Images (1972)
Identity Blurring/Surrealism
A fascinatingly enigmatic work from Robert Altman, an artily experimental film in which the identities of five people together at a countryside cottage begin to shift and blur
Bodyswap and Identity Exchange
Bodyswap is a term used on this site to refer to films where characters swap their minds into different bodies. Usually the body the person finds themselves in is someone who is very different to their self.
Variations include where people swap age; where men and women swap gender; where characters find themselves in a body of a different race; or where people are transferred into the bodies of animals.
Most of the treatments here are light comedy but there are also a number of horror treatments concerning brain transplants and body hijacking. There are also various SF versions that take place in futures where people regularly switch into ‘sleeves’. There have also been a number of variations in the genre of Surrealism.
Horror Express (1972)
Body-Hopping Alien Aboard a Train
Wonderfully madcap film with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing travelling aboard the Trans-Siberian Express in the 1900s realising they are facing a body-hopping alien
Lady Frankenstein (1971)
Frankenstein Film
One of several continental Frankenstein films of the 1970s, concerning Frankenstein’s daughter. This tries to imitate Hammer Films on a lesser budget and with more nudity
Brain of Blood (1971)
Brain Transplant Horrors
An unofficial copycat of the Filipino-made Blood Island from exploitation director Al Adamson, a trashy mix involving a dictator’s transplanted brain, Frankenstein monsters and a perverted dwarf
The Mephisto Waltz (1971)
Bodyswap/Occultism
A clear attempt to copy Rosemary’s Baby made with extraordinary stylishnessas Jacqueline Bisset believes husband Alan Alda’s body has been stolen by a dead man
Brotherhood of Satan (1971)
Town of Satanists
An entry among the 1970s occult cycle post-Rosemary’s Baby where a family stray into a sinister small town where a coven of Satanists are abducting children for sinister purpose
Watermelon Man (1970)
White Man Wakes Up as a Black Man/Satiric Comedy
From Melvin Van Peebles who made the first Blaxploitation film, a satire in which a white man wakes up to find he has turned black. This takes a savage bite out of race relations but ends up without teeth in being distracted by Godfrey Cambridge’s raucous loudmouth performance
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Hammer Frankenstein Film
The fifth of Hammer’s Frankenstein films and the absolute pinnacle of the series. Terence Fisher is on the peak of his form and turns in a series of directorial set pieces that are quite masterful
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Hammer Frankenstein Film
The fourth of Hammer’s Frankenstein films and the most conceptually wild with Frankenstein conducting soul transplants, including transferring his assistant’s soul into a woman’s body
Dark Intruder (1965)
Occult Investigator
Pilot for an unsold tv series that was later released theatrically produced by Alfred Hitchcock’s company. Leslie Nielsen plays an occult detective and the film proves surprisingly well-shot and atmospheric
Monstrosity (1964)
Mad Scientist Conducts Atomic Brain Transplants
An amusingly lurid Z budget film with a widow using an atomic reactor to transfer her mind into a younger body
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Hammer Frankenstein Film
The second of Hammer’s Frankenstein films and a fine work that finds positively ingenious ways to continue on from its predecessor. Terence Fisher and the production team are all on top form.
Damn Yankees (1958)
Musical/Pact with the Devil
Musical where an ordinary guy sells his soul to become a star baseball player. Choreographed with exuberance by the great Bob Fosse, including a seduction number that proved controversial for the era
Angel on My Shoulder (1946)
Man Returns From Hell to Do the Devil's Mischief
One of the films from the 1940s fad for light afterlife fantasies in which mobster Paul Muni is sent back from Hell by The Devil in the body of a respectable judge to create mischief
The Monster and the Girl (1941)
Mad Scientist Transplants a Brain Into a Gorilla Body
Mad scientist film in which George Zucco transplants an executed man’s brain into a gorilla’s body whereupon the ape-man proceeds to exact revenge against those who wrongly convicted him
Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941)
Afterlife Mixup
One of the original Hollywood afterlife films of the 1940s light fantasy boom, twice remade, most notedly as Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait. Amiable and likeable while avoiding any deeper issues
Black Friday (1940)
Gangster's Transplanted Brain
A peculiar mixture of 1940s mad scientist and gangster film in which Boris Karloff transplants a mob boss’s brain into the body of a mild-mannered English professor
Turnabout (1940)
Husband-Wife Bodyswap Screwball Comedy
A madcap screwball comedy in which a husband and wife swap bodies. The very first bodyswap film. From director Hal Roach who discovered Laurel and Hardy
The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
Mad Scientist Perfects Bodyswap Process
Classic Boris Karloff mad scientist effort in which he plays a scientist who invents a device that allows him to swap minds into different bodies. All the usual Gothic fear-filled view of science from this era, but rather well made and with Karloff on fine form