ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Science fiction that serves a worthy cause — anti racism message. Raymond St. Jacques stars in this story of a white District Attorney who must undergo a radical new surgical procedure when he discovers he has terminal cancer. His brain is transferred to the body of a recently deceased black man.

The film does a nice job of examining the sudden change in attitude which society exhibits when this well-respected white man suddenly presents a very different face to his co-workers, friends, wife, etc.

St. Jacques' wife (Susan Oliver of the Star Trek episode The Cage / Menagerie) has an especially tough time adjusting to the change because her relationship is considerably more intimate. An interesting, if unexciting, effort by director Robert Stevens. Also starring Leslie Nielson (Forbidden Planet), Cosette Lee, and Janet MacLachlan.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I hate to say it, but Youtube doesn't have a trailer for this one, much less the movie (although it does have the title credits). Dang it.

There's also no downloads from any of the sources I know — and I know a lot.

I checked IMDB to find a few interesting trivia items to post. I discovered there were no trivia items . . . at all. And no "Goofs" either. That's odd.

I looked for DVDs on Amazon. Nope. There ain't one.

Why is this movie so universally ignored? I saw it in 1969 at the Air Force base theater in Kunsan, Korea, while I was serving as a Security Policeman, and I enjoyed it very much. I'd love to see it again.

But that seems unlikely under the circumstances.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[alltare]

iOffer has it for $13, including shipping:
https://www.ioffer.com/i/change-of-mind-1969-590471707
I haven't dealt with this seller, but his feedback looks good. I HAVE dealt with many other iOffer sellers with no problems.

[Bud Brewster]

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I found a few gray-market sources while I was writing the post, but I figured the quality of the DVD-Rs would be questionable because they're probably copies of VHS tapes from local TV channels back in the 80s or 90s.

Besides, I was pitching the idea that this movie is rare for mysterious reasons ("A white man who becomes a black man . . . with a white wife! Shocking! )

So, I deliberately didn't mention the gray-market DVD-R's, just to make a stronger case for my claim that this movie is unobtainable.

Besides, I knew it gave you folks something to add to thread!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Custer]

Roger Ebert wrote about the movie here:

The plot of "Change of Mind" hardly inspires enthusiasm. The brain of a white district attorney is transplanted into a black man's body, and the movie is about how he adjusts to his new color and almost wins the big case.

This sounds like one of Hollywood's common ploys: trying to make a movie twice as successful by employing not one but two contemporary themes. People are interested in transplants and race relations, right? So why don't we...

Well, strangely enough, "Change of Mind" is never as bad or tasteless as it could have been. It concerns itself mostly with the hero's emotional and ethical problems, and becomes a sort of fictional "Black Like Me." But we still can't forget the absurdity of the premise. A BRAIN transplant?

And so, instead of appreciating Raymond St. Jacques' fine performance as the district attorney, we are distracted (a) by the reminder that the DA is really the brain inside the body and (b) by thoughts of how St. Jacques must feel, as a black man, playing a white man playing a black man. The implications are interesting, yes, but the distractions get in the way of the performance. We're forever figuring out the angles.

The other problem is that the movie turns out to be about a controversial murder trial, instead of about the experience of becoming Negro. The DA is faced with a problem: Should he reveal his new evidence, even if that means the racist sheriff goes free and a long-suffering black man is convicted? And this, we remember, is exactly the dilemma presented in "The Learning Tree," where it was relevant. But it's not relevant here, because we want to know about this guy's thoughts and emotions -- not about his legal career.

So the weight of these difficulties sinks the movie, but not before we realize that St. Jacques is an actor with considerable ability, and that Susan Oliver (as his wife) is a charming actress who has been obscured, until now, in even worse movies ("Your Cheatin' Heart," etc.). For St. Jacques, "Change of Mind" is actually a step up from the unspeakably awful role he had to play in "If He Hollers, Let Him Go!," but he is still an actor who needs a sound role in a sensible movie to fully establish himself.

......

Two-and-a-half stars wasn't bad... probably, all these years on, we are more likely to accept the idea of a brain transplant as within the realms of possibility.

[Bud Brewster]

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I don't remember details about the film from my one-and-only viewing in 1969, but I do remember that it was interesting and entertaining.

Absolutely everybody in the movie has to adjust to a drastic change in a person they have known for years. His wife, for example, suddenly finds herself in an interracial marriage . . . in an era when it was still socially taboo to many folks.

When Raymond St. Jacques looks in the mirror each morning, he sees a face which could NOT be more different from the one he's had all his life.

His legal associates suddenly find themselves working with a complete stranger.

In the trial of a local sheriff accused of murder, the jury he must address might include racists whose opinions will be negatively affected by this black attorney's new race — something he's never had to deal with before.

The local sheriff himself is accused of killing his black mistress — another interracial relationship in an era plagued by civil rights conflicts.

And when I read that Leslie Nielsen played the sheriff, I suddenly remembered the dramatic scene in which Nielsen is on the witness stand, tearfully professing his love for the murdered African-American girl.

I've always been a sucker for a trial scenes.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[alltare]

Now there's an interesting scifi concept: "I don't acknowledge it, therefore it doesn't exist".

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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As I mentioned above, the only copies of this movie I know of are poor-quality gray market versions. The one from YouTube below has a disappointing picture in 4:3 aspect radio, with subtitles in a foreign language. It appears to be a VHS recording.

___________________ Change of Mind (1969)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)