The Man Who Lived Twice

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.