MAN WHO LIVED TWICE (1936) 3.15pm April 9 ON TCM in VCR / TiVo Alert Forum

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MAN WHO LIVED TWICE (1936) 3.15pm April 9 ON TCM

Author	Comment
clore103051		#21	[-]
Apr 10 12 10:01 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Marsh really sparkles and gets top billing in BEAUTY AND THE BOSS with Warren William. He's a powerful businessman (wasn't he always?), bored with the gold-digging types in his life during and after working hours. So when he needs a new secretary, he falls for the waif who isn't really as mousey as she seems. She shows great comic timing and easily slides from dowdy to dynamo as the film progresses. David Manners as William's brother shows to better than usual effect and Frederick Kerr is his usual self.
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FrozenGhost		#22	[-]
Apr 10 12 11:56 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I would recommend THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE as a solid B feature, handily topping any of the Universal non-horror titles in the Shock package (admittedly a dreary bunch: CHINATOWN SQUAD, A DANGEROUS GAME, SPY RING, all those Crime Clubs, etc.). BEAUTY AND THE BOSS is worth catching too.
Wolfman Joe		#23	[-]
Apr 11 12 2:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rats, I missed this, and you know why? Because in my brain, the title gets thrown into the big mix of late 30's - early 40's Karloff "mad doctor" films - THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG, THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES, THE MAN WITH THE PRONOUNCED LISP... I can't even tell those apart, what chance did TWICE have while I skimmed the TCM schedule?
bela lugosi		#24	[-]
Apr 12 12 5:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	clore103051 wrote: Marsh really sparkles and gets top billing in BEAUTY AND THE BOSS with Warren William. He's a powerful businessman (wasn't he always?), bored with the gold-digging types in his life during and after working hours. So when he needs a new secretary, he falls for the waif who isn't really as mousey as she seems. She shows great comic timing and easily slides from dowdy to dynamo as the film progresses. David Manners as William's brother shows to better than usual effect and Frederick Kerr is his usual self. I really like this film, and agree with you on all counts.
infinite1		#25	[-]
Apr 12 12 7:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: Borderline horror/s-f, I'd say. My recollection is that I liked it pretty much, but it was nothing special. Then again, I don't think I've seen it since two or three viewings on Shock Theatre way back in 1962. I remember seeing it a few times during the early 70s on CREATURE FEATURES on WNEW channel 5 in NEW YORK. After that it vanished until I was able to pick up a bootleg copy from THE FANG at one of the CHILLER SHOWS at the MEADOWLANDS in NJ. I enjoyed it and thought it had some similarities to I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. It definitely had a more satisfactory ending then the more famous film.
Mora		#26	[-]
Apr 13 12 11:02 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Beg to argue, infinite1: No movie of the era had a better ending than I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. That was real life, as we know from Robert Burns' life.
Rick		#27	[-]
Apr 13 12 1:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Gotta agree with Mora. I haven't seen THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE in 50 years and, understandably, I don't remember the ending. But I do know how I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG ends, and it's a classic. One of the great final lines and fadeouts ever.
clore103051		#28	[-]
Apr 13 12 2:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	A tip for my fellow BEAUTY AND THE BOSS fans: The Warner Archive has a 3 for 33 sale going on until April 16th and this Warren William/Marian Marsh title is one of the 1,000 single disc titles included in the sale. Free shipping also.
bela lugosi		#29	[-]
Apr 13 12 5:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Thanks for the heads up, Clore. That looks very tempting. Mora and Rick, I agree with you about the ending to I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. Chilling.
clore103051		#30	[-]
Apr 13 12 7:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	bela lugosi wrote: Thanks for the heads up, Clore. That looks very tempting. I think that I'll go for BEAUTY AND THE BOSS, plus CHICAGO CALLING with Dan Duryea and THE VERDICT with Lorre and Greenstreet, Don Siegel's first feature. There's another Marsh/William teaming in UNDER 18 but it's really a silly film - unintentionally.
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kochillt		#31	[-]
Apr 13 12 8:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Universal's SHOCK! package included the 1937 thriller THE MAN WHO CRIED WOLF, like THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE, a feature first discovered on Pittsburgh's CHILLER THEATER. This Ralph Bellamy film was remade as MAN IN THE DARK in 1953, which actually debuted on CT two years before the original. No wonder some viewers got confused by the titles, without checking the cast! I agree that Columbia's THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE was superior to the Universal non horror titles, as was THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK. They didn't get much drearier than THE SPY RING or A DANGEROUS GAME (I'm happy to have all 73 SHOCK! titles, but not all of them appeared on CHILLER THEATER).
Rick		#32	[-]
Apr 13 12 10:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When Shock! Theater returned to Louisville in 1962, showing every Saturday night for 52 weeks, the station ran 43 or 44 different films and re-ran 8 or 9. I don't know if they took the package that was sold to them, or if they got to do some cherry-picking, but we got a nice package -- all of Universals' big 4 monster series (except for SON OF DRACULA) all the Invisible Man films (except AGENT and WOMAN), all the mad doctors from Columbia, and most of the other good stuff. We got only a few of the non-horrors (THE MAN WITH TWO FACES, ISLAND OF THE DOOMED, FACE BEHIND THE MASK). Oddly, there were at least three films shown on Shock! that year that weren't included in either Shock! package. Two very welcome films -- RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (from Fox)-- and one that still sounds better than it is -- CRY OF THE WEREWOLF. I still haven't seen CHINATOWN SQUAD, DESTINATION UNKNOWN, REPORTED MISSING and a few others. I think we got a pretty sweet deal back in '62.
infinite1		#33	[-]
Apr 16 12 7:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: Gotta agree with Mora. I haven't seen THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE in 50 years and, understandably, I don't remember the ending. But I do know how I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG ends, and it's a classic. One of the great final lines and fadeouts ever. Maybe I wasn't clear, but I never said that the ending of I AM A FUGITIVE wasn't classic, it was, but it was also an unjust, sad ending. THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE was not as classic a film as FUGITIVE by any stretch of the imagination, but it had a happier ending, for me, as a viewer, that was a more satisfying reward for sitting through a film. I'm a sucker for happy endings.
FrozenGhost		#34	[-]
Apr 17 12 6:23 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Actually the ending of THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE is pretty ho-hum, wrapping up the major conflict with a brief montage of newspaper headlines topped off with a comic/romantic bit. I've come to bat for this movie a couple of posts back but the ending reaffirms its status as a B-picture. It's a film worth seeing regardless.
Mora		#35	[-]
Apr 17 12 4:20 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Personally I think the most effective shock ending of the time had to be the final scene of "The Public Enemy". Would love to know what audiences of the early 30s thought when they saw that kicker. Cagney, in fact, was so worried about how his beloved mother would react that he wrote her a letter warning her of what was to come and that she musn't confuse the character of Tom Powers with her son. Not as shocking but "Little Caesar" has a pretty powerful ending, too, as does "The Beast of the City". Now there's a downer conclusion.
Rick		#36	[-]
Apr 17 12 4:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I know the end of THE PUBLIC ENEMY is pretty striking and has a strong reputation. But the first time I saw it...I laughed. Sorry. And now I can't get past that. "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" Yeah, that's good stuff too. Have to admit to not having seen BEAST OF THE CITY.
Wich2		#37	[-]
Apr 17 12 6:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	LITTLE CAESAR's finish is so great. It is incredibly powerful to see a bully stare into the face of his own inner coward, and Robinson sells it totally (what else would you expect?)
Mora		#38	[-]
Apr 18 12 9:14 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And, of course, Craig, Paul Muni was even more cowardly at the wrapup of "Scarface". Rick, please check out "The Beast of the City". For a studio apparently as family-friendly as MGM, they turned out some pretty brutal early '30s crime dramas, "TBOTC" the most vicious and violent, IMO. One can only imagine L.B.'s reaction as he sat in the screening room watchimng this. Really don't think any other 30s crime flick had a more downbeat ending.
Rick		#39	[-]
Apr 18 12 2:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Oh, I'd love to see BEAST, Mora. It's just never crossed my radar. Guess I'll have to actually make an effort and go looking for it. (I'm generally more of a let-life-come-to-me kinda guy.)
Mora		#40	[-]
Apr 18 12 2:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Plays occasionally on TCM, Rick. Also available on DVD from the Warner Archives. It's one of those films I find I can watch over and over. Actually it's kind of an urban companion piece to the Western "Law and Order", not surprising since W.R. Burnett wrote the novel the Western was based on ("Saint Johnson"), and co-wrote, along with an uncredited Ben Hecht, the screenplay to "Beast". Damn fine pedigree.
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MAN WHO LIVED TWICE (1936) 3.15pm April 9 ON TCM