Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

"The Man Who Died Twice" was a late Republic Pictures film Noire starring Rod Cameron and the infamous Vera Hruba Ralston. The film's title removes any mystery surrounding the murder of T. J. Brennan (Don Megowan) at the beginning of the story.Anyway, T.J. Brennan is believed to have perished in an over the cliff car accident. His widow Lynn (Ralston) is distraught. She witnesses the murders of two narcotics agents then goes into shock. Brennan's brother Bill (Cameron), who is a cop from Kansas City, arrives on the scene. He is seconded to the L.A. Police Force to aid in the solving of the mysteries.The cops discover a cache of heroin hidden in a statue in the Brennan apartment. They replace the drug with a simple powder, replace the statue and wait to see who tries to pick it up. Meanwhile, the Chicago "syndicate" sends two thugs, Hart (Gerald Milton) and Santoni( Richard Kartan) to retrieve the drugs which T.J. had tried to abscond with. Santoni murders the snoopy old informer Sally Hemphill (Jesslyn Fax) who had been assisting the police.Suddenly T.J. appears and tries to take off with the statue but.....................................................................................This film was one of the last to be released by Republic Pictures which went under in 1959. It was ably directed by Republic veterasn Joe Kane who directed just about every film made by the studio since the 40s. I couldn't help but notice the strong resemblance between Rod Cameron and Don Megowan who play and look like brothers. As far as I know, this was their only film together. The best that can be said about Vera Ralston is that as an actress, she was a good figure skater.

I give Vera Hruba Ralston credit for hanging onto her career even though her films were pretty much overlooked and underviewed. She lasted nearly two decades as the favorite of Republic studio head Herbert J. Yates, pretty much the Norma Shearer to his Irving Thalberg, or basically the Marion Davies to his William Randolph Hearst. Hers was a career guided by the boss and for 17 years, misguided as a film star. I've been fascinated by her for a while now, finding more of her rare films. She's a wooden actress, rather bland looking yet there's a fascinating aura about her that doesn't excuse her lack of talent, but it's difficult to take your eyes off of her.Not many actors lose their accent when they sing, but Ralston does. I've seen her sing in a few films, and it never fails to hear her slow speaking accent and then hear a non accented singing voice. Ralston is a sudden widow who witnessed a murder involving narcotic agents and has a breakdown. She's quizzed by tough talking Rod Cameron, protected by dumb as nails (but no one I'd want to mess with) Mike Mazurki, and possibly hiding something. Ralston doesn't have the ability to express anything really, so you have to go along with the idea that she's either a complete innocent or totally bad to the bone and able to hide her feelings simply by closing off her mind to the meaning of everything she says or does. I give the writers credit for playing around this lack of ability, and it doesn't hurt that the black and white photography and editing are above average. What's unfortunate is the slow pacing and often stagnant acting by minor actors.

The first time I saw this movie, I did not believe Joseph Kane was the director. Kane who has shot only westerns - and some adventures or war films - all over the years. I don't forget, of course, "Hoodlum Empire", a good thriller, neither "Notorious Mr Monks" and "Accused of murder".But it was a good surprise for me. Mike Mazurki and Gerald Milton play interesting characters who remind William Conrad and Charles Mc Graw in the superb Robert Siodmak classic: "The Killers". Two hired killers who always "work" binomial, and take care of cats in their hotel room...Rod Cameron play also perhaps the only character on non westerner of his career.Vera Ralston is OF COURSE in the run. Republic Picture...Not a great but good little thriller.

This is an important movie in regards to the history of Republic Pictures. Starting in 1957, Republic technically didn't make films anymore, but released or distributed films made by independent companies. But only one of these independent companies was made up of personnel from the original Republic Pictures, Ventura Productions. The Man Who Died Twice was the last film of seven or eight made by Ventura (December 1957), released by Republic in June 1958. So technically, this was the last real Republic Production, with Republic regulars at the helm: Joseph Kane, director, Jack Marta, director of photography, Bob Mark, makeup supervision, Rudy Ralston, Producer, etc. The two top stars were Republic stalwarts, Rod Cameron and Vera Ralston. It has a good story, is paced well, as usual, by Kane (named by Gene Autry to be the John Ford of B movies) and photographed beautifully in black and white and Republic's wide screen process, Naturama, by Marta. It is Vera Ralston's last film and Kane's last film for Republic. He moved on to directing westerns on TV and then in the mid 60s did some directing and 2nd unit directing for films. Republic collapsed in mid 1959, more valuable for the land its studio was sitting on and for its film library. Do your best to try and see the 70 minute film. It has a great supporting cast headed by Mike Mazurki (who appeared with Vera and John Wayne in 1945's Dakota from Republic, also directed by Kane).