Man With Two Lives is another one from the Mill Creek Budget Pack "50 Tales of Terror." And like other recent entries from that set, it's a film that's more from a non-horror genre with just a bit of horror sprinkled into the mix. ("Terror" would be a strong word, but there is enough here to make Mill Creek vaguely justified in adding it to the set.) Our genre here? Mob/Crime Thriller, with a little bit of body-switching.
The story centers on Phillip Bennett (Edward Norris), a young man who seemingly has it all - he's from a wealthy family, is engaged to be married, and is leading a pretty happy life. Then one night, he's killed in a car accident. Luckily, his well-connected dad's best friend is a doctor/mad-scientist type (the good kind), who happens to be experimenting with bringing the dead back to life. Double luckily, his body was completely unharmed in the crash, as he died of shock and not, you know, the crash (?). Unluckily for Phillip, a notorious crime-boss killer named Panino (who we learn is "driven by a pathological need to kill") happened to be getting executed at the EXACT same time Phillip is being reanimated. Double unluckily, Panino's soul ends up in Phil's body! So Phil/Panino tries to get back into the old mob business, while trying to fool Phil's family into thinking he's still good old Phil. Good times!
It's not the most novel idea, but who knows - maybe in the 40s it felt fresher. And it mostly works. I can't rave about it, but there's enough action spread out over the short runtime that it's never dull. Also, while it's no John Wick in terms of gunplay, I was surprised by how many people were just indiscriminately shot. It's certainly not violent by today's standards, but seems to have a lot more death than I was expecting for a film from this era. (Which I hereby deem the Glen Glenn era - another one he was sound engineer on!)
Man With Two Lives is a pretty simplistic film - there's no real mystery as to what's going on (at least as far as the audience is concerned). It's got a pretty naive view of the criminal lifestyle too. Phil/Panino just murders the boss in front of the whole gang and says "I'm in charge now, see?" and everyone just goes along with it. That's probably not how the real mob operates.
There isn't much to offer as far as horror goes. The opening scene is in a mad-scientist-esque lab (there is a dog heart being kept alive in a jug!), but it turns out to be the lab of a normal, level-headed doctor. And when the time comes to resurrect Phil, the doctor doesn't even want to. Phil's dad basically makes him do it. So the soul-switching is really the only "horror" aspect. Possessed Phil does some bad stuff (i.e. shooting people at REALLY close range, strangling a woman), but of course it's the early 40s so you don't see much of it.
Speaking of not seeing much of it, the climactic show down is a bit disappointing. I've noticed a trend in these older Budget Pack films - the big climax usually happens at night. And a lot of the times you can't really see what is going on. I don't think you can really pin this on Mill Creek here - the transfer/sound is actually pretty good (relatively speaking). You don't miss a ton of action, but still, it's too bad.
Oh, and after a bit of a drought... there's a dog!
Name: Zero
Breed: Ummm - mutt? Some sort of terrier?
Function: To do this cool trick where he jumps really high into Phil's (pre-possessed) arms and to show you that Phil is a good guy. Also, to bark at post-possession Phil, in case you can't figure out what is going on.
Fate: Mostly just forgotten about. I'm not entirely sure whose dog he is. He pretty much just vanishes after barking at Phil/Panino, never to be seen again. Cool jumping trick though!
So yeah, Man With Two Lives works as a simple story. It won't blow you away, but it's pretty painless.
I would I guess pretty much recommend this film.
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