The Man in the Mirror (1936 film)

Mr Dilke, a withdrawn, mild-mannered man, works in the city. He is preparing an important report on nitrates but is considered too weak to proceed with the deal. On the tube home Veronica, a colleague, contrives to get off the tube at his stop and get him to walk her home. Her plot is foiled by Dilke's wife, Helen, who takes him home in a taxi.

They argue over dinner and she leaves to go to her mother.

Alone in the hose he is surprised when his reflection in the mirror steps out and tells him that he is his alter ego, the kind of man he wishes he was. The man-in-the-mirror then begins to live the wild life that the man had always dreamed of.

He kisses his wife with new passion and gives his mother-in-law an honest opinion of her interference.

The two co-exist. The real Dilke no longer appears in the mirror. While the new Dilke stays at home romancing his wife the real Dilke begins acting out of character and goes into town with neighbours and eats Chinese food for the first time at a club, the Shanghai Follies.

The real Dilke checks into a hotel under the name of Thomson so as to avoid meeting the new Dilke. Veronica spots him and presumes he is having an affair.

Back at Shanghai Follies he stumbles upon a plot to create a false deal for the nitrates.

• Edward Everett Horton as Jeremy Dilke
• Genevieve Tobin as Helen Dilke
• Ursula Jeans as Veronica Tarkington
• Garry Marsh as Charles Tarkington
• Aubrey Mather as Bogus of Bokhara
• Alastair Sim as Interpreter
• Renee Gadd as Miss Blake
• Viola Compton as Mrs. Massiter
• Stafford Hillard as Dr. Graves
• Felix Aylmer as Earl Of Wigan
• Merle Tottenham as Mary
• Syd Crossley as Minor role

• Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
• Sutton, David R. A chorus of raspberries: British film comedy 1929-1939. University of Exeter Press, 2000.
• Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.

• The Man in the Mirror at IMDb