The Man Who Lived Twice *** (1936, Ralph Bellamy, Marian Marsh, Thurston Hall, Isabel Jewell, Nana Bryant, Ward Bond) – Classic Movie Review 5200

Director Harry Lachman’s suspenseful and classy 1936 Columbia B-movie crime thriller stars Ralph Bellamy as disfigured notorious criminal ‘Slick’ Rawley, who has plastic surgery to change his identity. He loses his memory and decides to help people by becoming respected Dr James Blake, but his old criminal buddies turn up…

It is an impeccable B movie of its period. Lachman’s handling is brisk and imaginative and the acting is particularly good.

It also stars Marian Marsh as Janet Haydon, Thurston Hall as Dr Clifford L. Schuyler, Isabel Jewell as Peggy Russell, Nana Bryant as Margaret Schuyler, Ward Bond as John ‘Gloves’ Baker, Henry Kolker as Judge Henry Treacher, Willard Robertson as Police Inspector Logan and Ann Doran as Nurse Cameron.

Also in the cast are Kathrin Clare Ward as Aggie, Beatrice Curtis as Prisoner, Mary Lou Dix as Prisoner, Franklyn Farnum as Juror, Betty Farrington as Head Matron, the violinist Jascha Heifetz as himself in archive footage, Edward Keane as Police Commissioner, Edward LeSaint as Judge, Eric Mayne as Man in Montage, Bruce Mitchell as Cleary, Bert Moorhouse as Carney, G. Raymond Nye as fingerprint man Stoney, Frank O’Connor as policeman Frank, Cyril Ring as Heifetz Concert Attendee and Nell Roy as Prisoner.

It was remade as Man in the Dark in 1953.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5200

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