Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17062
Location: North Carolina
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 Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2014 10:06 am Post subject: The Man With Two Lives (1942) |
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Science fiction was usually mixed with horror in the 1940s, but this one blends science with spiritualism, as shown in this detailed analysis by Jimbo Berkey from his website, Free Classic Movies, about a movie called The Man With Two Lives.
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"We do not have souls . . . but rather souls have us," a psychologist explains to the banker and the doctor. He continues by explaining that sometimes the soul of a dead person doesn't 'die' with the body of the dead person, but moves on to another body.
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There aren't many science fiction thrillers from the early 1940's, so this story is more than a horror thriller . . . it was a cutting edge story from 1942 that is a better story plot than many of the sci-fi tales to come in the 1950's and onward.
Doctor Clark, played by veteran actor Edward Keane, has brought small animals back from the dead, and now with modern science believes that he can bring a human back from the dead. This evening he attends an engagement party at the home of the town's leading banker, Hobart Bennett.
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Young society son Philip Bennett, played by Edward Norris, is going to marry society girl Louise Hammond, and the party is in full swing when Dr. Clark remembers that this same night at midnight a homicidal maniac will be killed in the electric chair.
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As the party breaks up, son Philip is in a car accident in front of his house, where the doctor is getting ready to leave the party. The doctor and Philip's father bring the lifeless body of son Philip inside the house and it is decided that the doctor will try to bring the lifeless body of banker's son Philip back to life. They take the dead boy to the doctor's laboratory full of strange blinking machines, and the doctor goes to work preparing the body for life.
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Exactly at the hour of midnight, as the homicidal maniac is killed in the electric chair the banker's son comes back to life . . . with the soul of the homicidal killer.
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Life and death seem to be very fluid in the crime story that follows, and the ending is much more complex than 'the good guys win' . . . leaving us with more questions than answers.
Pop a big bowl of white kernel popcorn with lots of warm melted butter and enjoy the show.
 ____Jimbo Berkey
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Mar 03, 2024 5:58 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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