At the time it was made, this film was criticised as being an unnecessary remake of "High Sierra", which starred Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. Maybe they had a point, but this version has such an interesting cast, I'm glad they did.
Jack Palance plays Roy Earle, a career criminal who is released from prison through the machinations of mob boss Big Mac (Lon Chaney Jnr.) to perform one last robbery at a resort hotel.
He teams up with two inexperienced and impulsive criminals, Babe and Red played by Lee Marvin and Earl Holliman. He also meets two women, one who loves him, Marie, (Shelley Winters) and one who doesn't, Velma (Lori Nelson). Eventually he ends up on that mountainside alone and pinned down by the police.
What an amazing actor Jack Palance was. A big guy, he exuded a sense of danger like few others - he had been a heavyweight boxer before the war and everything about him said he was not a man to mess with. Apart from his look, he was also as intense an actor as Marlon Brando. His Roy Earl is like a coiled spring except when in the company of Velma, the girl with the clubfoot who ultimately rejects him.
Shelley Winters as Marie gives a variation on her Alice from "A Place in the Sun", but she gains sympathy as a woman who is grasping for love and security in all the wrong places.
The other fascinating thing about the film is spotting stars in early roles. Lee Marvin, Earl Holliman and even Nick Adams, the future Johnny Yuma, in a tiny role as a frightened bellhop. Dennis Hopper is also there as an annoying teen.
WR Burnett wrote the story. However Roy Earle's interest in the very young Velma, encouraged by her father was an off touch that remained awkward in both movie versions.
"I Died a Thousand Times" is a good-looking production. In colour this time, with the widescreen process doing justice to the grandeur of the landscape.
Although the film was considered outdated in romanticising a violent criminal like Roy Earle, it's really more of a study of a man whose approach to life and personal code of honour is out of step with the world he lives in.
It's interesting to compare the two versions.
Jack Palance plays Roy Earle, a career criminal who is released from prison through the machinations of mob boss Big Mac (Lon Chaney Jnr.) to perform one last robbery at a resort hotel.
He teams up with two inexperienced and impulsive criminals, Babe and Red played by Lee Marvin and Earl Holliman. He also meets two women, one who loves him, Marie, (Shelley Winters) and one who doesn't, Velma (Lori Nelson). Eventually he ends up on that mountainside alone and pinned down by the police.
What an amazing actor Jack Palance was. A big guy, he exuded a sense of danger like few others - he had been a heavyweight boxer before the war and everything about him said he was not a man to mess with. Apart from his look, he was also as intense an actor as Marlon Brando. His Roy Earl is like a coiled spring except when in the company of Velma, the girl with the clubfoot who ultimately rejects him.
Shelley Winters as Marie gives a variation on her Alice from "A Place in the Sun", but she gains sympathy as a woman who is grasping for love and security in all the wrong places.
The other fascinating thing about the film is spotting stars in early roles. Lee Marvin, Earl Holliman and even Nick Adams, the future Johnny Yuma, in a tiny role as a frightened bellhop. Dennis Hopper is also there as an annoying teen.
WR Burnett wrote the story. However Roy Earle's interest in the very young Velma, encouraged by her father was an off touch that remained awkward in both movie versions.
"I Died a Thousand Times" is a good-looking production. In colour this time, with the widescreen process doing justice to the grandeur of the landscape.
Although the film was considered outdated in romanticising a violent criminal like Roy Earle, it's really more of a study of a man whose approach to life and personal code of honour is out of step with the world he lives in.
It's interesting to compare the two versions.