Interesting and offbeat film about reincarnation shot with an attention to nice design and traditional style , adding some erotic scenes . When college professor, Peter Proud (Michael Sarrazin) experiencing flashbacks of an earlier existence , as he recalls having been murdered in a previous life and nowadays returning to a new activity . Then he's mysteriously drawn to a place he's never been , but which seems familiar and where he soon finds his previous incarnation's wife. This woman, Marcia Curtis (Margot Kidder) , sees in Peter startling characteristics which he shares with her dead husband, Jeff. Peter learns he has been reincarnated , cementing the fears of the unsettling wife . But she isn't about to sit still for such surprise . Much to the dismay of grirlfriend (Cornelia Sharpe) , he returns to the scene of the crime . Along the way , Peter meets the daughter (Jennifer O'Neill) of the reincarnated person and he falls in love for her . Now an electrifying motion picture ! Suppose you knew who you had been in your previous life !. Where you had lived...whom you had loved and how you had died. What then? You Only Have One Life to Live...Or Do You?
This one deals with thorny subject of reencarnation , but not one in the long line of demonic kiddie pic , though some critics have considered this one as a slow-moving take-off on other films . A psychical sex thriller with contrived plot , partially lacking in thrills , sex and psychic phenomena , this takes its proud place in that tiny elite of features with scenarios so mysterious that their entire action has to unfold before the title premise can even be established , as the happenings constantly have to be padded with other trappings . This is a very impressive , and sober-minded film in medium budget with adequate performance . Stars Michael Sarrazin who moves prosaically through the proceedings as the man whose recurring nightmare results to be a memory of his former life , but the story is so minimal that the proceedings constantly have to be padded out with hideous travelogue footage and emoting-by-numbers from a shfting and evident uncertain cast. The starring quartet : Michael Sarrazin , Jennifer O'Neill , Margot Kidder , Cornelia Sharpe are acceptable ,diving decent interpretation . Very good cast is hampered by slow-moving and some boring filmmaking , adding a tense and suspenseful musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith , as well as an atmospheric cinematography by Victor J. Kemper . The movie is notable for giving a strikingly sober portrait of a weird supernatural mystery and especially focusing on the emocional plight of the paranormal malarkey , however, packing a weak staged ending . Screenplay adapted by writer Max Ehrlich from his homonymous best seller novel.
Director J. Lee Thompson provides a passable but turgid filmmaking , including some flaws and gaps . Thompson previously had a nice track record in the English cinema from 1950 until 1961 , directing good Western ( McKenna's gold , White Buffalo) and all king genres as Sci-Fi (Conquest and Battle of planet of apes), terror (reincarnation of Peter Proud, Eye of the devil), adventures (Flame over India ,Kings of the sun, Taras Bulba , Tiger Bay) and Warlike ( Guns of Navarone, Von Braun , Chairman , The passage). His two biggest successes turn out to be ¨Guns of Navarone¨and ¨Cape Fear¨. Thereafter , the filmmaker's career subsided in a morass of slickly realized but middling films. He moved into the field of international spectaculars , at which point his filmmaking seemed to lose its individuality . J. Lee Thompson working from the 50s in England, finished his career making Chuck Norris (Firewalker) and Charles Bronson vehicles (Caboblanco, Evil that men do, Messenger of death, Death Wish 4 : Crackdown, Caboblanco, St Ives). Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable .
