THE MAN WHO WANTED TO LIVE FOREVER (1970)
Article 5130 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-16-2016
Directed by John Trent
Featuring Stuart Whitman, Sandy Dennis, Burl Ives
Country: Canada / USA
What it is: TV-Movie Thriller

A reclusive tycoon hires a brilliant heart surgeon to experiment with heart transplants in his private medical research foundation, but the surgeon begins to suspect that the tycoon’s reasons may not be strictly philanthropic…

If you take a look at the plot description and the title, and then consider the fact that the surgeon is suspicious of the tycoon from square one, you’ll be well on your way to sorting out how this plot is going to unfold long before it does. Basically, it’s an early variation of the story in THE CLONUS HORROR, only without the cloning angle, and that unfortunately means that the fantastic content is considerably lighter here. The script is rather clumsy and the direction is humdrum, but it does manage to have a few good moments. The thing I like best about the movie is Burl Ives’ wonderfully underplayed performance as the tycoon, and he steals every scene he is in. The rest of the movie is okay at best, and the final chase sequence doesn’t quite deliver on the thrills. It’s passable, but far from great.