The Man with My Face (1951)

Such a frustrating disappointment

hyped garbage

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is one of those films where premise is intriguing but execution is sloppy. Chick Graham (Barry Nelson) comes home on one day to find out his doppelganger has taken his place. The police shows up and his wife Cora (Lynn Ainley) and business partner Buster (John Harvey) confirm that doppelganger is real Chick and Chick is fake. Chick escapes and tries to prove his identity. The plot turns more and more ridiculous and implausible, but energetic direction, fast pace action and enjoyable double performance by Barry Nelson turn 'The Man with My Face' passable time waster entertainment.

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.

The Man with My Face (1951)Wow, this is built on such a fun and totally ridiculous premise it might be hard to see that really well done aspects to the film. Here it is: a man and wife are bickering a bit. She's a bombshell, he's a nice regular guy. What gives? Well, the man comes home one day to find an exact duplicate has taken his place (played by the same actor, sometimes with split screen done quite well).So, is he crazy? Is this the twilight zone? Who is the double? Oh, and his wife and dog both don't recognize him. I mean, the wife we get, wives in movies are made out to be as unpredictable as husbands. But the dog, now that's huge clue. And the brother-in-law doesn't know him other--or worse, believe the impostor is the real guy.So our hero is in a quite a pickle. Not only is he homeless and disparaged, and eventually even hunted by the law, he doubts his sanity. It seems impossible.The problem is that it is, truly, impossible, and yet the movie plays it all as if it were quite reasonable, if at least daring. And we aren't talking plastic surgery or alien forces here, just go old greed and extraordinary luck. So, swallow it in a gulp and enjoy the dual role played, really well (in a B-movie way) by Barry Nelson. Who's he? Yeah, exactly--he did mostly 1950s television, and some war flicks before that. So here's the one film he snuck in his t.v. career. Some of the rest of the cast is fun in the same B-movie way, though the femme fatale (if the word isn't an exaggeration here) is unconvincing. A quirky fun film. It's not underrated, but it's better than a lot of other overrated genre movies. Once you swallow that pill, that is.

The plot for "The Man With My Face" is 100% ridiculous--there's no better way to describe it. It's so ridiculous, you'll probably have a hard time suspending disbelief in order to enjoy the film. It's mildly enjoyable...but stupid.The setting for the film is very unusual--Puerto Rico. I can't recall another film set there other than "Mr. Moto in Danger Island" and for some odd reason the island hasn't been used as a setting very often. Barry Nelson plays two roles. One is a cold-blooded crook who has stolen a HUGE amount of money in a robbery in Miami. The other is married and has a business partner. Unfortunately, this nice Barry Nelson doesn't realize that the wife and 'friend' are working with the crook--and are more than happy to let the evil Barry assume the nice Barry's life. And so, when nice Barry returns home, the wife throws him out and calls the police--saying evil Barry is her husband. The setup is pretty complete and they are able to convince everyone amazingly quickly that the phony Barry is the real McCoy. This doesn't make sense for two reasons. First, you do NOT have 100% exact duplicates out there--not completely like you in every freaking way. Second, you'd think the police would take BOTH men in to headquarters and take better efforts to ascertain the truth. It just doesn't make any sense. For the rest of the film, nice Barry runs about trying to get help from friends and family as well as tracking down people who know the evil Barry. The film does have some snappy dialog--as well as a ridiculous doggy that seems A LOT smarter than nice Barry! Is the film worth seeing? Well, if you are crazy like me and watch a bazillion films a year, sure....you could do a lot worse. It is oddly watchable despite the silly plot and flat acting. But for the average person, this is an imminently forgettable and VERY flawed film--one that just isn't worth your time unless you are a family member of Barry Nelson or if you are a Puerto Rican living in the continental US and want to see a glimpse of home.By the way, although the film was made in Puerto Rico, it was VERY odd--as NO ONE seemed to speak Spanish and the accents were minimal. I've spent time in Puerto Rico and I sure would have loved it if everyone spoke English and had very slight accents--but instead, I mostly had to speak Spanish (very poorly) because fluency in English is not all that common in this part of the United States.