Kenneth Branagh’s 1991 thriller Lifeless Once more is a thriller gem that’s aching to be rediscovered.
It’s unusual how the films you see as a baby have a tendency to stay with you all through the years. Odder nonetheless are the films which have a profound private affect on you due to one particular scene. Through the years, I’ve written about loads of them for this long-running function I’ve carried out on JoBlo referred to as The Finest Film You By no means Noticed. For me, one such film is the 1991 thriller Lifeless Once more, which was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who additionally co-stars alongside together with his then-wife, Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Andy Garcia and the late, nice Robin Williams (in an unbilled function). I noticed this at ten years previous on the Canadian equal of HBO, First Selection, and it had a profound affect on me for one particular motive I’ll get to shortly.
However first, some background on this typically missed movie. Within the late eighties, many thought-about Kenneth Branagh, who obtained twin finest actor and finest director nominations for his movie of Henry V, the inheritor obvious of Laurence Olivier. Having been a star at RADA, and one of many vivid lights of the London stage earlier than transferring on to movie, his ascendency was fast, however Branagh seemingly bristled at being typecast in upper-crust English elements. Whereas adapting Shakespeare’s works for the display screen has arguably been his life’s work, he clearly relished the chance to department out a bit with the noir-inspired Lifeless Once more, which was written by the good Scott Frank (The Lookout, Little Man Tate, Get Shorty, Out of Sight & Logan).
In it, Branagh performs a wisecracking Los Angeles non-public eye named Mike Church. An orphan, he’s recruited by the church he was raised in to assist determine an attractive amnesiac (Emma Thompson) who turned up on their doorstep. With the assistance of an antiques supplier/ hypnotist (Derek Jacobi), the lady, who Church calls Grace, reveals she’s the reincarnation of a live performance pianist who was murdered by her well-known composer husband, Roman Strauss again in 1949. Branagh and Thompson, who had been married on the time, play twin roles, as Church/Roman, and Grace/Margaret.
Using excessive off a wave of robust evaluations, Lifeless Once more proved to be a word-of-mouth hit within the fall of 1991. Opening at primary on the field workplace and staying there for a number of weeks, it grossed $38 million (so much in 1991 {dollars}) and was a much-rented tape in these Blockbuster Video days. Even nonetheless, within the thirty-three years because it was launched, Lifeless Once more sunk into minor obscurity and is usually missed when discussing the careers of anybody concerned, even Branagh, regardless of it being the movie that broke him and Thompson by way of to an American viewers.
A love letter to movie noir, Lifeless Once more takes place in two distinct durations, Nineteen Forties L.A (shot in beautiful black and white) and the “modern-day” equal. The flashbacks are carried out in an eccentric noir type, whereas the latter scenes go for the excessive type of an Alfred Hitchcock film. The thriller is kind of gripping, and the romantic subplot between Branagh’s detective and Thompson’s amnesiac works effectively. The 2 had nice chemistry, and each make fairly admirable makes an attempt at American accents. Andy Garcia additionally steals scenes as a dissolute party-hound within the forties part, solely to be laid low by time within the fashionable part. Branagh’s stage mentor, Derek Jacobi, additionally seems to be to be having the time of his life as an vintage supplier/ hypnotist drawn into the thriller – it’s the kind of function Claude Rains would have performed in a 1940’s model.
Given Branagh’s anointing by Hollywood because the “next big thing”, he was in a position to recruit quite a lot of well-liked actors for small elements, together with karate-kick throwing Campbell Scott (using excessive off Dying Younger and Singles) and the late, nice Robin Williams, who performs a disgraced psychiatrist diminished to working as a grocery store inventory boy. Williams took no billing, however his half is a crucial one, with him delivering the central thesis of the film in his huge scene with Branagh and Thompson, and he greater than holds his personal reverse them. Yet one more reminder of how a lot we misplaced when he handed away.
So, what was it about this movie that stayed with me? Past the truth that I at all times thought it was a enjoyable thriller (even when it was solely about ten years previous after I first noticed it), there’s a scene that scarred me in it towards the top. Because the thriller deepens, Branagh’s Church interviews Andy Garcia’s Grey Baker, who was a reporter in love with Margaret within the forties part of the movie. One of many film’s recurring gags is that Church is attempting to stop smoking, and when he meets the 1991 model of Baker, he notices that the person has had his larynx eliminated. There’s a bit the place Garcia smokes a cigarette by way of a gap in his throat that completely repulsed me as a child and made me vow to by no means take up smoking.
Quick-forward to 2021, when Branagh was making the rounds on the awards-circuit for his movie Belfast. I used to be invited to the Los Angeles premiere of the movie, and was fortunate sufficient to fulfill Branagh at a celebration. Branagh, who likes to be referred to as Ken regardless of his knighting, was a brilliant good man, and once we had been chatting, I casually talked about to him how I by no means began smoking due to this scene, and he bought an enormous chortle out of it.
So, in a manner, Kenneth Branagh and Andy Garcia are largely answerable for the truth that I’ve by no means been a smoker (by the way – Garcia was on the similar get together and Branagh informed me I ought to inform him my story- nevertheless it seems he bailed on the get together early and I missed my probability). That little tidbit apart, Lifeless Once more is a very enjoyable thriller (with an amazing rating by Patrick Doyle) that’s value trying out. You will discover it on DVD/Blu-ray, and it’s additionally accessible on streaming (however no 4K but). Give it a shot!
