ThiefHott Too much of everything

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

morrison-dylan-fan Taking part in a Film Noir challenge on ICM,I started trying to decide which two US Noir's I could watch as a double bill. Checking up titles on IMDb,I remembered a Noir fellow IMDber XhcNoirX had told me about,which led to me meeting a guy,whose face looked oddly similar.The plot:Arriving home, Charles "Chick" Graham is faced with his wife Cora Cox Graham saying she has never seen him before,and a lookalike of Chick's called Albert "Bert" Rand,who is pretending to be him. Failing to get the police on his side,Chick goes undercover,when he finds out that Bert has linked him to a bank robbery. Surviving an attempt on his life,Chick sets his sights on unmasking his fake self.View on the film:Shot on location in Puerto Rico, director Edward Montagne & cinematographer Fred Jackman Jr. give the Noir face off a sun-kiss elegance against rugged rocks and dusty tunnels underneath the welcoming sights of Puerto Rico. Made on a low budget,Montagne does give the place the feeling of being a small village,with the leads easily crossing paths with each other,and it looking like the island only has one cop.Slowly sinking the realisation into Chick that he has been played, the writers give their adaptation of Samuel W. Taylor's book a Noir playfulness that covers some of the sketchy marks over how Bert was able to make everything perfectly fall into place,thanks to a murderous dog keeping the exchanges between Bert and Chick clouded in a mood of danger. Playing not one,but two roles, Barry Nelson gives terrific performances as Charles 'Chick' Graham / Albert 'Bert' Rand,thanks to Nelson balancing Chick being at his Noir wits end with Bert's abrupt wise-guy asides to the man whose face he's stolen.

XhcnoirX Barry Nelson and his bother-in-law John Harvey co-own a small company on Puerto Rico. Nelson's wife Lynn Ainley is supposed to pick him up from work one day, but she doesn't show up. When he calls her up, she does not know who he is. And when he takes a cab home, he finds the spitting image of himself there, and everybody thinks he's not the real husband, including their dog! Quickly he finds out his doppelganger staged a heist years before and came up with an elaborate plan with switched identities to frame him for it, and everybody's in on it. He turns to ex-flame Carole Mathews for help, who he left for Ainley, and they try to figure out a way to clear his name and expose the real doppelganger.The plot, based on a 1948 pulp novel, makes little sense and is void of any logic. But if you stop to think about it and just sit back, it's enjoyable enough. It also includes a trained doberman, providing some exciting moments, but whose presence also telegraphs the ending early on in the movie.The acting is mediocre across the board unfortunately. Whoever cast Nelson ('Johnny Eager') probably didn't read the full script, as Nelson is completely unsuited to play a 'bad' person. Ainley did exactly 2 movies according to IMDb, the other one 'Undercover Girl', and she lacks charisma as the femme fatale here. Mathews ('Chicago Deadline') does a better job, but has very little to do.Director Edward Montagne ('The Tattooed Stranger') and DoP Frank Jackman Jr. ('Chicago Syndicate') are the redeeming factors, breathing some life and excitement into this movie. But don't expect miracles, this movie feels like a cheap B-feature from start to finish. A decent time-waster, if you can switch off your brain. 6/10

Michael O'Keefe Barry Nelson plays a double roll in THE MAN WITH MY FACE. "Chick" Graham arrives home after work and steps right into a weird situation. His wife Cora(Lynn Ashley)and brother-in-law Buster(John Harvey)are dumb-founded looking at him as if he was a stranger. When Graham comes face to face with a man that looks just like himself, he knows that his life, as he knows it, is bound to change in a hurry and not in a good way. His life spirals out of control with no boundaries. He struggles to find an explanation, but not before he is implicated in not one...but two murders.This story proves how much confusion and suspense you can fit in 76 minutes. Other players: Jack Warden, Henry Lascoe, Jim Boles and Chinita Martin.

Jay Raskin Barry Nelson starred or guest starred in about 60 T.V. shows from the 1950's to the 1980's. He even starred in three different television series in the 1950's, none of which lasted a full season. His triumphs on television included being the first James Bond on film/video in a 1954 "Climax" episode based on Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" and an excellent made for television suspense movie called "The Borgia Stick" (1967). Three "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and a "Twilight Zone" episode also adds to his reputation.This is only one of four theatrical features that he starred in. "Undercover Maizie" (1947), "The First Traveling Saleslady" (1956) and "Mary Mary" (1963)were the other three. In truth, the female leads: Ann Sothern, Ginger Rodgers, Debbie Reynolds were the stars of these three movie. Thus this is really the only theatrical movie where Nelson was the main star.It is a showy part with Nelson being both the protagonist and antagonist. He handles both part well. Nelson was never a flashy actor, but he always brought sincerity and charm to his roles.Carole Matthews also was known mainly as a television actress from the 1950's and 1960's. She was in about 50 television shows, but only playing leading roles in a half dozen or so. She also starred in about half a dozen low budget movies like this one. Like Nelson, she is also a fine actress who is quite believable even in unbelievable movies like this one. It is sad she never got better roles and never became a star.Like D.O.A., this film noir starts with a totally fantastic plot and then tries to convince you that it is possible. A man arrives home one day to find that a double has taken over his life. Unlike D.O.A., this one doesn't convince you that such a thing is possible, but it is fun, nevertheless and you have the give the script credit for trying.Perhaps the real star of the movie is a Doberman Pincher who does his best to convince you that he is a trained assassin. He doesn't quite make it, but he is a handsome and well trained dog.The movie is nicely photographed and has lots of great shots of Puerto Rico circa 1954. This is no masterpiece, but it is interesting and original enough to keep one watching for its short length of 70 minutes.