Lightning Strikes Twice

Since the 1920’s, director King Vidor had developed a reputation for tear-jerkers (example: Stella Dallas, 1937) and often over-the-top melodramas (example: Duel in the Sun, 1946), his talent for pathos unusual in Hollywood. Noir, of course, wasn’t a natural fit for Vidor’s style, but in Lightning Strikes Twice, he infuses his melodramatic sensibility into the kind of familiar noir story where it fits: arriving in a small town, a woman falls in love with a mysterious man who may or may not have murdered his wife. Ruth Roman plays actress Shelley Carnes, who, on the way to visiting a California dude ranch for some rest and relaxation, gets her car stuck in the mud and seeks shelter in a nearby house owned by ex-convict Richard Trevelyan (Richard Todd), a former rancher recently released from prison after a new trial ended in his acquittal for the murder of his wife. (The initial, thunderstorm-drenched encounter between Shelley and Richard is thick with candlelit Gothic drama.) The next morning, Shelley continues on to her final destination a few miles away, where she encounters a variety of characters connected to Trevelyan, his crime, and his trial, including the owner of the dude ranch, Liza McStringer (Mercedes McCambridge) and her younger brother “String” (Darryl Hickman). Despite no clear explanation for the murder, Shelley marries Trevelyan anyway, but remains obsessed with learning the truth.