Lightning Strikes Twice

Richard Trevelyan (Richard Todd) was convicted of murdering his wife, given an 11th-hour Death Row reprieve and freed under unusual circumstances after retrial. But his past does not matter to Shelley Carnes (Ruth Roman), an actress visiting the Texas ranchland that Richard calls home. She's fallen in love with him. But after she becomes the second Mrs. Trevelyan, Shelley is beset by doubts and fear.

The director and screenwriter of Bette Davis's Beyond the Forest - King Vidor (The Fountainhead) and Lenore Coffee (The End of the Affair) - reteam in a richly atmospheric mix of mystery, romance and murder sparked by a luminous cast that also includes Mercedes McCambridge and Zachary Scott."

In LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE, Ruth Roman stars a Shelley Carnes, a stage actress who champions the cause of Richard Trevelyan (Richard Todd), whom she believes has been falsely accused of murdering his wife. Freed on a technicality, Trevelyan is nonetheless adjudged guilty in the court of public opinion. Carnes stands by her man, eventually marrying him. On the wedding night, however, it appears that Carnes has made a horrible mistake. It won't be long before she, too, will fall into the clutches of a killer--but is it Trevelyan' Based on a novel by Margaret Echard, LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE is given novelty value through its unique setting: instead of taking place in the standard Big City, the events transpire in the wide-open spaces of Texas. Of the supporting actors, Mercedes McCambridge stands out as a woman scorned, while Zachary Scott does his usual as a lazy playboy.