare loves.
Tropes:
- Crusty Caretaker: Dr. Laurience's assistant is a wheelchair-bound bitter old man named Clayton who looks after the doctor's house and the doctor himself. Often verges into Servile Snarker territory.
- Destination Defenestration: Dick—in Laurience’s body—manages to escape a deadly gas chamber and falls out of a window, breaking all his bones.
- Evil Cripple: Clayton, The Igor to Dr. Laurience, is a bitter wheelchair-bound old man who is Working for a Body Upgrade.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Dr. Laurience develops a means of swapping the minds and souls of people. After testing it on chimpanzees, he uses it to transfer the mind of his assistant Clayton from his wheelchair-bound body into the body of Lord Haslewood. He then uses it to swap bodies with Dick Haslewood.
- Gas Chamber: After switching Dick's mind into his body, Dr. Laurience starts filling the chamber his body is in in to kill Dick.
- The Igor: Dr. Laurience's lab assistant (and Crusty Caretaker) is Clayton; an Evil Cripple confined to wheelchair and suffering from a condition that could kill him at any time, who is working for Laurience in exchange for having his mind transferred into a healthy body.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Dr. Laurience transfers his mind into Dick Haslewood's body. However, he doesn't know that Dick doesn't smoke, so when Dr. Wyatt sees him chain-smoking she realises the truth.
- I Take Offense to That Last One:Clayton: This may amuse you.
[gives Laurience a newspaper with a gossipy article about his experiments.]
Dr. Laurience: You told them all this!
Clayton: Me? Why me?
Dr. Laurience: How should I know? Your mind is just as twisted as your body. Don't forget, if I leave out one injection...
Clayton: I don't mind dying, but to be accused of journalism! - Madness Montage: After being laughed out of the auditorium by the scientific community, and Lord Haslewood cuts off his funding, there is a montage showing Dr. Laurience's rapid descent into insanity.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Laurience. Already obsessed with the idea of transferring souls between bodies, he descends into full insanity when the scientific community rejects his theories and literally laughs him out of the room.
- Mad Scientist Laboratory: Dr. Lurience's home lab, where he appears to swapping minds between bodies using a Jacob's ladder. His new lab at the Haselwood Institute looks far more high-tech and antiseptic, even if it performs the same function.
- Old, Dark House: Dr. Laurience is conducting his research in a decaying, isolated manor house in the country. The local cabbie refuses to take Clare to the door; instead dropping her off some distance away from the house.
- Servile Snarker: Clayton is The Igor to Dr. Laurience, but knowing that he could die at moment, combined with the fact that no one else will work for the eccentric Laurience, allows him to be extremely sarcastic to his employer (and everyone else).
- They Called Me Mad!: Dr. Laurience is already obsessed with proving his technique for swapping the mind and soul between bodies, but is driving into becoming a full-blown Mad Scientist when a council of Britain's greatest scientific minds reject his theory as insane.Dr. Laurience: I was the leading surgeon in Genoa - the greatest authority upon the human brain, until I told them something about their own brains. Then they said I was mad. Look at me. Am I mad?
- Working for a Body Upgrade: Clayton works as The Igor to Dr. Laurience in exchange for having his mind swapped from his wheelchair-bound form into a young healthy body one Laurience succeeds.
