My Blood Runs Cold (1965)

Wealthy, beautiful and reckless Californian Julie Merriday (Joey Heatherton), accompanied by her attorney boyfriend Harry Lindsay (Nicolas Coster), narrowly avoids crashing into a motorcycle ridden by young Ben Gunther (Troy Donahue).

Ben abandons his damaged cycle and accepts a ride from Julie but insists on calling her Barbara.

Later, at the Merriday beach house, Julie’s Aunt Sarah (Jeanette Nolan) tells Julie that her great-great-grandmother was named Barbara and had given birth to an illegitimate child fathered by one Benjamin Gunther.

Despite the protestations of her rich and ruthless tycoon father (Barry Sullivan) and Ben’s irrational conviction that she and he are reincarnations of the past lovers, Julie breaks off with Harry and elopes with Ben.

While aboard a small ketch which Ben claims he owns, Julie finds the earlier Benjamin’s diary, reads of his affair with her ancestor and realises that Ben lied and is, in fact, a psychotic killer who has escaped from an institution for the criminally insane.

It all ends with that old cliche, a chase up a tower – this time at a sand-processing plant on a California beach.

My Blood Runs Cold has some suspenseful moments, but it’s certainly no Hitchcock thriller.

Ben Gunther
Troy Donahue
Julie Merriday
Joey Heatherton
Julian Merriday
Barry Sullivan
Harry Lindsay
Nicolas Coster
Sarah Merriday
Jeanette Nolan
Sheriff R. Seaton
Russell Thorson
Lansbury
Ben Wright
Mrs Courtland
Shirley Mitchell
Henry
Howard McNear
Mayor
Howard Wendell
Mr Courtland
John Holland
Owen Farley
John McCook
Butler
Jean Paul King
Anne Davis
Linda Meiklejohn
Deputy Brady
John Truax

Director
William Conrad

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