Load of rubbish!!

Let's be realistic.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I recently re-watched this classic on it's own. Because the 1st time I watched it was back-to-back with the original, "High Sierra". Big mistake. The original one with Bogart & Lupino is one of my all-time favorites and watching this remake right afterwards did not help me appreciate it the way it deserves to be.This remake actually is good on it's own merit. The original will always be the "better" version for me but this remake is not bad at all. Let me break it down...Palance's take on 'Mad' Dog Earle was very good. Palance is no Bogie, but he gave the role his own unique touch. And besides, who better than Palance, at the time, to take the role that Bogart made his own. With his sinister visage, Palance brought a different take on Mad Dog than Bogart's. I really got to see this second time around as I revisited this film.Winters take on 'Marie' was not bad either. Lupino I believe did it better but Winters held her own. I especially liked her Samba dance moves. And her 'I wanna die' scene. She had okay chemistry with Palance. But I feel Bogart & Lupino had more.Lori Nelson's take on 'Velma' was right on par with Joan Leslie's. And you can actually believe Palance falling for her rather than Winters 'Marie'Lee Marvin's take on 'Babe' was not bad but Alan Curtis was better. Curtis had the handsome bad boy look and Marvin just looks bad and mean. Curtis you could believe got Lupino out of a club but Marvin taking Winters, nah. Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez plays 'Chico'. A very Mexican stereotype role. In the original, his was named 'Algernon' and it was played by Willie Best in a very black stereotypical role. I really dislike the scene where Lee Marvin's 'Babe' kicks 'Chico' and makes him fall and thinks it's funny. Gonzalez really has nothing to do but be a servant to Palance and his gang and not much else.Lon Chaney Jr. as 'Big Mac'. Great casting. He did a great take on the role made famous by Donald McBride. It was so great to see Chaney and Palance together. Earl Holliman as 'Red'. Not bad but Arthur Kennedy's was way better. Holliman played 'Red' like a good ole dumb country boy while Kennedy's was like a grown-up Dead End Kid, like a Billy Halop. But still it was nice to see Holliman and Marvin want-to-be gangsters.Perry Lopez as 'Mendoza'. It was okay but Cornel Wilde's was way much better. The scene where Palance tells a "bedtime story" of what happens to guys who talk to much was handle way much better with Bogart and Wilde.Howard St. John as 'Doc Banton' was very good. Actually just as good as Henry Hull's take on it. I especially like the way Howard looks at Palance when he talks about 'Velma'. Howard's look is priceless.Ralph Moody as 'Pa'was really good also. Almost just as good as Henry Traver's take. I really liked his scenes with Palance talking about 'Velma'James Millican as 'Jack Kranmer'. It was really good. Almost as slimy as Barton MacLane's 'Jake Kranmer'. But I prefer MacLane's. Richard Davalos as 'Lon Preisser' was not that bad. You can see Nelson's 'Velma' falling for Davalos pretty boy. In the original, played by John Eldredge, the spelling was 'Lon Preiser'In the part of 'Pard', the dog in this one was cute but Zero in the original was way, way much better.Now as for the unbilled bit parts, these are the ones that stood out for me: Nick Adams as the 'Bellboy' who is so nervous he can't stop shaking the tray with cups on it was memorable. Paul Brinegar as the bus driver who says the funny line "Just like a woman, doesn't know whether she's coming or going." Mae Clarke as Mabel Baughman, really concerned about her daughter and who and what is Palance is all about. Hugh Sanders as her husband was somewhat wasted in a very small bit role. A very young Dennis Hopper has a funny scene as Winter's dance partner. Hopper is drunk and horny and is pushed down by an angry Palance as he gets to frisky and comfortable with Winters. Hopper would have a better and bigger role that same year along with Nick Adams , in the now famous cult film, "Rebel Without a Cause." Dub Taylor as 'ED' the gas station attendant talking briefly with Palance was a nice one. and a couple of Three Stooges foils were also on board. Big Mickey Simpson and Robert Williams. Williams had a more showy and longer role than Simpson's. All in all, a great film just for the cast alone. Don't miss it. Just don't see it back-to-back with the original.

"I Died A Thousand Times" is a very faithful remake of Raoul Walsh's "High Sierra" (1941) which famously starred Humphrey Bogart as the professional bank robber Roy Earle. This time around, Jack Palance plays the role in a style that's far more menacing than Bogart's portrayal and the most striking differences between this film and its predecessor is that it contains less sentimentality and is presented in colour and CinemaScope. The presence of bright colours and numerous open spaces is interesting because they give the movie a visual style that's radically different to most 1950s film noirs and pre-empt some of the characteristics which would later become prevalent in neo-noirs.After crime boss Big Mac (Lon Chaney Jr.) pulls a few strings to secure the release of Roy Earle from prison, the experienced bank robber travels across country to take charge of planning and carrying out the robbery of some jewellery from a Californian resort hotel. On his way, he meets the Goodhue family who are travelling to L.A. and the attractive 19-year-old Velma (Lori Nelson) catches his eye.When he arrives at the group of cabins where he's supposed to stay until the hotel heist is carried out, he meets Babe (Lee Marvin) and Red (Earl Holliman) who have been hired as his accomplices and Marie Garson (Shelley Winters), an ex-dance-hall girl who Babe had recently brought to the camp. Earle is unimpressed with his accomplices who he immediately recognises as being inexperienced and unreliable and also disapproves of Marie staying with the group. He is pleased, however, by the presence of a mongrel dog called Pard despite being warned that the dog had brought bad luck to his three previous owners.Earle meets the Goodhue family again by chance when he's in the process of preparing for the heist and on discovering that Velma has a deformed foot arranges for her to have an expensive operation to enable her to walk normally again. Despite being warned that she already has a wealthy young boyfriend, Earle hopes that his kindness will make her fall in love with him. Her operation is a great success but Earle's plan fails as Velma firmly rejects his proposal of marriage. The gang go ahead with the hotel robbery which goes disastrously wrong and things don't improve later as Earle gets shot and double-crossed before the story eventually reaches its spectacular conclusion.A combination of factors contribute to the sense that Roy Earle's endeavours after he left prison were always destined to fail. The misjudgements he made relating to Velma and Pard were down to his own poor judgement but the selection of his accomplices and the circumstances that led to him being double-crossed were clearly outside of his control. Jack Palance is impressive as the tough criminal and the supporting cast is also consistently good."I Died A Thousand Times" won't eclipse "High Sierra" in the minds of anyone who's seen the original movie but it's still an interesting remake and judged purely on its own merits, worthy of positive recognition.

Okay: So it wasn't as good as High Sierra and Palance and Winters are not Bogart and Lupino. But the idiot henchmen in this remake were Earl Holliman and Lee Marvin. Big Mac was played by Lon Chaney Jr. and Palance did a great job and was scarier than Bogie was. I grew up with Holliman and Marvin and the movie was also in color. I guess the best way to put it is this. If you demand the greatest actors and a different script for a remake this is not a movie for you. I (a huge Bogart fan) thought Palance played this role better than Bogie. Better because he was made for it.Put it like this. Who would you rather run into in a dark allay? Palance or Bogie? And since when is Shelly Winters a slouch? I really enjoyed this movie even though it didn't have a great director. I recommend it for Jack Palance fans and hope you enjoy it. Remember. Holliman and Marvin were extremely unintentionally funny in this movie. Gibbs

A real classic, ten out of ten! Every actor is perfect, the screenplay is a haunting succession of suspenseful scenes. Scenes in car and scenes in the mountains are breathtaking. Wonder if this film is already out in DVD, because it must be seen in Widescreen version. Saw this film in the late fifties, maybe three or four times, and never since then forgot it.I remember it was one of the first Warner like cinemas cope features, process called Warnerscope which gave a very neat cinematography. Shelley Winters and Jack Palance deserved an Oscar for their performances.The only thing I could criticize is not having been directed by someone like, say Nicholas Ray, to increase its rhythm and tension.