User reviews

This is a literal remake of Bogart's High Sierra. The same roads, towns and even on the same rocks where High Sierra was made. It is scene-for-scene the same movie. It is almost uncanny in that respect. I felt deja vu all the way through.

On the plus side the wide screen production and beautiful color are worthwhile, as is the good acting here which I think is equal to the original but that is a matter of each viewer's taste.

Lon Chaney Jr. is terrific in his role and more than holds his own opposite the usually scene-stealing Palance. Also a plus is a classic brute thug Lee Marvin performance. You also get very young Nick Adams, Dennis Hopper and Perry Lopez doing good work.

Lone Pine, Whitney Portal Road and the Sierras never looked better and they are the main reason you might want to watch this if you are vulnerable to being put off by the striking literal remake nature of this film project.

I Died a Thousand Times is directed by Stuart Heisler and adapted to screenplay by W.R. Burnett from his own novel High Sierrra. It stars Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, Lon Chaney Junior and Earl Holliman. A CinemaScope/Warnercolor production, cinematography is by Ted McCord and music by David Buttolph.

It will always be debatable if remaking the excellent High Sierra (Raoul Walsh 1941) was needed or wanted by a 1950s audience? Especially since Walsh had himself already remade it as a great Western with 1949 film Colorado Territory, but taken on its own terms, with great production value and Burnett's personal adaptation taken into consideration, it's a very enjoyable film.

Set up is simple, it's one last heist for Roy "Mad Dog" Earle (Palance) before going straight, but as his attempts to break free from his emotional loner status fall apart, so does the heist and his future is written in blood right up there in the mountains. Heisler and Burnett put Earle up front for character inspection, easing in sympathetic tones whilst ensuring he remains a big physical threat. The air of fatalism is pungent enough and the finale is excitingly staged by Heisler. Cast performances are more than adequate if not comparing to the likes of Bogart and Lupino, while the Warnercolor is gorgeous and the photography around the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine is superb.

While not in the same league as High Sierra or Colorado Territory, that doesn't mean this is a wash out, more so if you haven't seen either of the Walsh movies. If you have, like me (High Sierra is one of my favourite Bogart performances), then comparisons and a feeling of deja vu will obviously infiltrate your viewing experience. That said, there is more than enough here to make it worth your time regardless of comparison and familiarities. 7/10

`Mad Dog' Earle is back, along with his sad-sack moll Marie, and that fickle clubfoot Velma. So are Babe and Red, Doc and Big Mac, and even the scenery-chewing mutt Pard. The only thing missing is a good reason for remaking Raoul Walsh's High Sierra 14 years later without rethinking a line or a frame, and doing so with talent noticeably a rung or two down the ladder from that in the original. (Instead of Walsh we get Stuart Heisler, for Humphrey Bogart we get Jack Palance, for Ida Lupino Shelley Winters, and so on down through the credits.) The only change is that, this time, instead of black-and-white, it's in Warnercolor; sadly, there are those who would count this an improvement.

I Died A Thousand Times may be unnecessary – and inferior – but at least it's not a travesty; the story still works on its own stagy terms. Earle (Palance), fresh out of the pen near Chicago, drives west to spearhead a big job masterminded by ailing kingpin Lon Chaney, Jr. – knocking over a post mountain resort. En route, he almost collides with a family of Oakies, when he's smitten with their granddaughter; the smiting holds even when he discovers she's lame. Arriving at the cabins where the rest of gang holes up, he finds amateurish hotheads at one another's throats as well as Winters, who throws herself at him (as does the pooch). Biding time until they get a call from their inside man at the hotel, Palance (to Winter's chagrin) offers to pay for an operation to cure the girl's deformity, a gesture that backfires. Then, the surgical strike against the resort turns into a bloodbath. On the lam, Palance moves higher into the cold Sierras....

It's an absorbing enough story, competently executed, that lacks the distinctiveness Walsh and his cast brought to it in 1941, the year Bogie, with this role and that of Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon, became a star. And one last, heretical note: Those mountains do look gorgeous in color.

Roy Earle is a professional criminal--one of the toughest and best at his job. When he is unexpectedly released from prison, it is because someone big wanted a big heist and they pulled strings to get him. On his way to the location of his new partners up in the Sierras, he meets a very poor family and befriends them. He also later befriends a cute little dog. Both these acts of kindness are very atypical for such a hardened man and, sadly, BOTH end up causing him nothing but grief in the end.

I am a film purist when it comes to remakes. My opinion has always been that if the original film is great, it shouldn't be remade--remakes are only for films with SERIOUS flaws that can corrected in the remake. So, I am a VERY difficult sell for a film like "I Died a Thousand Times", as it's a remake both of the classic Bogart picture "High Sierra" as well as Joel McCrea's "Colorado Territory"==and both films have a higher IMDb rating as well.

"I Died a Thousand Times" turns out to be an extremely well made film--mostly because it is practically an exact copy of "High Sierra" and because Jack Palance was quite nice in the lead. The only major differences is the wonderful color film stock--it looks great because of the wonderful mountain locations. As for the acting, it's about on par with the original. So, if it offers no real major advantage, why not just see the original--especially since it stars Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino and is a classic. This 1955 version could have become a classic--if the story had been original. Good but see the original!

I love Shelley Winters in almost everything she does.

However she is miscast.

So miscast, in fact, it throws off Jack Palance's performance.

Jack is a master at snarling and showing contempt.

It is what we like about him as a King-Heavy.

Here though, in every scene he wants to punch her in the face.

He knows that we know he can do better than Shelley Winters.

We want him to.

Their lack of chemistry is a pall over the whole story.

Like I said: Love them both, just not together.

Nobody could match Jack Palance as a fearsome heavy and here, playing a freshly sprung ex-con lead bank robber, his authority over a couple of "punks" - junior gang members - including later-to-be star heavy in his own right, Lee Marvin, is powerful and utterly convincing. Nice details early on such as when presumptuous Marvin attempts to grab at the plan for the caper and 6'4" Palance without a word or look just brushes him aside with a sweep of the arm promises much - but little ultimately is delivered. Enter "Pard" the mongrel mutt to the accompaniment then and later of cutesy music. The furry friendly creature, loyal to the last, refuses to budge from the screen to the very end - unfortunately.

This seemed symptomatic of the movie's uncertain tone - veering from tough as nails crime caper to family fare. Who was to blame? Was it Palance who possessed a face and physique that uniquely qualified him to be the ultimate brute always wanting to demonstrate a reassuring sensitive thoughtful side?

1955's "I Died a Thousand Times" was a rather lukewarm second remake of the 1941 "High Sierra" (preceded by Raoul Walsh's 1949 "Colorado Territory"), from the same author, W. R. Burnett, best remembered for an early credit on Howard Hawks' 1932 "Scarface." Casting Jack Palance in Humphrey Bogart's role of paroled convict Roy Earle was a good choice, as well as the color scenery on location in Lone Pine as well as Mt. Whitney (shooting titles were "Jagged Edge" and "A Handful of Clouds"), but the production sinks like a stone with the insufferable Shelley Winters as a more whiny moll than the lovely Ida Lupino. The plot is virtually identical, Earle sprung from the slammer by dying gangster Big Mac (Lon Chaney) to headline a Tropico hotel jewel heist, going up against greenhorn henchmen, a dame, and a bad luck pooch named Pard, while alternately taking a shine to a pretty young girl with a club foot (Lori Nelson). An undeniable asset for the viewer is spotting the huge number of up and coming stars in the making, from veterans Dub Taylor and Lee Marvin, to newcomers Earl Holliman, Nick Adams (as a nervous bellhop), and Dennis Hopper (in his screen debut). In for only one scene as the doomed Big Mac, with a bad heart and shot kidneys, Lon Chaney is clearly typecast in drunk mode, just as he was playing Robert Mitchum's father in Stanley Kramer's still unreleased "Not As a Stranger," garnering sympathy as only he can as a man facing death with a defiant shrug and another slug.

Going into this, I didn't know it was a remake, but within 10 minutes it was clear. Almost exactly a beat-for-beat remake of HIGH SIERRA. It's in color and widescreen, not that that adds much... the original film didn't have great cinematography, but the more claustrophobic frame gave it a little extra tension. Also, they swapped out a black stereotype for a Mexican stereotype. I guess that's supposed to be progress. Other than that, it really is practically identical to the original. The major difference, of course, is casting. I like Jack Palance, but he doesn't have the world-weariness or charm of Bogart. Likewise, I'm very fond of Shelley Winters, but what she does best is playing pathetic, and this character can't be pathetic. You just end up wanting Palance to ditch her. I don't want to be too harsh on this film, though. It's just that I felt like I'd already seen it (twice, even) and the update doesn't do any real updating. A competent but pointless endeavor, stick with Bogart and Lupino.

This is a remake of High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lapino. Not quite as good as the original, although it has obviously talented, and great actors. It makes you wonder why they would remake a classic like High Sierra with minimal changes just 14 years later. One interesting difference between the original and this movie... In High Sierra Willie Best plays a stereotypical comical black man (Algernon) in a servile role at the camp. The remake had a comical Hispanic (Chico) played by Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez. Both are incredibly insulting by current standards. It makes you wonder about the changes in the culture from 1941 to 1955.

Beginning in the Early Fifties Movie Studios discovered that they needed something, anything to pry Audiences from their Living Rooms and that Hypnotic Box called Television. It was not going to be an easy task. Well, they decided, we at least can give them Color and widen the Screen to seemingly endless Vistas.

So they thought adding WarnerColor and Cinemascope was enough to cheat a little and remake a virtual Scene by Scene, Line by Line Movie called High Sierra (1941), a famously popular Bogart Movie Directed by Raoul Walsh.

Despite a strong Cast it was not to be. Most of the Players are unremarkable and some like Lee Marvin are totally wasted barely registering. The whole thing seems uninspired and has very little Life and if you have seen the original this one will make you feel a little cheated. Its not Bad it just has no reason to exist.

Unless you count the western version of this story that Warner Brothers did with Joel McCrea in 1948 entitled Colorado Territory, I Died A Thousand Times is the second version and updated remake of Humphrey Bogart's classic High Sierra. Whole scenes are lifted word for word and other than a bow to the updated technology of the Fifties, like the use of helicopter by law enforcement in the final shootout.

If you are a fan of Bogey than you know exactly how this is all going to end. Jack Palance is a stellar substitute for Bogart and in the Ida Lupino part steps Shelley Winters as the hard luck girl brought along by Palance's two confederates Lee Marvin and Earl Holliman who attachs herself to Palance. Unfortunately Palance realizes too late that Winters is who he is meant for.

Ironically Palance as the star here would in 16 years in Monte Walsh wind up in support of Lee Marvin as their box office positions had changed considerably.

Warner Brothers didn't water down this remake an iota right down to the casting of bit players. And a good bonus is the color cinematography. Fans of the original will not be disappointed.

This is entertainment and it holds well. A decent story line and insight into the weak criminal mind of yesteryear. Stealing, lying and cheating anyone can do but becoming a criminal that is good at it is not found here. Still, as you watch, the movie makes you wonder what you would have done as it presents a series of choices that can give different endings. The one presented here brought closure to the movie but back then, it could turn out any which way. He could have gotten the loot, the girl and lived happily ever after and then some. Perhaps he did? Hollywood had the final say. Bogart did this flick too and he is a joy to behold in the part. Recommend a snack of your choosing, a tasty drink and enjoy the scenery where this was filmed and the time-out from your own little world and get into this one

Joel McCrea in Colorado Territory is a remake of High Sierra with a western story line. It is much better than this particular remake. Check it out and compare.

This is the third remake of High Sierra (directed by Raoul Walsh & then directed again by him as a Western named Colorado Territory) from 1955. This time Jack Palance is Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle, a recently paroled inmate asked by an old boss, played by the original wolfman Lon Chaney, to do a big job at a hotel. His crew consists of Earl Holliman (from Police Woman), Lee Marvin & their girl played Shelly Winters. On the road to his destination, Palance nearly gets into a car accident w/some old timers (& their lame granddaughter who has a bum foot) who he befriends & visits throughout the course of the story. Palance tries to keep his rowdy crew in line, soon joined by an inside man, a front desk man played by Perry Lopez (Chinatown), & as the heist comes closer, all the disparate elements of the yarn come together as the robbery is successfully pulled off (but in this type of story there are curves & twists to it), the lame girl gets an operation & Palance has to get away w/the goods or will he? If you know the previous treatments, you know where the story is going but seeing this tale told in widescreen Technicolor w/familiar actors playing the characters from W. R. Burnett's tale is a lot of fun. Co-starring Dennis Hopper in a small role as a partygoer & genre vet (& former Bubbleyum bubblegum spokesperson) Dub Taylor as a gas station attendant.

I wanted to see it because of two reasons. One, it was the remake of High Sierra with Bogart, two, the Bogart part was played by Jack Palance, whom can play dramatic roles with some subtility, as in The Big Knife.

But now I wonder why they decided to shoot this remake. The film follows the same plot as Hig Sierra; only here, the actors don't care, the director is lost in his thoughts, and who knows what the producer was thinking. Jack Palance is getting bored looking at Shelley Winters and Shelley Winters is asking herself what she's doing in this film. I don't even want to compare her to Ida Lupino in the same role. And of course, they had to use the dog story again! They surely could have come up with some different ideas. Perhaps the color makes it nice to see the same location where they shot High Sierra, but that definitely doesn't add any quality to the film.

It's a waste of time if you've seen High Sierra before. Otherwise, why not see a pseudo-film noir. As for me, I'd rather die than see it one more time...