Life Returns

Not to be taken at face value, a cheap exploitation flick,"Life Returns" is a truly penetrating movie that has to do with bringing the dead back to life.

You cease to laugh at the movie before the opening credits when we see a statement by Robert E. Cornish. Telling the audience that what we are about to see in the movie regarding the operation of the dog who was brought back to life. What were told is not only real but the footage of the operation is that of the actual operation preformed by Dr. Cornish and his staff at the Berkeley Medical Facility in Calif. on March 22, 1934; now how's that for realism.

The story leading up to the actual amazing life saving, or life restoring, operation is obviously fiction. It's about a man who's obsessed with bringing back the dead who can't get the financial support. That he needs to develop a serum that would cause the blood of dead people or animals to start circulating and thus bring that back to life.

Working together with Dr. Cornish and Dr. Stone,Lois Wilson, on this theory Dr. Kendrick, Onslow Stevens, is frustrated by the lack of interest in his idea by big business. As well as the medical profession who look at him as being cracked and out of his mind. Going it alone with both Both Dr. Cornish & Stone giving up the idea, due to lack of funds. Dr. Kendricks loses his practice his wife, who passed away, and is in danger of having his young son Danny, George P. Breakstone, to be taken away from him by the state and put into the local Juvenile Hall because he can't provide for him. Danny runs away from home with his pet dog Scooter, to prevent the authorities from taking him away from his father. And goes and hides in a clubhouse that his friends, the neighbor kids, let him live in.

One afternoon Scooter is caught by the dog-catcher and is later put to sleep because Danny couldn't come up with the $3.00 that he needed to get Scooter free. As his dad was too out of it and broke to do anything to save the poor animals life. Dr. Kendrick finally comes to his senses when Danny loses all respect for him for doing nothing to save Scooter. Dr. Kendrick then gets in touch with his old friend Dr. Cornish who later preforms the operation. Dr. Cornish together with the help of Dr. Kendrick's serum miraculously brings Scooter back to life, to the tears of joy of Danny. And with the resurrection of Scooter the restoration of Dr. Kendrick's reputation as a far-seeing and inventive man of medicine.

The operation that brought Scooter back to life was something straight out of the bible! And as unbelievable as it was it was the one thing in the movie "Life Returns" that was fact and not fiction!

Surprisingly good and well acted film about a scientist (Onslow Stevens) who spends years of his life working on a formula to bring the dead back to life. His goal overshadows other important things in his life, like his wife, job and son (George Breakston).

The film was made in 1935, but was not released until 1937. The footage of the operation is actual footage performed by Dr. Robert E. Cornish, in which he brings a dead dog back to life. One is left to think today that if the experiment had really been successful that Dr. Cornish would have gone down in history.

Valerie Hobson plays the doctors friend. This is years before her later humiliation, when her husband, John Profumo, an elected British official, had an affair with a chorus girl.

This is a truly bizarre little film that really baffled me--so much so that I tried to research a bit about the odd work of Robert E. Cornish and would like to know what made this odd man tick. Apparently in the early 1930s, this odd man was interested in reviving the dead--though the practicality of such work is rather dubious. Apparently he'd hoped to use this technique on humans but why is beyond me. His work, thankfully, was restricted to dogs. First, they'd euthanize a dog. Then using a combination of stimulants, artificial respiration and a teeter-totter-like device, they were able to BRIEFLY revive a couple dogs...who died PERMANENTLY soon after!!! So what possible use is this procedure?! Well, I guess if a person would be euthanized, you MIGHT be to bring him or her back BRIEFLY--and then they'll die! Wow, no wonder this guy never became all that famous! Apparently, the film makers who brought us this film decided to make use of film footage they had of one of Dr. Cornish's dog revivals. BUT, they had to create a story in which to insert this footage. As for the story, it's pretty dull and is great if you like bad 'boy and his dog' films. Ultimately, the film is sunk because this story and the footage really aren't integrated well together. First, the dog in the experiment is NOT the same one they used as an actor in the film. Second, the stuff is pretty cloying and has a crappy low-budget look and feel to it. The overall effect is poor but not bad enough to make it funny or entertaining as kitsch.

Self-absorbed scientist Dr. John Kendrick (Onslow Stevens) becomes so obsessed with realising his dream of bringing the dead back to life that he neglects both his successful medical practice and his loving family, losing his wife and his mind in the process. Rather than face a stint in juvenile hall, Kendrick's son Danny (George P. Breakston) runs away from home and joins a gang in the next neighbourhood, where his lovable mutt Scooter proves popular with the other kids until it is nabbed and gassed to death by the local dog-catcher. A distraught Danny gives his father one last chance to prove his worth: teaming up with old college pals Dr. Louise Stone (Lois Wilson) and Dr. Robert Cornish (played by real life pioneering scientist Robert Cornish), Kendrick performs a revolutionary procedure to bring the mutt back from the dead.

Part heavy-handed drama, part Little Rascals-style kids' adventure, and part scientific curio, this has got to be one of the most unusual films to come out of Universal Studios during the 30s; however, despite its undeniable credentials as a genuinely bizarre obscurity, the film utilising real-life footage of Cornish's experiments on a dead dog during its climax, Life Returns offers very little in the way of real entertainment value, being too dull, depressing, and devoid of genuine entertainment value to be of much interest to anyone but the most avid fan of Universal's output.

Contrary to what most others have stated, this poverty row-looking production was NOT actually produced or made by Universal (so folks can stop criticizing the poor production values on the greatest studio during the classic era of horror). This fairly dull movie (yes...I agree that much with the negative reviews here) was actually made by Scienart Pictures, and only distributed theatrically by Universal, who did NOT produce it. So people can get off Universal's back with their lambasting of the movie...instead blame Scienart Pictures.