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Only hours after he has announced his engagement to his girlfriend
Louise (Eleanor Lawson), Phil (Edward Norris) is involved in a carcrash
and killed from heart failure caused by shock. Fortunately though, his
brother Reg (Tom Seidel) and Doc Clark (Edward Keane) have just perfected
the method to make hearts beating again, and they immediately start
working on Phil, even with the approval of his father (Frederick Burton).
Only psychoanalyst Toller (Hugh Sothern) is against it, because he thinks
there might be problems with Phil's soul, but he's of course outvoted. Thing
is, Toller was right, as once back alive, Phil is no longer inhabited by
Phil's soul but that of an especially violent criminal executed just at
the moment Phil was revived. And now Phil stops at nothing taking over his
old gang again and getting back together with his moll Louise (Eleanor
Lawson) - and he succeeds on both accounts, even if it takes him a murder
or two. After a while though, Phil's gangmembers get curious, and
eventually, one of them, Hugo (Anthony Warde), finds out Phil's true
identity (which he has kept as a secret all along of course) - which means
that Hugo must die, and even Louise, whom Hugo has spilled the beans to. Killing
Hugo was Phil's fatal mistake though, since Hugo had a brother whom he has
told about Phil's real identity as well, and the brother now goes to the
police to tell everything. At the next heist of Phil's gang, the police
lies in waiting, and in the shoot-out that ensues, Phil's entire gang is
killed, only he escapes - and hides out with his family, which is a
perfect cover - or so he thinks, because detective Bradley (Addison
Richards), who comes for a visit under a pretense, is wise to him of
course and now tries to lure Phil into betraying himself - and Phil walks
right into the trap, and in his desperation he shoots Bradley before
taking his own family hostage - but his father, who has only now come to
the conclusion that his son is no longer his son, grabs Bradley's gun and
shoots Phil dead ... Ok, the premise to this film is utterly
ridiculous - but if you can overlook this, the film hiding behind it isn't
too bad, a low-budget yet tense gangsterflick in which craftsman director
Phil Rosen's direction actually seems almost inspired at spots, and in
which most of the cast are up to their tasks at least. Now don't
misunderstand me, this is no masterpiece for sure, but if you are able to
see beyond the corny sci-fi/horror elements, you'll at least be
entertained.
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