User Reviews

In a South American country, a Colonel who has led a revolt is terrorizing everyone. He tells a General who seems to have lost power that he wants his daughter or he will kill the man. She is betrothed to a handsome soldier. He is to be sent on a suicide mission. Then they do some kind of Romeo and Juliet drug which makes it appear she is dead. You know who comes back for her. And on and on and on. The bad guy is sinister and devilish and continues to forge ahead. No one seems able to stop him. There is a promise at one time that his days are numbered because the government is coming after him. The story is too one sided. I guess there is some character development, I felt cheated at the end of the episode. Terribly bleak stuff.

"The Bride Who Died Twice" appears to be set in modern-day Mexico, General De La Varra (Eduardo Ciannelli) forced to give his daughter's hand in marriage to the vicious Colonel Sangriento (meaning "bloody one") while sending the girl's fiancée on a scouting mission certain to end fatally. When the girl apparently dies following the ceremony, the evil Colonel (Joe De Santis) vows revenge, only to be denied a second time. A stellar performance from Ciannelli, in his second appearance on THRILLER (after "Man in the Cage"), his beloved daughter Consuelo played by raven haired beauty Mala Powers ("The Unknown Terror," "The Colossus of New York"). Director Ida Lupino does her usual terrific job here but the relentlessly downbeat script defeats everyone in the end, and the Colonel's opponents all meet their maker with little resistance. This is no Romeo and Juliet, but it will have to do.

Joe De Santis plays an evil Mexican Colonel named Sangriento who is determined to marry the beautiful daughter(played by Mala Powers) of a general(played by Eduardo Cianelli) or risk death, despite the fact that the daughter is already betrothed to a Captain Antonio, whom the general sends on a dangerous mission hoping it will mean his death, but fate will not be kind to any of them... Dreary, uninteresting and forgettable episode seems like an unfortunate throwback to the few misguided crime episodes of earlier in the series' run. Not what fans wanted or expected from a series which excelled at Gothic horror, which this is most obviously not.

"The Bride Who Died Twice" is set in a fictional South or Central American dictatorship. The leader for life wants a woman and is willing to do anything to get her. But, she has a boyfriend and el Presidente orders his general to send this man to his certain death so he can have the girl for himself. Sounds familiar? It's the story of David and Bathsheba from the Old Testament--updated, of course, and with some plot twists reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet!

Early on in the series, I did not particularly like "Thriller" because I assumed it would be a bit like "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits". However, despite being hosted by Boris Karloff, the first few episodes were about such mundane topics as crime and a woman posing as a dead lady. There were no twists or creepiness to the episodes at all. Fortunately, as the show progressed, the writing improved and the show got very creepy. But, even with improved scripts, there were still, from time to time, some real duds that didn't seem to fit in the series- -and "The Bride Who Died Twice" is clearly a dud. The acting isn't bad but there is no horror, supernatural or even interesting plot elements! It never engaged me and seemed like a show better off included on some other anthology series. See it for yourself and you'll no doubt see what I mean. Dull and not particularly enjoyable.