Dead Again (1991)

An amnesiac and a private eye find they might have a past life connection.

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
Derek Jacobi	...	Franklyn Madson
Wayne Knight	...	'Piccolo' Pete Dugan
Hanna Schygulla	...	Inga
Campbell Scott	...	Doug
Emma Thompson	...	Grace / Margaret Strauss
Jo Anderson	...	Sister Madeleine / Starlet
Christine Ebersole	...	Lydia Larsen
Lois Hall	...	Sister Constance
Richard Easton	...	Father Timothy
Patrick Montes	...	Pickup Driver
Raymond Cruz	...	Clerk
Robin Williams	...	Doctor Cozy Carlisle
Patrick Doyle	...	Policeman in lift

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 will soon begin to reveal some surprises.

---

Plot Keywords:

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

---

Taglines:

How many times can you die for love?

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

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

One of two theatrical feature films that actor Campbell Scott appeared in that were released in 1991 with titles that evoked morbidity. The movies are Dead Again (1991) and Dying Young (1991).

---

Goofs

The address on the driver's license Pete gives "Grace" has one street number on Hightower, then later, when Mike Church kicks in her door, the *real* address of the actual Hightower residence is on the exterior wall beside the door.

---

Quotes

Mike Church: [Baker smokes a cigarette through the hole in his throat, and gives the pack back to Mike] Keep 'em. I just quit.

---

Crazy Credits

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

---

Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Robin Williams/Jonathan Winters/Park Overall (1991)

---

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.