My Blood Runs Cold (1965)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

A Major Disappointment

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

***SPOILERS*** Somewhat strange and ridicules story of love and reincarnation that spans something like 100 years with 29 year old former teenage heartthrob Troy Donahue as the mysterious and at the same times freaked out and delusional Ben Gunther. It's Ben who literally runs into-with his motorcycle- pretty and filthy rich Julie Merriday, Joey Heatherton, while zooming along the Pacific Highway at 120 mph. As if it were fate or a sign from heaven Ben realized that Julie and him were lover back in the 1870's who ended up killing themselves-Like Romeo & Juliet- when their parents disapproved of them getting married to each other.At first Julie thinks that Ben is suffering from brain damage due to his accident but in time he proves to her that his crazy statements about him knowing her in a past life are legit. That by providing evidence like photos and trinkets of his romance with Julie 100 years ago when she was actually her own great-great-great grandmother! It's Julie's dad Julian, Barry Sullivan, who sees Ben as a both fraud and gold digger who tries to get Julie to stop seeing him only to have her end up eloping, in Ben's boat,to Mexico with him to get married."""SPOILERS***The truth about Ben's true identity slowly comes to the surface together with two of his victims who he strangled to death and dumped into the Pacific Ocean. With the fact coming out about Ben being an escaped inmate from a hospital for the criminally insane he tries to kidnap Julie only to have the local police as well as Julie's former lover and fiancée Harry Lindsey, Nicolas Coaster, try to rescue her before he does her any harm. In the end it's Ben who does himself in-in knowing that the jig is up- by jumping some 200 feet to his death in order to avoid ending up locked up for life in a mental institution or being strapped into the San Queinton gas chamber for multiple murder.P.S This film -"My Blood Runs Cold"- turned out to be the last major movie that Troy Donahue was to star in before his film career hit rock bottom co-staring in such low budget and forgettable films like "The Cock Fighter" and "The Chilling" before dropping out of sight altogether. Troy in the end ended up broke and homeless sleeping on a park bench in New York City's Central Park and dying of a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 65.

Plot—A polite but obscure young man gains entrée into a wealthy household by claiming he and the family's daughter are reincarnations of past lovers. He's got just enough family secrets to lend some credence to the outlandish claim.For a psychological thriller (why else the title) the film never achieves needed menace. Frankly the role is outside actor Donahue's limited range. Here he comes across more as a blandly mixed up beach boy than anything psychopathic. Thus the narrative unfolds rather than rivets. Heatherton is okay as the object of Gunther's (Donahue) obsession; at the same time, I almost forgot my Gidget flashbacks during the beach scenes. Actually I was most impressed with the unknown Coaster as the buttoned-down attorney, Harry. His sudden turnabout in that showdown scene with Merrivale (Sullivan) is impressive. Harry goes from a passive yes-man to a razor sharp critic in a scene that is both well scripted and acted, and may very well be the film's best.Too bad RKO of the late 40's didn't get the project first. For b&w photography, they would have known what to do with noir material like this. Here the narrative is unfortunately filmed in flat style, at the same time the direction remains largely impassive. Consider what Anthony Mann or John Brahm could have done with, say, the boyish Robert Walker of Strangers on a Train (1951) as Gunther. Perhaps that's not very fair. But considering the potential this film shows, some such comparison is irresistible. Anyway, Donahue's rather sad career again shows the hazards of Hollywood. After all, like many youngsters, his brief moment depended more on youthful good looks than on talent. Too bad he didn't transition into a post-Hollywood career or marriage as many of his peers managed to do. All in all, I prefer to remember him from A Summer Place (1959) rather than for this obscurity.(In passing--The topic of reincarnation briefly seized public attention in 1956 when a Colorado housewife, under hypnosis, claimed to be a reincarnation of an Irish girl, Bridey Murphy, from a century earlier. Apparently, the housewife had the brogue down pat and was just convincing enough to invite serious attention. For a while, many folks were undergoing hypnosis to maybe investigate their own previous lives. Anyway, the fad soon died out, but, for better or worse, I'm reminded of it by this movie.)

Troy Donahue was on suspension for a while refusing WB films etc and returned to the studio to film this William Conrad thriller. Troy Donahue excelled in the lush romantic dramas filmed by Delmer Daves at Warners however Troy Donahue lost his footing in this film. My Blood Runs Cold should have been filmed in Color and lost some of its edge by filmed in black and white. William Conrad who would have a TV career in Jake and The Fatman was also a Director and did Connie Stevens' Two On A Guillotine, Jeff Hunter's Brainstorm among other films. Not a great Film Director but Mr Conrad's films are enjoyable. Carol Lynley was first slotted for this film but was optioned by Otto Preminger under a contract Carol Lynley had with Preminger to do a Preminger film. Joey Heatherton took the role.Joey Heatherton made Where Love Has Gone with Susan Hayward, and Bette Davis at Paramount, Twilight of Honor at MGM with Richard Chamberlain and this WB movie. Not sure why Joey Heatherton made no other noteworthy films.This was Troy Donahue's last movie at Warner Bros and his last as a Star

This silly potboiler starts out promisingly enough to get you hooked, but sadly veers off track toward the end. However, the plot is not the reason to watch this film. It's the 1965 trappings - the cars, the clothes, the sharp-focus black & white photography - that keep you glued to this picture. It's an inadvertent but accurate time capsule. Viewers with a camp sensibility will have a field day with Jeanette Nolan's hairdos alone. Each scene she's in brings yet another mind- blowing creation which we're supposed to believe she whips up on her own. Joey Heatherton sports a few odd coifs herself. Joey was a fine 60's-style sex kitten and her look is immortalized here. Troy Donahue's acting skills, which were passable in previous films, here prove why his career didn't last much longer. Nice scenery along California's 17-mile Drive. Watch this film for a guilty wallow in 1965 mindset.