Let's Live Again

John Emery was a character actor who rarely got a chance to star in a movie. "Let's Live Again" is one of his few starring roles. I appreciated seeing this, as I've loved his supporting performances. His urbane, superior sort of characters are fun to watch--sort of like Dr. Frasier Crane but not so funny!

"Let's Live Again" is the opposite sort of moviein which I'd expect to see Emery. It's a silly comedy...and comedy is NOT what I expected of the guy.

Larry (Emery) is a brilliant and well respected nuclear scientist. Despite this, he has a HUGE inferiority complex when it comes to his brother, George. George is a war hero and adventurer...much like Admiral Byrd. This complex combined with overwork has Larry on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

The opportunity for Larry to lose his mind soon arrives. George is killed during one of his flights and before he died, he told Larry he expects to be reincarnated as a dog! Larry thinks it's all bunk...but after George's death, he encounters a dog and insists it is George! It's actually pretty odd how Larry believed this so quickly...a slight problem with the script. And, when he tells people the dog is George, they are convinced Larry is unhinged.

So is this any good? After all, the plot is positively ridiculous. However, I must say that SOME ridiculous movies work well, such as the Francis the Talking Mule films. Well, it's not great or a must-see film...but it is a diverting film.

By the way, the film mentions a 'Vitamin G'...something I'd never heard of nor knew existed. It turns out that's an old term for Vitamin B2.

John Emery and James Millicam are brothers, and two different personalities. Emery is a stuffy physicist who had an important position in the development of the atomic bomb, and is now working on some sort governmental-sounding agencies. Millicam is a globetrotting explorer. They don't get along well, but when Millicam is reported killed in a plane crash, Emery has mixed feelings. So when a large, scruffy mutt wanders into his life and he says it's Millicam reincarnated, people around him think he's dealing with grief in a peculiar manner. Except that his idea becomes fixed.

It's a comedy, and while Emery's behavior is appropriate for a character who is going to get kicked in the pants, it doe have some clever lines in it. And he does get kicked in the pants emotionally, when the dog disappears, only to turn up in the possession of Hillary Brookes. She has been forewarned about Emory's delusion -- if it is a delusion; you can never be sure in movies of this period -- and resists his taking her dog.

By the way, the dog, which is called a mutt throughout, is actually a faun Berger Picard, an unusual, though fully recognized breed of sheepdog. Because of their scruffy-looking appearance, they turn up in a lot of movies as mongrels. With Diana Douglas, Charles Brown, Percy Helton, and Jeff Corey.