My Review of ‘Lightning Strikes Twice’ (1951)
Hi, today, I’m just going to go through and read you some of the things I wrote after I saw Lightning Strikes Twice. I think that’s the name, right? Yes. Lightning Strikes Twice from 1951. A film noir I saw on TCM Noir Alley. So this is a film noir directed by King Vidor, starring Ruth Roman and Richard Todd. And I have to say it’s one of my favorite performances as far as Ruth Roman’s concerned. I really enjoyed watching her in this movie.
So this guy, Richard Trevelyan, played by Richard Todd is on death row. That’s where you first see him. That’s kind of like the opening shot. But after a new trial started or granted for reasons I don’t think anyone bothered to explain, he is acquitted by a divided jury with this jury hung on the vote of this one woman. Okay? That’s all I’ll say about that.
By the way, I will be revealing spoilers, but I will do it later and I will save them for people who have seen the movie. So there is a big cloud hanging over this guy because he was initially accused and found guilty based on a trial that was presumably so badly botched or something that they had to give him a new trial. And then he is exonerated, well, off the hook for murder. And even though the defendant is presumed innocent until proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be guilty, it would appear that he has not been properly proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be guilty. So that makes him innocent. And yet he is treated like shit, of course, because everybody just kind of thinks, oh, he did it because, look at the circumstances or something. But sometimes circumstances can lie or mislead. And it’s very interesting how the movie does go into that.
And this is a small town where everybody seems to know everybody and it’s in Texas and Ruth Roman shows up. She actually enters the picture after you see the guy in prison or being exonerated or whatever, and she plays this woman, she’s an actress who has been told to go west for your health. This was back in the days when people would go out to the desert for their health, back before the desert became ruined by various things like golf courses and God knows what all. We’re doing wonderful things with climate change, right? Okay, let’s not go there.
She’s an actress and she was advised to take a break from her career and she’s trying to get to a dude ranch and didn’t get a cancellation notice. Apparently the dude ranch is closing down. She goes through this whole trip, gets there, the dude ranch is closed, but she ends up getting involved with this man and, of course, romance blossoms, et cetera, et cetera.
But there are complications in the form of Mercedes McCambridge, who plays the kind of character she usually plays, strong woman. And Zachary Scott, who is the accused man’s brother. I think I have that right. Anyway, altogether it makes for rather an interesting, fun film to watch. And I just loved Ruth Roman in this. I don’t know whether it was just that she, she’s the protagonist in this thing and there’s a warmth in her and a desire to believe in this man no matter what, even though she hardly knows him that really kind of appealed to me and it’s kind of like having faith in human nature or something. And she wants to believe that he’s innocent and so many other people seem to be saying otherwise. And it eventually leads to doubts. But I’ll just stop there because I think it’s well worth watching. I think it’s a good film. And so that’s why I don’t understand when this guy said, I think his name is, I’m sorry, I have to change glasses,
There’s a reviewer, Glenn Erickson, who said, “As the 1950s rolled in director King Vidor’s brilliant, but eccentric pictures became much more eccentric than brilliant. The Fountainhead and Ruby Gentry breakdown into interesting patterns of dynamic visuals even as their overheated dramatics are impossible to take seriously.”
So he goes on to talk about women’s pictures and he says about this film, “Get ready to smile at the overcooked, sometimes hysterical acting and the big fuss made over a fairly simple mystery. The picture is a camp hoot from one end to the other.” I think I know what he’s talking about there. Yeah, sometimes the film does get a little campy, but then movies back then did, didn’t they? Is this film that much different? Is it because the film has a female protagonist? Really? I’m wondering. Okay, that’s it. Here comes the part with the spoilers.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
First of all, when Ruth Roman just kind of flipped out and totally said, “I got to get out of here!” Did that not seem like the most bizarre quick turnaround? I mean, I didn’t feel like it really, I know they were trying to lead up to it, but I don’t think they really did, because she kept believing him and believing him. And I never felt a sense of her doubt, real doubt. I don’t know. I don’t fault her for that though because at the same time she’s trying to show how much she believes in him by marrying him. So for her to just flip out on her wedding night like that, it just seemed a little out of character or just like a plot convenience, just, okay, we need her to flip out here. I don’t know.
Anyway, this film doesn’t have an homme fatale. No. The man, her love interest, is not an homme fatale. See, this is a spoiler because if you’ve seen the movie, you know he didn’t do it. But that’s part of the suspense there. Did he or didn’t he? And if this does have an homme fatale, if it does, it’s not Richard. The homme fatale is not Richard, if there is one. Who does that leave? Starts with Z, ends with Achary, and it does have a femme fatale. Guess who? Mercedes McCambridge. And really someone thinks film noir can’t have a female protagonist? You ever see Mildred Pierce?
And number two, bullshit. If film noir is a reflection of the anxiety of those times, women were feeling pretty anxious as well. They had their own forms of trauma to deal with. So bullshit. A woman can be a protagonist in a film noir and has been. Mildred Pierce, Woman on the Run. I’m sure there are others that I’m just not thinking of. [I forgot about Beware, My Lovely with Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan.] Anyway, that’s my review and I enjoyed the movie very much, regardless of what this guy had to say about it. Take care and I’ll talk to you later.
Oh yeah. And if this is such a frivolous film, how come it focuses on an important issue like determining guilt or innocence by proof beyond a reasonable doubt as opposed to speculation and innuendo and circumstances that may or may not prove anything. Okay. The justice system is on trial here, folks. The whole idea of being innocent until proven guilty is also being touched on very seriously here, and Ruth Roman believes in the system, obviously because she believes in this guy, but there’s a lot going on that she doesn’t know.
Anyway, having said that, I also wanted to say that I had no idea until Eddie Mueller mentioned it on TCM that I was mispronouncing Mércedes McCambridge’s name. I used to say Mercédes. [Like the car.] I guess. Anyway, that’s it. That’s all I had to say. Talk to you later.
Directed by King Vidor
Screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee (based on the novel A Man Without Friends by Margaret Echard)
Produced by Henry Blanke
