Life Returns (1935)

LIFE RETURNS is an odd mix of would-be sci-fi/horror effort and children's adventure film. The subject matter, about the revival of a dead dog by scientists working beyond the remit of the known laws of biology, is based on a supposedly true story and was graphic and controversial enough to see this film banned in Britain on release. Seeing it today, it's a very dated and genteel effort, although not without interest.The film suffers from having a very poor quality print which saps it of life, but the tale itself is good enough. Onslow Stevens, a familiar face from B-movie fare, plays a scientist ostracised by his peers for his unorthodox experiments on test subjects. A casting surprise is Valerie Hobson, of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN fame, playing his wife. The film feels like a low key version of FRANKENSTEIN in places, and taps in to some of the same sensationalist attitude.Elsewhere, we have some cute dog moments involving the film's child star. Scenes of him and his gang of buddies battling against a vengeful dog catcher make this feel like an OUR GANG movie at times although that's no bad thing. As a whole, LIFE RETURNS is unusual enough to be worth a look, although far from perfect.

Life Returns (1935) ** (out of 4)Dr. John Kendrick (Onslow Stevens) is obsessed with bringing the dead back to life but everyone laughs at him. This pretty much forces him out of the profession and before long his wife dies and his young son ends up in a gang where his life goes all wrong. Pretty soon a chance comes along and the doctor can prove his scientific theories.LIFE RETURNS is often confused as to being a Universal horror movie but that's not the case. Thsi was just distributed by Universal for some reason but it wasn't actually produced by them. Another bit of confusion is that Valerie Hobson has a brief role here and we know she appeared in Universal's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and WEREWOLF IN London the same year. If you're expecting a flat out horror film then you'll certainly be disappointed as this is more family drama mixed with science fiction.The weirdest thing about this ultra weird movie is the fact that it tries to do so many things yet it isn't successful at any of them. For starters, this is a personal drama dealing with the doctor losing everything while he battles to try and prove himself. The film also rips off the Our Gang shorts with the story of the son who falls in with a group of misfits. I'm really not sure why Universal would want to distribute this film because even for a "C" studio this thing would be pretty embarrassing.Onslow, who would eventually appear in HOUSE OF DRAULA, at least manages a decent performance and I'd also argue that Hobson is better here than in the two Universal horror movies she appeared in. The problem is that there's just nothing overly interesting here. This was based on the life of Robert E. Cornish but I'll let you look up what he did and how. As far as the film goes, LIFE RETURNS briefly hits the "horror" genre with the doctor trying to bring life back to a dog but the weirdness level of the picture keeps it somewhat entertaining.

This film shows you that you can be the worst parent in the world and everything turns out okay as long as you can brings your kid's pets back to life. But not his mother.After a head scratching beginning which goes on about some guy who brought a dog back to life, we get so see smug graduate Kendrick ditching his mates in order to join some corporation whom he believes will give him the dough in order for him to realise his life's dream, and that dream is conquering death. The thing is, business is business and when the company ditch him for spending too much (they offer him a job making hair restoring brushes instead) he goes a bit nuts, stops practising medicine, then sits around all day feeling sorry for himself.You the audience instead should be feeling sorry for his son Danny. Now, Danny's a bright kid with a dog sidekick but when his mum kicks the bucket, his dad can't be bothered getting a job and therefore Danny's headed for the kid's home. He escapes and joins up with some kids, but life ain't going to be getting any better for Danny any time soon.This film is bizarrely depressing due to Danny. His dad really thinks he's above any jobs and any time someone starts chewing his ears about facing reality he stares into space and goes on about conquering death (at one point referring to those gassed in the trenches in WW1 – just wait a few years film!). So his dad lies about doing nothing while Danny is chased by the cops, has his dog arrested, and let's not forget he lost his mum. Where's the light? The end, as you'd imagine, is utterly ridiculous, and seems to involve real footage of some operation integrated into the film proper (Godfrey Ho must have watched this as a kid!).

Arguably one of the most baffling movies ever, and probably THE single worst thing Universal Studios was ever involved with during their golden "horror cycle". LIFE RETURNS is a rare curio which features Onslow Stevens (Dr. Edelmann from HOUSE OF Dracula), Valerie Hobson (BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) and even Frank Reicher (KING KONG). In the excellent MacFarland book UNIVERSAL HORRORS I had read that this was one of those obscure films that fans love to try and locate, only to be bitterly disappointed once they track it down. I remember a quote which concluded that "LIFE RETURNS deserves its ongoing obscurity", or something. Well....the risk is yours! So what is this, then? One guess is that it's possibly a story about a doctor (Stevens) trying to develop a formula for bringing dead people back to life, though it's certainly not a horror film. This also echoes the vibe of an "Our Gang" two-reeler minus the comedy: the doc has a young son who becomes involved with a gang of kids and has a pet dog which ultimately becomes a participant in dad's experiment. Footage in here was taken straight from an actual medical procedure trying to revive a dog, spliced in to make it appear part of the movie! * out of ****