I've Lived Before (1956) User Reviews

Torn between two lives and two loves

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 20 August 2004]

****SPOILERS**** Have we lived before? Is reincarnation a fact that can be proved scientifically as well as believed philosophically? This mystery of life after death, or death before life, has baffled the most renowned minds and thinkers since the dawn of recorded history; from the Orient to ancient Egypt and Greece and to the great philosophers of Europe from the middle ages to modern times.

John Bolan, Jock Mahoney, is a commercial pilot who had a fascination with flying since he was a little boy back in Schenectady New York. At the age of 12 in 1931 young Johnny got into the cockpit of a bi-plane and few and landed it like a seasoned pilot. It was the first time that Johnny ever was on a plane much less fly it.

One afternoon when he was about to fly his plane to New York John sees an elderly woman passenger and all of a sudden his mind fills up with memories of a past life that he led. John sees himself as a Let. Peter Stevens a WWI US Army pilot who was shot down over Villars France on April 29, 1918. It's that tragic memory almost causes John to crash his plane with him and all on board now in 1956.

Hospitalized John's thoughts of a life before has him leave and go investigate if there really was a Let. Peter Stevens who was killed in an air battle over France in 1918. Seeing his good friend and lawyer Robert Allen,Simon Scott, about the matter Robert checked out the information that John gave him and comes back with a hit; there was a Let. Peter Stevens and he was shot down over France in April 1918.

John now finds out who that passenger who brought back those memories of WWI and finds out that her name is Jane Stone, Ann Harding, and goes to Philadelphia where she lives. He's determined find out from her if she knew Let. Peter Stevens and, to John's surprise,is informed by Jane that not only did she know Peter Stevens but was engaged to marry him! This revelation by John being Peter, in another life, leaves Jane almost in shock and asks John to please leave.

John who never believed in, or even thought about, reincarnation now is firmly convinced that he lived before and lived the life of Peter Stevens. Nothing that the doctors or psychiatrists at the hospital say can convince John otherwise other then the unproven fact that, like the movie says, "He lived before". The only thing that can positively prove that he was Peter Stevens in another life is for the reluctant Jane Stone, who's persuaded by John's fiancée Lois Gordon (Leigh Snowden), to come to New York. John needs Jane to confirm events between her and Peter that only she knows about. With that John as well as Jane can put the case of Peter Stevens to rest one way or another and see if the theory of reincarnation is in fact a fact or not a fact.

Intelligent film about a mysterious subject, reincarnation, and trying to be not too obviously for or against it. Even though the end of "I've Lived Before" does make a strong case for rebirth it does it in an honest and un-sensational way. Whenever I think about the fact or myth of reincarnation I'm always reminded of the quote by the celebrated 18th century French author and philosopher Voltaire who said of the theory of reincarnation: "It is not more surprising to be born twice then once".

Oddly interesting

[dinky-4 · 6/10 · 29 December 2002]

It's easy to criticize this entry in 1950s' very brief and now forgotten "reincarnation" cycle. Most of the scenes simply consist of two or three people sitting around in standard studio-interior sets laying out the plot in straightforward expository dialog. These scenes progress with unimaginative efficiency from one plot-point to the next. The acting and the technical aspects of the production are never more than B-movie competent, and the flat ending is no more than John McIntyre delivering the kind of tie-up-the-loose-ends sort of speech which screenwriters are supposed to avoid.

And yet ... something about "I've Lived Before" merits a certain grudging admiration. Perhaps it's that unvarnished, minimalist quality which both limits and distinguishes it. In any case, those with a taste for the slightly off-beat may find this worth a look.

The opening two sequences, one set in 1918 France and one set in upstate New York in 1931 are unnecessary and get the movie off on the wrong foot, and there are the usual quirks which are now dated and provoke unwanted laughter such as the co-pilot smoking in the cockpit, the boyfriend sleeping on his fiancee's couch while she chastely retires to the bedroom, and Federal Airways optimistically billing itself as "The World's Safest Airline."

On the other hand, this provides a good showcase for Jock Mahoney, one of those beautiful men who doesn't seem to realize how beautiful he really is. It's both puzzling and unfortunate that he never became a star. Sadly, by the time he played the lead in two Tarzan movies, he was a bit past his prime as was the whole Tarzan genre. In this movie, he has only two fleeting bare-chest scenes contained inside a brief montage of medical examinations.

Fans of movies from the '30s and '40s will be pleased to see Ann Harding in a good supporting role, and the stewardess on the airplane is played by April Kent who later appeared as the female midget in "The Incredible Shrinking Man."

Soul survivor.

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 8 September 2020]

Made on a shoestring budget ,this movie was,at the time of its release , ahead of its time ,predating such works as "bid time return" "Audrey Rose" " fearless" and many more .Time warp was rarely used then ("portrait of Jennie" (1949) was a notable exception though)

An aging Ann Harding is the stand -out : she who was young in "Peter Ibbetson" (1935) ,a masterpiece of the fantasy genre , is ideally cast as this war fiancée who lost her sweetheart when his plane crashed in 1918.

The movie is shrouded in mystery ;clues are given to the viewer: a twelve-year -old drives a plane without having learned to do it ,the strange chemistry between the captain and his passenger ,the strange words the survivor utters when he regains consciousness .

The movie may be too talky for some, but it proves that a fantasy tale does not need a ton of special effects to impress the viewer ; it may be,according to your own sensitivity a Christian movie (soul is immortal) or a mystery science will later explain (the pychiatrist).

Better than I expected it to be

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 24 November 2020]

This shouldn't be very good. It's a B movie about a pilot who suspects he's reincarnated. It feels like an extended episode of One Step Beyond. The whole movie is just people talking. The only action is the opening plane scenes and one of those is almost certainly footage from another film. Still, I found myself glued to the screen from beginning to end. It probably could have been 10 minutes shorter but, besides that, I don't really have any complaints.

Pilot getting mixed up in the time dimension tries to sort it out.

[clanciai · 7/10 · 13 February 2018]

It's not a good film, but it's an interesting subject. How they treat it could be discussed indeed, and it's not very well.

The story is this. A passenger airplane pilot sees an elderly lady as a passenger he has never seen before but recognizes her and gets confused for not being able to place her. In the confusion in charge of the plane he suddenly becomes another person and almost crashes the plane. When he wakes up at the hospital he still believes he is a crashed war pilot of world war one. Of course, this creates a problem, especially since he doesn't even recognize the girl he is going to marry.

The whole rest of the film is only discussions, so it gets monotonous, but Ann Harding as the elderly lady makes a fascinating performance - she commands every scene she appears in, and it's actually her case the whole story is about.

It becomes something like a metaphysical detective story. The doctor's explanation of the phenomenon is that it's all about telepathy. All doubters are of course, like always, eventually proved stupid and wrong.

Phenomena like these occur, there are always doubters and deniers trying to explain them away, the insistent maniac who is too aware of the truth to be able to compromise with it is always proved right, sometimes not without martyrdom, but here the most important issue is left unanswered. Will the pilot ever again be admitted to fly? Many questions are discussed at length and answered, but this only important one is carelessly and irrationally neglected.

See Leigh!

[wjfickling · 6/10 · 4 December 2002]

A year or two before this film was released, the biggest best seller in the US was a book called "The Search for Bridey Murphy," a book about reincarnation. In that book a modern woman supposedly knew intimate details of the life of Bridey Murphy, an obscure Irish woman who died in the 19th century and of whom she had never heard. This silly film, in which a contemporary (1956) man remembers details in the life of a WWI pilot who was killed in action, was obvious intended to capitalize on "Bridey Murphy"'s success. It's not a good movie.

There is one reason, and only one, to see this film, and that is to see the gorgeous Leigh Snowden. She made very few film and retired from acting before she was 30, after she, truly a woman of the 50s, married accordianist Dick Contino and dedicated herself to raising a family. If her career had been better managed, or if she had been more committed to acting, she might have rivaled some of the blonde sex symbols of the 50s, such as Monroe and Mansfield. But it was not to be. Since this film isn't on video, the only chance you'll have to see it is if you're lucky enough to catch it on cable, most likely during the wee hours. Otherwise, your best opportunity to see the Lovely Leigh is in "All That Heaven Allows," an excellent Douglas Sirk soaper. Leigh, alas, will never be seen again; she died of cancer in 1982.

An interesting psychological drama turns out bad on all counts.

[bux · 1/10 · 12 May 1999]

An interesting concept-reincarnation-is poorly addressed in this psychological drama. The bad acting and poor direction are extremely disappointing, considering the brief glimpse of genius Director Bartlett showed in earlier efforts-"The Silent Raiders"(1954) and "Silver Star"(1955). The stiff acting, and lack of direction, combined with preachy dialogue, deliver a picture reminiscent of an Ed Wood production.

serious, well-intentioned study of reincarnation

[django-1 · 9/10 · 31 October 2004]

This film was released during the short-lived "Bridey Murphy" reincarnation craze of the mid-1950s. As such, I expected it to be somewhat exploitative, but it actually turned out to be a serious, well-intentioned study of reincarnation that presented alternate viewpoints, explored psychological explanations, and told the story of someone whose reincarnation story appears to be true. Jock Mahoney, usually associated with western and jungle films, does a fine job as a pilot who has strange, unexpected flashes of memories and unexplained knowledge from the life of a World War I pilot who died in 1918. My teenaged daughter, who was working on the computer in the same room where I was watching this film, stopped her work a few minutes into the film, and soon after came over to the couch and watched the rest of the film, riveted. I should state that this is a low-budget B-movie and contains a lot of talky sequences and serious-minded soliloquies--the kind of things that are not too popular with today's jaded, ironic screenwriters-- but those who would enjoy a serious (although in some ways naive) examination of reincarnation on a b-movie level should find this film worth seeking out.

PTSD by Proxy!

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 13 February 2018]

Whether you like or hate "I've Lived Before" will depend entirely on what you think of the notion of reincarnation. I myself think it's a lot of crap....but I cannot simply dismiss a movie because I disagree with the premise. But if the film is trying to convince the audience, it's got a lot more to do.

John Bolan (Jock Mahoney) is an airline pilot. During what would seem to be a routine flight, he loses his mind and tries to smash the plane into the ground!! If it wasn't for the co-pilot slugging him, everyone aboard would have died.

John is sent to a sanitarium and a psychiatrist (John McIntire) works with him to determine if he's mentally ill, psychotic or normal Well, he obviously isn't normal...so he, along with John's fiancee, work to determine what happened...and the ultimate answer is that in a previous life he must have been a WWI pilot!

The problem with this film isn't so much the subject matter but that there is some poor acting (the fiancee was a weak character and often seemed poorly written) and a tendency for characters to go off on long and annoying monologues. Not a terrible film but one that really lacks the polish and believability to get its subject across effectively.

The ageless regal bearing of Ann Harding...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 11 March 2021]

... here at age 53, has quite a bit to do with how well this film works.

First scene, there is a WWI dogfight going on, and an allied plane crashes and burns. Next scene, it is a 1931 air show, and some twelve year old kid is flying around in one of the old WWI planes. The people on the ground are justifiably panicked. But the kid lands the plane like a pro. When questioned about it, the kid says he just seemed to know how to fly and land the plane. Jump to present day and that kid who has grown up to be pilot John Bolan (Jock Mahoney) is boarding his plane. He and the copilot indulge in small talk about John's upcoming marriage. But then John sees a passenger (Ann Harding as Jane Stone). He asks her if they know each other or if she has ever flown this airline before. She says no to both, in fact it is the first time she has flown. John goes back to the cockpit, somewhat in a daze. Then he starts to drive the plane into the ground, talking about the flames and how he's been shot. The copilot has to knock the pilot out to get him to relinquish control so that he can guide the plane to safety.

On the ground, and in the hospital, John Bolan thinks that he is WWI pilot Peter Stephens, killed in a dogfight in 1918. He does come to his senses eventually, but still has memories of the dead WWI pilot and feels he is the reincarnation of this man. He doesn't want to spend his life being haunted by this man he never knew, and believes that passenger Jane Stone is the key to what is going on, since seeing her and seeming to recognize her is what brought on his "attack" in the cockpit.

This film was an unexpected delight for me. I had never heard of it, and it looks spartanly done as though it were a poverty row film by that era, although it was made by Universal. It has no big names in the cast except for Ms. Harding, whose heyday was really the 1930s. John McIntyre, one of the great character actors, has a larger part than I am accustomed to seeing him in as John's sympathetic doctor after his breakdown, the fatherly voice of reason.

Several surprises in this film. First, nobody thinks John is a fraud. They all think him a good man in search of solutions. At worst obsessed, but not a liar. Second, there are no firm conclusions. In the end, the doctor says that man is only beginning to understand the mind, and there could be any number of explanations as to what has transpired. Third, Ann Harding commands your attention as much at age 53 as she did at age 28. She is truly timeless. Finally, John, after having what appears as a psychotic break and almost crashing one of their airplanes with 28 passengers aboard, is assured by his boss that all of his medical bills will be taken care of! Fat chance of that happening today. And the boss that assures him of this is played by Raymond Bailey, who ironically played skinflint banker Milburn Drysdale on the long running TV show The Beverly Hillbillies .

This is really worth seeking out.

A real snoozer unless you seriously believe in reincarnation

[RickeyMooney · 2/10 · 26 December 2020]

I don't believe in ghosts, angels, reincarnation, time travel, ESP or mental telepathy. Like most people I'm willing to accept them as plot devices in a movie and often they can be lots of fun.

In this picture, a post-World War II airline pilot believes he is the reincarnation of a fighter pilot who died in World War I. Unfortunately the only place the plot goes with this is trying to prove whether it's true or not. Since the picture had to last 80 minutes this involves a lot of conversations repeating the same few ideas over and over.

The fact that the hero knew how to fly a WWI plane he saw in an airshow as a child and the knowledge he has of the previous aviator's life seem to give away the answer. Or is there a rational explanation? If I told you that would be a spoiler, so I won't.

I don't know

[jromanbaker · 9/10 · 25 April 2023]

I have read most of the other reviews and I have almost nothing to say about the subject of this excellent film on a meagre budget which is reincarnation. The ' almost nothing ' is that I do not know and posit the fact that no one knows, and respect those who are against being reborn and those who don't. But what I do believe is that despite Universal Studios giving two of its ' minor ' actors to play the lead roles that they both give extraordinarily good performances. Jock Mahoney as the pilot who thinks he has been reincarnated is utterly convincing, and the horror and dismay he feels at the beginning of this realisation made me feel that he was far better as an actor than the celebrated Rock Hudson. The same goes for Leigh Snowden, who could have equalled Marilyn Monroe, shows an intelligence and sensitivity in her support for her husband to be, and the nightmarish ( literally ) situation he is in. Why Hollywood did not realise that they had physically beautiful, talented actors who could have played in ' A ' films as well as ' B ' films is beyond understanding. My I don't know about this is much larger than that of reincarnation, and I am saddened to see that both Mahoney and Snowden were so ill used. And then there is Ann Harding, a superb actor who was understood as such and the presence of all three of them at the close of the film brought tears to my eyes. A scene that any budding actor should be able to see, and yet this film has as far as I know been dumped on the bonfire of unwanted films for far too long. There is also a lot of communication in the scenario, and serious discussion which is so lacking in many a Hollywood film of this current verbally poverty stricken era. The direction is capable, the sets minimal but for anyone who loves actor's cinema it is a must see. YouTube has it in a weathered copy, and I for sure will watch it again. I give it a 9 instead of 10 because it should not have been given ' B ' film treatment, and have perhaps been respected more.

Have I lived before?

[nativechick-22546 · 8/10 · 9 February 2024]

A good movie is a good movie whether it's an A-B . There's tons of A-list movies that are flops. I've seen tons of B-list movies that are great! I've Lived Before (1956) is a good movie. It held my interest. That's really all that matters. The plot was interesting, about reincarnation. People who believe in reincarnation are labeled mentally ill. If you believe, zip it because nobody will believe you. The ending was disappointing because the characters were finally getting into the thick of the subject. I don't like endings that leave me wondering and guessing. That's my only complaint. Ann Harding, another great performance.