The Man Who Lived Twice (1936) User Reviews

A Really Good Programmer!

[the_mysteriousx · 8/10 · 18 February 2006]

This is the type of B movie that makes you want to keep seeking these old flicks out. Ralph Bellamy plays Slick Rawley, a notorious criminal who is disfigured. The cops get too close to him, so he ducks out from his friend Gloves (Ward Bond) and his girl Peggy (Isabel Jewell) and ends up in a college at a lecture by scientist Dr. Schuyler (Thurston Hall in a nice turn). This Doctor says he can cure certain types of criminals by releasing pressure on the brain, caused by tumors. Rawley is intrigued and talks the doctor into using him as his first human experiment. (He had done experiments on "criminal" dogs before). Slick only asks for his disfigurement to be repaired. After the experiment, Slick loses his memory and becomes the prominent Dr. Blake after much help from his new father figure, Dr. Schuyler. After a few years his old cohorts show up and he gains a new ally in Gloves, who again is loyal to the man who takes care of him, but now an enemy in his old girl, Peggy, who wants the reward for turning in Slick to the police.

Harry Lachman was a very good director and this film benefits also from being made at Columbia, a quality studio. This is clearly a B film, but has a class that shows. Lachman uses a lot of close-ups, montages and angled shots that keep the story feeling tense, even in some of the lighter passages. Ralph Bellamy is very good in a dual role, first as the disfigured criminal and second as the respected doctor. He uses different body language for each and at the same time both have certain aspects in common, including the voice and the nervous habit of twirling a key-chain, which eventually gives Blake's true identity away.

Likewise, the supporting cast is very good. Ward Bond plays Gloves with some real sympathy. He's not the smartest man, but he really just needs a chance. Jewell is quite good as the greedy woman, who won't take good charity from Dr. Blake and would rather turn him in for more money. The two mirror the good and bad sides of Blake/Rawley. Gloves is his loyal, good side that gives people a chance, despite their criminal ways. Peggy, meanwhile, is the seedier side that takes the quick and easy way rather than work hard. Marian Marsh is also sympathetic as a woman, Janet, who Blake helps and ends up falling in love with.

The Man Who LivedTwice is a special little B, that has some good suspense and even some horror overtones with the story of disfigurement and scientific experiment. The sci-fi angle is, of course, the weak point with the ridiculous tumor on the brain theory, but when you get past that, this is a really good crime melodrama.

nice B movie

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 10 April 2012]

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.

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1969

[kevinolzak · 8/10 · 4 January 2014]

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).

A Double Life

[lugonian · 6/10 · 5 August 2012]

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)

Better than average crime drama with a twist

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 13 April 2012]

It isn't often that I find an old crime movie that will interest me. I watched this primarily because it starred a young Ralph Bellamy. I didn't expect much, but was surprised. This one rises above the average crime drama, despite having a few very questionable scientific theories for its basis.

Bellamy plays and ugly and scarred criminal who agrees to undergo and "underground" surgery by a reputable surgeon who has a theory that some criminals lead the life they do due to a certain type of brain tumor. Is the surgery illegal? Of course. But the surgeon does it to test his theory...on the condition by Bellamy that he also does plastic surgery so that he will, after the operation, be a new man.

After the operations he has complete amnesia. But remember, this is not the cliché script about the plastic surgery. It's about the brain operation, after which Bellamy becomes a wonderful fellow who becomes a doctor himself. All seems to be going well until he volunteers to work mornings at a prison, where he treats his ex-girl friend...who recognizes his voice. His fingerprints eventually give him away. What will the legal system do? Convict and imprison him, or let him lead his new life as a pillar of the community? Bellamy is excellent here, particularly after the operation. Ward Bond is very good, too, and it is nice to see him in a stronger, more central role. Isabel Jewell -- as the low-class girlfriend -- was disappointing. In the same time frame, she had made interesting appearances in films such as "A Tale Of Two Cities" and "Lost Horizons" (both with Ronald Colman); here she a pretty typical "bad girl". Willard Robertson, who typically plays a pretty standard police detective, also does rather nicely here.

I recommend this film...for at least one watch...though probably not for your DVD shelf. It's done really well, and is something different in the crime genre.

A Film That Never Really Goes Anywhere

[Michael_Elliott · 6 June 2012]

The Man Who Lived Twice (1936)

** (out of 4)

Fair mix of horror and crime has Ralph Bellamy playing 'Slick' Rawley, a notorious killer who hears about a doctor (Thurston Hall) who is performing brain operations, which is curing evil people of their bad deeds. After the operation Slick also has a face lift but the big key is that he's forgotten his past. With only the future ahead of him he decides to learn medicine and everything starts to go right until his past starts to catch up with him. THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE has a pretty interesting set-up but sadly the film never really comes together for a number of reasons. I think the film's biggest flaw is the fact that it really doesn't know what type of movie it wants to be. The horror elements are so small that it's really hard to lump it into the genre even with the operation stuff. The crime elements really aren't explored either outside of the opening when we get to see what type of person Slick is. The rest of the film has a love story that really doesn't go anywhere and in fact I'd say that the majority of the running time is all about nothing. I'm not going to ruin the final ten-minutes of the movie but they're rather laughable and especially the way the conclusion plays out. The one thing working for the film are the performances and Bellamy leads the way in a nice turn. I thought he did a very good job as both the good doctor and the evil crime boss. Marian Marsh and Isabel Jewel are good as the love interests and Ward Bond nearly steals the picture as the assistant to Slick. There's really not too much atmosphere and even at 73-minutes the film drags a bit. THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE isn't a horrible film but at the same time it's not really a good one either.

running with the premise

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 25 December 2023]

Criminal 'Slick' Rawley (Ralph Bellamy) escapes from the cops and the papers are all over it. He had killed a cop. He happens upon a lecture from Dr. Clifford Schuyler who claims to cure persistent criminality with brain surgery. So far, he has only operated on animals. Slick offers himself as the first human subject as long as the doctor fixes his scarred face as well. After the surgery, Slick loses his memories.

This has an interesting premise. I would prefer some changes, but I am running with this premise. I would like to remake this with a few changes. I guess I'll have to track down the Man in the Dark (1953). I'll hold back some of my judgements. Mostly, I like the first half and I stayed with it till the end.

Definitely worth your time...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 9 July 2012]

... even if the much better known film "The Crime Doctor", starring Warner Baxter in the title role, is somewhat a remake of this one. I say "somewhat" because even though the overall premise is the same - a criminal loses all memory of his former self and becomes a prominent physician, philanthropist, and overall good guy until his former life begins to intrude upon his present one- many of the plot mechanisms are different.

First off, we never got to see Warner Baxter as the gangster, the first time we see him he's dumped for dead by his gang at the side of a road. In this film we actually get to see gangster 'Slick' Rawley (Ralph Bellamy) before his transition. In a burglary gone wrong he kills a cop and has to take it on the lam. His gang consists of Gloves (Ward Bond) and his girl Peggy (Isabel Jewell). While on the run he hides out in a lecture hall where prominent surgeon Dr. Clifford L. Schuyler (Thurston Hall) is giving a lecture. The lecture is on how, with a brain operation, he can turn psychotic killers into gentle beings, but so far he's only operated on animals. After the lecture Rawley offers to be a guinea pig for Schuyler who is reluctant for two reasons - the risk involved and the fact that Slick admits to being a fugitive. Slick also wants plastic surgery because he needs to hide from the cops, which leads you to believe it just may have been the plastic surgery he wanted in the first place and that he thinks that Schuyler's theories about reform via surgery were just so much hooey.

However, Rawley awakens from the surgery a completely transformed human being with no memory of who he is, so Schuyler lies to him and tells him he's James Blake, an amnesia victim that required brain surgery, and that he has no relatives that he could find. Like the crime doctor, Blake takes an interest in medicine while recuperating and then starts on a ten year journey to become a doctor himself, all the while befriended by Schuyler, the only person who knows the whole story.

Unlike the Crime Doctor, this film doesn't have much overt conflict. There is no gang out to hunt down the good doctor in search of some loot that he has hidden somewhere. In fact, Slick's old partner Gloves seems quite the reluctant criminal. The only really hardened character here is Peggy, who recognizes Slick in spite of the new face and doesn't seem resentful he has thrown her over for a new girl as much as she is angry that he is rolling in dough and she isn't. If you don't think a woman scorned can be as dangerous as an entire gang of criminals in search of a stash of cash, you haven't seen Peggy in action.

This film seems to take an even more sympathetic view of crime and the possibility of rehabilitation than the Crime Doctor did just seven years later, probably because the Depression was still in full swing and there were still plenty of hungry desperate people often driven to desperate acts. The one thing that is never sufficiently explained are Dr. Schuyler's actions. After all, all he really knows about Slick is what Slick told him - when he was still a hardened criminal. Wasn't he the least bit worried that Slick might have a wife - or two - stashed away somewhere when he became engaged to be married as Dr. Blake? That possibility was raised in "The Crime Doctor" but never here.

Even if you have already seen "The Crime Doctor", I highly recommended this fast moving little action film with good performances by all involved.