Another typically solid production from Britain's Gainsborough Pictures, this adaptation of Ernest Lothar's novel has a terribly dated third act set in the British Royal Court but is otherwise quite entertaining. Claude Rains is fittingly mercurial as a phony psychic who is suddenly hailed as a prophet after he predicts both a train crash and a racehorse winner; however, after he attempts to save miners from a shaft he is certain will collapse, the newspapers and public turn on him as a publicity seeker. There's an odd thread involving a strange young woman who proves to be a conduit to Rains' psychic mind--her hypnotic stare provides him with the power he needs to go into a trance--yet the movie just shucks it off as second-hand business. Instead, a subplot with Claude's faithful but jealous wife is given an over-abundance of screen-time (it just makes her look like a ninny); and when Rains is lauded by a prestigious men's club, we're not sure exactly what they're celebrating or offering to him. Still, the direction is very tight (even though the crowd shots and second-unit footage is sloppy)...and when Rains goes into one of his wide-eyed, transcendental arias, look out! **1/2 from ****