Out of the Unknown This Body Is Mine (1965–1971) watch online HD

Out of the Unknown: This Body Is Mine starts one evening as the no nonsense Northern financier Jack Gregory (Jack Hedley) arrives at the home of mild mannered research scientist Allen (John Carson) & his wife Ann Meredith (Alethea Charlton) for dinner, Ann gives Jack a drink which is drugged & puts him to sleep. By a chance experiment Allen has created a machine which can transfer minds from one persons body to another, while drugged the Meredith's use Allen's machine to swap his & Jack's minds. While Allen is in Jack's body he intends to swindle a hundred thousand pounds out of the company Jack works for but finds that Jack led a very complicated & often dangerous life. Meanwhile when Jack wakes up & finds himself in Allen's body he uses the situation to his advantage, convincing Ann that she would be better off with him they hatch a plot to steal the money for themselves...

Episode three from season four of the British produced television series Out of the Unknown this was directed by Eric Hills & is probably the most sci-fi orientated episode from the entire fourth season (judging from the plot summaries of missing episodes anyway), a sort of twist black comedy about body swapping for gain This Body is Mine is alright but nothing that memorable. This Body is Mine features the often used science fiction idea of swapping minds rather than the supernatural like the majority of season four, as such it feels like it belongs in season three but whatever I suppose. A largely exposition based story in which a mild mannered scientists finds it hard to trapped inside a domineering financier while the financier finds it rather nice to be inside his body, the advantages & disadvantages are explored & at only fifty odd minutes long at least it's short enough not to get boring & it's quite entertaining & fun to see where the story goes although the ending is a little unsatisfying & not much of a twist. The character's are alright even if the idea that women like strong men to dominate them is rather sexist, the dialogue is alright & the story although far fetched & hampered by it's low budget remains quite fun.

Originally broadcast during May 1971 there are no special effects to speak of & little on screen action so this relies on a solid story to keep ones interest. The acting is pretty good here, all the leads do a decent job. Jack Hedley is probably best know these days for starring in Lucio Fulci's splatter gore slasher film The New York Ripper (1982).

This Body is Mine is noticeably different in tone than the rest of season four, sticking to more traditional sci-fi ideas than supernatural horror this is worth a watch but the lack of a twist doesn't help nor do the lengthy exposition scenes.

The storyline for this entry is a can't-miss premise, first used in the 1936 British feature "The Man Who Changed His Mind," aka "The Man Who Lived Again" in the US. Hammer veteran John Carson ("The Plague of the Zombies," "Taste the Blood of Dracula," "Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter") stars as Professor Allen W. Meredith, working to earn a small allowance from his conniving, cutthroat employer, Jack Gregory (Jack Hedley). Meredith has created a machine that can transfer the mind of one person into the body of another, and schemes with his wife Ann (Alethea Charlton) to make the switch with Gregory to increase their finances. Ann uses her feminine charms to easily lure the womanizing Gregory to their flat, and successfully pull off the switch. The mild mannered Meredith, in Gregory's body, has great difficulty dealing with his employer's many vices, while a captive Gregory, in Meredith's body, manages to smooth his way into the good graces of the Professor's newly aroused wife. A puzzled Mrs. Gregory (Sonia Graham) seems pleased by the almost caring change in her formerly faithless husband, who doesn't even complain about catching her with another man. Gregory's other problems include a painful ulcer and an unpaid commission owed to two gangsters. When the time comes to reverse the process, Mrs. Meredith decides that she prefers her new, sly husband over the old one. Both John Carson and Jack Hedley are quite convincing in their dual roles, while Alethea Charlton (who died only five years after this broadcast) also scores as the sexy, shallow wife, whose character uncannily echoes the one played by Jacqueline Bisset in 1971's "The Mephisto Waltz." Still, the best version of this story is the 1936 Boris Karloff feature, which co-starred Anna Lee as the female scientist who produces a happy ending. This episode was shot on video, like the Brian Clemens THRILLER episodes which made their way to the US in the late 1970s.