My Blood Runs Cold 1965

Julie Merriday, Joey Heatherton, is involved in a car accident and soon meets a stranger who insists he is in love with her. The man, Ben Gunther, Troy Donahue, claims that he and Julie Merriday are reincarnations of lovers from a past era, and he even calls her “Barbara” as a sign of their supposed shared memory. He gives her a gold locket bearing her picture and takes her sailing, where they swim to a secluded cave and he tells her he found the locket. Aunt Sarah Merriday, Jeanette Nolan, confirms Ben’s stories, saying they align with the family’s long history of reenactments and fateful reunions.

Julie’s father, Julian Merriday, Barry Sullivan, and her boyfriend, Harry Lindsay, Nicolas Coster, regard Ben with skepticism and fear that deception soon turns dangerous. Ben works to sway Julie, appealing to their supposed destinies and urging her to run away to marry him. Julie, longing for independence, is swept up by his conviction and agrees to go.

On a storm-torn night, the couple sails away to elope. The elder Merriday family fears the ruse and the Sheriff, Russell Thorson, uncovers Ben Gunther’s true identity: Arthur Maine, an escaped murderer from a notorious asylum. A police helicopter scours the coastline as Julie discovers a diary aboard the boat—Benjamin H. Gunther, dated 1874—revealing the extent of Ben’s fraud and the web of deception he spun around her.

Despite the danger and the mounting fear, Ben persists in professing his love. The lovers attempt to flee the authorities by landing the sailboat and sprinting along a beach, but their escape is thwarted by pursuit. In a tense confrontation atop a high sand platform, the two men confront Ben; he is fatally injured when he falls to his death as Julie narrowly escapes.