The Man Who Lived Twice

"The Man Who Lived Twice" is a low budgeted film that has an utterly ridiculous plot. Yet, despite this, it's also a terrific movie...one I strongly recommend.

Slick Rawley is a nasty criminal and when the story begins, he's involved with a shootout with the cops and kills one of them. He's now a wanted man and goes into hiding. After a while, he sneaks out and comes upon a most unusual lecture. The doctor talking to the audience (Thurston Hall) contends that SOME criminals are the way they are due to brain abnormalities and with the proper surgery, they can be rehabilitated. Well, apparently Slick doesn't like who he is and his life of crime and begs the Doctor to help him. Surprisingly, the Doctor does this as well as doing extensive plastic surgery on Rawley's hideous face.

When Rawley awakens from the surgery, something unusual has happened...he has absolutely no memory of his former life. In fact, he's now one of the nicest folks you could ever hope to meet. Eventually, he goes to college and becomes a Doctor...just like his benefactor. But he also has a most unusual desire...to work with the disadvantage in prisons! Yes, prisons...and there, an old sweetie of Rawley's recognizes the voice...though nice Dr. Blake looks nothing like the old criminal he once was...and he has no recollection of this old life. What's next? Well, this woman is determined to make money off her discovery...even if that means ruining nice Dr. Blake.

The plot is clearly silly and tough to believe but the film has several things going for it. First, the writing, despite the weird plot, really is good. Second, Ralph Bellamy really does a great job as both characters and you really appreciate how this underrated actor (and mostly, supporting actor) did his craft. Third, the story does bring up some interesting ideas about rehabilitation and justice. Overall, it's a film you really have to see to appreciate...and I sure apprecited it.

THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE (Columbia, 1936), directed by Harry Lachman, is not exactly a story about reincarnation. It's an interesting blend of crime melodrama and science fiction. Though this particular premise can be categorized as something ahead of its time by 1936 standards, the end result is something more on a timely level in regards to personality change after brain surgery.

The story revolves around "Slick" Rawley (Ralph Bellamy), a disfigured crime leader who, after attempting his latest crime, is caught by a night watchman who sounds off the alarm. Chased by a policeman, a shootout occurs, leading Bob Williams, the officer in question, to die in the line of duty. Inspector Logan (Willard Robertson) of the Homicide Squad, and close friend of the victim, makes every effort to have Rawley captured and sent to prison with death sentence awaiting him, but his capture proves to be a difficult task. As Slock looks out his apartment window to find Logan and law enforcement officers closing in, he orders his partners in crime, former boxer John "Gloves" Baker (Ward Bond), and his moll, Peggy Russell (Isabel Jewell) to go their separate ways as he travels about alone. As the police give chase, Slick eludes them once again by hiding inside Baldwin Medical College. Entering an auditorium, Slick sits in on a very interesting lecture given by Doctor Clifford L. Schuyler (Thurston Hall) about hardened criminals being victims of organic or functional disorder, and how a brain tumor can cause abnormal pressure. Learning how Schuyler's brain operation experiments on vicious dogs and violent monkeys have changed them into gentle creatures, Slick comes to the doctor's home later that evening and talks him into operating on his brain and performing plastic surgery so he can start life anew. After the delicate operations, Slick, having no recollection of his past, is no longer the hardened criminal he once was. Told to be a victim of an automobile accident, Schuyler gives Slick a new identity of James Blake, assisting him through medical school. During the ten year span (1926-1936), Blake becomes both useful citizen and respected criminologist. After hiring Janet Hayden (Marian Marsh), a victim of the depression, as his personal secretary, Blake's past starts to catch up to him when he encounters Peggy at Belmore Island Prison, and later, Gloves, who, after serving time, comes to rob him in his office. Recognizing both his voice and habit of twirling his key chain, Gloves, convinced the mild-mannered doctor to be Slick, becomes his hired chauffeur, revealing nothing about their past association together. Problems arise as Blake becomes more curious about his past and why Peggy is trying to blackmail him.

Taken out of content to Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," pointing out the nature of good and evil in human beings, the story, though modernized and recycled, very much leads to the same results. Slick Rawley starts off as bad. Though his disfigured face may be the reason for his criminal activities, it's never revealed how his face got that way in the first place. He does show there's good in him by wanting the brain surgery that could and does change his personality on a whole new different level. Ralph Bellamy gives a convincing performance in assuming two basic characters into one. His co-star, Marian Marsh, memorably the central figure of Trilby to John Barrymore's SVENGALI (Warners, 1931) appears late into the story, and given little to do as opposed to a challenging performance to earn her an Academy Award nomination. On the other hand, Ward Bond, one who's long career has ranged from uncredited parts to familiar face in the supporting role category, has a good sizable role as a tough but loyal friend whose main goal throughout the story is to go visit his mother before she dies. Bond's actions and mannerisms are his own but sometimes makes one think of a youthful Anthony Quinn. Thurston Hall shows off diversity in roles other than executive types. Nana Bryant as Hall's wife is one who's doubtful in her husband's experiments and unsure about having a wanted criminal under his wing; while Henry Kolker as the courtroom judge who befriends the kindly doctor with a criminal past, helping him with his published essays on criminology.

As interesting as the story is, it's interesting to note how THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE used to be shown on broadcast television as part of its horror film festival during the 1960s and 70s. In the New York City area, it played on Channel 5's (WNEW) long running Saturday afternoon/ evening broadcasts of "Creature Features" (1973-1979) before that weekly movie presentation was put to rest by 1980. Unavailable on the television markets for quite some time, and never distributed to home video or DVD, it finally surfaced on Turner Classic Movies on April 9, 2012. Though more science fiction than a fright film, the basic idea was good enough to be reworked by Columbia as CRIME DOCTOR (1943) starring Warner Baxter, spawning a long-running film series through 1949, and another brain surgery idea put to use in MAN IN THE DARK (1953) with Edmond O'Brien, but hardly recognizable to the 1936 edition. The original, no great masterpiece by any means, is certainly one for the memory book of forgotten films worth rediscovering. (**1/2)

1936's "The Man Who Lived Twice" was one of the Columbia titles included in 1958's SON OF SHOCK package, which followed the monumental success of television's SHOCK! one year earlier. An unrecognizable Ralph Bellamy stars as Slick Rawley, dangerous killer on the run and willing volunteer for Dr. Clifford Schuyler (Thurston Hall), who believes that brain surgery can alter the behavior of hardened criminals. Once the operation is over, Rawley has no memory of who he was, so Dr. Schuyler takes the opportunity to create a new identity for his patient, in ten years a highly successful doctor and great humanitarian in his own right, James Blake. Unfortunately, Rawley's old moll (Isabel Jewell) spills the beans about his old identity, hoping to claim the reward for his capture, leading Blake's devoted chauffeur (Ward Bond), who knows the truth but keeps it to himself, to take drastic measures to ensure his employer's safety. Marian Marsh, coming off her role as Boris Karloff's leading lady in "The Black Room," shines as Blake's love interest, soon to give up acting for good by 1942 (she died at 93 in 2006). Despite the juicy dual roles for Bellamy, this must rank as one of Ward Bond's finest movie roles, soon to appear with Karloff in both "Night Key" and "Son of Frankenstein." "The Man Who Lived Twice" aired only once on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, Jan 11 1969, followed by 1951's "Lost Continent" (its routine 1953 remake, the 3D "Man in the Dark," was broadcast two years earlier).

Enjoyed this small film, "The Man Who Lived Twice" from 1936 starring Ralph Bellamy, Ward Bond, and Isabel Jewell. Bellamy plays a criminal, Slick Rawley, whom the police are after. He disappears and at one point, ducks into a class given by an esteemed doctor (Thurston Hall) who talks about changing an animal's violent personality through surgery. However, he has never done this surgery on a human being.

Slick volunteers; the doctor accepts him for the surgery and also plastic surgery. When the operation is over, Slick doesn't remember a thing about his old life - not his crimes, his friends, nothing. He studies and becomes a doctor and sets up practice, also working with prisoners each morning. Then one of his old friends shows up and thinks he knows the doctor.

Good, earnest performance by Ralph Bellamy and by Hall, with some real spice added by Isabel Jewell as Slick's old girlfriend, who sees the doctor as a soft touch. She tries to talk Gloves (Bond), who now drives for the doctor, to steal from him.

Well worth seeing.

This movie delves into something I've wondered about: no matter what the crime, if a person no longer has knowledge of what they've done, if their memories are gone, should they be held responsible form those crimes?

Ralph Bellamy does well in his dual role of criminal Slick Rawley and Dr. James Blake (a new version of himself, his criminal past wiped away by surgery). He's made a new, morally upright life for himself, had no memories of who he once was and is ready for future with Janet Haydon (Marian Marsh), all courtesy of Dr. Schuyler (Thurston Hall). When his former girlfriend Peggy (played with a good "bad girl" style by Isabel Jewell) recognizes him, and causes trouble, even his friend/chauffeur (and former crony) John "Gloves" Baker (Ward Bond) taking drastic measures can't help him and soon the public (and James himself) has to decide whether or not his present self should pay the price for what his former self did (despite that former self being erased from his memory)?

A movie that makes you think!