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The Man Who Lived Again

1936, Movie, NR, 61 mins

The Man Who Lived Again: Review

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Rarely seen Karloff film (as are all the early British Karloff films), shot in England, in which he once again plays a mad scientist with an earth-shattering invention. This time in the lab, Karloff perfects a matter-transfer device (taking one item, scrambling the atoms in the air, then reassembling them in a different location) which specializes in shifting brains from one body into another. When his theories are laughed out of the scientific community and his financial supporter, Cellier, backs out, Karloff gets his revenge by transferring his former benefactor's brain into the crippled and dying body of his faithful assistant, Calthrop. Unfortunately the mind-transfer is a failure and both men die. Undaunted and suddenly in love with his female assistant (Lee), Karloff decides to seduce her by promising eternal youth (because they could just keep transferring their minds to younger bodies through the ages). Upset when she rejects him in favor of Cellier's son, Loder (who has gotten a bit suspicious about father's disappearance), Karloff forces Loder into a mind transfer and the operation is a success. Things go bad, however, when the cops burst in and Karloff (with Loder's brain) falls out an open window during a botched escape attempt. The enraged Lee forces Karloff to submit to a retransfer which she performs; his mind back is sent into his broken and dying body. When the transfer proves successful, a now-sane (and much nobler) Karloff decides that his secrets should die with him. Besides what is perhaps Karloff's best mad doctor role (a role which would plague his career), THE MAN WHO LIVED AGAIN also benefits from a typically fine British production, with lush sets, crisp cinematography, and a literate script. (The matter-transfer device would rise again, 20 years later, in THE FLY.) leave a comment
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