The Man Who Died Twice *** (1958, Rod Cameron, Vera Ralston, Mike Mazurki) – Classic Movie Review 7613

Director Joseph [Joe] Kane’s 1958 film noir crime drama The Man Who Died Twice stars Vera Ralston, who ended her career, aged 37, with this typically routine but brisk and complex black and white thriller about Lynn Brennon, a singer up to her tonsils in death.

Her husband T J Brennon (Don Megowan) is incinerated in a car crash and two men – federal drugs agents – are killed. The cops think the three killings are linked and that Lynn is up to her neck in them and in her husband’s heroin import business.

Mike Mazurki (Moose Malloy in Murder My Sweet) and Rod Cameron are other Fifties people also involved in this neat little yarn with slightly fumbled handling and a sometimes murky script. Cameron plays Brennon’s cop brother Bill, who helps local police in their investigation.

Also in the cast are Gerald Milton, Richard Karlan, Louis Jean Heydt, Don Megowan, John Maxwell, Bob Anderson, Paul Picerni, Don Haggerty, Luana Anders and Jesslyn Fax.

The Man Who Died Twice is directed by Joseph Kane, runs 70 minutes, is made by Ventura Pictures Corporation, released by Republic Pictures, is written by Richard C Sarafian, is shot in black and white by Jack A Marta, is produced by Rudy Ralston, and is designed by Ralph Oberg.

This was Ralston’s 26^th movie; she lived on till 2003.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7613

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