Dead Again (1991)

A woman who has lost her memory is taken in by a Los Angeles orphanage, and a private eye is enlisted to track down her identity, but he soon finds that he might have a past life connection to her that endangers their lives.

Director:

Kenneth Branagh

Writer:

Scott Frank

Stars:

Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Andy Garcia

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kenneth Branagh	...	Roman Strauss / Mike Church
Andy Garcia	...	Gray Baker
Emma Thompson	...	Grace / Margaret Strauss
Lois Hall	...	Sister Constance
Richard Easton	...	Father Timothy
Jo Anderson	...	Sister Madeleine / Starlet
Patrick Montes	...	Pickup Driver
Raymond Cruz	...	Supermarket Clerk
Robin Williams	...	Dr. Cozy Carlisle
Wayne Knight	...	'Piccolo' Pete Dugan
Patrick Doyle	...	Cop #1 - Hospital Elevator / Party Guest #2
Erik Kilpatrick	...	Cop #2 - Hospital Elevator
Gordana Rashovich	...	Handcuffed Woman - Hospital Elevator
Derek Jacobi	...	Franklyn Madson
Obba Babatundé	...	Syd - Restaurant Owner (as Obba Babatunde)

Storyline

Mike Church is a Los Angeles private detective who specializes in finding missing persons. He takes on the case of a mute woman who is suffering from a total amnesia and doesn't even know her name. She keeps having nightmares involving the murder of a pianist, Margaret, by her husband Roman Strauss in the late 1940s. In an attempt to solve the mystery about her identity and her nightmares, Church accepts the help of an antiquary who arrives to offer his services as a hypnotist. The hypnosis sessions soon begin to reveal some surprises.

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Plot Keywords:

hypnosis | private eye | amnesia | scissors | past life regression | 

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Taglines:

A Mystery About True Love...And Certain Death.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 August 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Volver a morir

Filming Locations:

380 South San Rafael Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,479,395, 23 August 1991, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$38,016,380

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Mirage Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Black and White Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Robin Williams didn't want his name to appear in the opening credits, as it might have misled audiences into thinking that this movie was a comedy. He only has three scenes with Director Sir Kenneth Branagh, and one with Dame Emma Thompson. This was due to Robin doing two other movies the same year, not from Paramount Pictures, but from TriStar Pictures, which include Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (1991) and Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991).

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Goofs

Gray Baker has a pierced ear and that would not have been acceptable for the late 1940's.

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Quotes

Cozy Carlisle: Hey, thumbdick, I was a damn good shrink. Nineteen years I worked with a lot of people through a lot of shit. OK, I slept with a patient or two. It's not like I didn't care about them. I loved being a doctor. I used to not charge half my patients. Then the fucking state comes along, they send in some bitch undercover, and I'm fucked. Life isn't fair, is it?

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Crazy Credits

Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh are each credited twice for their dual roles in this movie.

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Connections

References Henry V (1989)

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Soundtracks

Lush Life
by Billy Strayhorn

User Reviews

And again.. and again,, and again.

***SPOILERS*** Modern Film-Noir murder mystery that covers 42 years,1948-1990, and two lifetimes. Grace, Emma Thompson,has been in this Catholic sanitarium, Saint Audrey's, since she was found wandering aimlessly on the streets of L.A. With the church not being able to keep or care for her any longer due to her deteriorating mental condition the church's administrator Father Thimothy, Richard Easton,calls a former parishioner Private eye Mike Church, Kenneth Branagh. Church is to find out just who this Grace, a name given to her by the church, really is.

Putting an ad in the local L.A newspapers Church is immediately contacted by antique dealer Franklin Madson, Derek Jacobi. Madson dabbles in the occult and is experienced in the science of past-life regression; regressing persons back to their past lives through hypnosis. Madson puts Grace into a trance and regresses her back in time. It's then that Grace claims that in her previous existence she was a woman named Margrate Struss back in 1949. It was back then in 1949 that she was murdered by her husband Roman. Roman was a failing Hollywood musical composer and with his money, that he inherited from his first wife back in Germany, gone he was just about to have a nervous breakdown. Romans also suspected that Margaret was cheating on him by having an affair with newspaper reporter Gray Baker, Andy Garcia. One evening Roman just lost it and took out a pair of scissors brutally murdering Margaret.

This amazing revelation, by Grace, is later confirmed through old newspapers clippings that also brought out that not only was there a Margaret and Roman Struss, back in L.A in 1948-49, but that she was also brutally murdered by her husband Roman.

Mike and his assistant Pete(Wayne Knight), who later in the film makes one of the most jolting as well as unsuspecting guest appearances in motion picture history, get in touch with former psychiatrist and now grocery store owner Cozy Carlisle, Robin Williams, an expert in past-life regression. Cralisle, who was drummed out of his profession for having sex with one of his patients, tells them that past-life regressions do in fact have some truth to them and what Grace has been saying under hypnosis could very well have happened to her in a past life.

The movie then takes on an almost supernatural angle to it and as its story slowly starts unfolding it becomes apparent to everyone that Grace is telling the truth but there's only one slight misrepresentation in her story! Grace wasn't Margrate Struss in her previous existence and the person who was wasn't murdered by Roman! There are surprises galore in this movie about murder madness and reincarnation and an ending that will surly blow you, like almost everyone else watching it, away.

The movie is so well put together that your never allowed, by it's writer and director, to realize exactly what's going on until almost the very last five or so minutes. It's then where the truth about Grace/Margrate suddenly explodes right in your face leaving you, like it did both Grace & Mike Church, in a state of shock.

Crossing different lives and time periods "Dead Again" in its concluding moments comes to a startling and paranormal rendezvous. It's at that point when the past suddenly catches up with the present and the mind boggling results of that time/space related conjunction become truly astonishing.