"Life Returns" is another example of a film Universal produced during their horror golden age that, despite sometimes being included among those classics, is not actually a horror film. Instead, it's a maudlin drama with only the slightest science fiction trappings.
This film is loosely based (Very loosely based) on a real life incident where scientist revived a dead dog. The filmmakers, for some reason, choose to build one of the most hackneyed melodramas I have ever seen around that premise. You've got a young, ambitious scientist who's dreams of reviving the dead are crushed by the cold harsh realities of corporate commercialism. His wife dies of reasons never further elaborate on. His young son can't sell newspapers and is constantly threatened with "Juvenile Hall," as if that was the worse fate imaginable. Soon, the kid meets up with a gang of young rapscallions, right out of friggin' Little Rascals. After the kind of mean, sadistic dog catcher that only exists in lousy movies like this steals his beloved pet, the kids do a daring escape and release all the dogs from the pound. Meanwhile, Little Jimmy's Dad kind of sits around, getting more depressed. Eventually, the beloved dog is killed and we finally get to the central gimmick the whole movie is built around. Instead of recreating the actual experiment, the characters in the film look just off-screen at the actual stock footage of real scientist doing their thing.
I'm sure in real life the scientists just killed a dog for the expressed purpose of reviving it. And I'm fairly certain, after they brought the animal back to life, the beloved owner didn't kneel before the operating table and cuddle. The movie's in the public domain and is widely available on Youtube. Turning the hilariously incoherent self-generated close captioning on actually makes the film somewhat entertaining. Somewhat.
This film is loosely based (Very loosely based) on a real life incident where scientist revived a dead dog. The filmmakers, for some reason, choose to build one of the most hackneyed melodramas I have ever seen around that premise. You've got a young, ambitious scientist who's dreams of reviving the dead are crushed by the cold harsh realities of corporate commercialism. His wife dies of reasons never further elaborate on. His young son can't sell newspapers and is constantly threatened with "Juvenile Hall," as if that was the worse fate imaginable. Soon, the kid meets up with a gang of young rapscallions, right out of friggin' Little Rascals. After the kind of mean, sadistic dog catcher that only exists in lousy movies like this steals his beloved pet, the kids do a daring escape and release all the dogs from the pound. Meanwhile, Little Jimmy's Dad kind of sits around, getting more depressed. Eventually, the beloved dog is killed and we finally get to the central gimmick the whole movie is built around. Instead of recreating the actual experiment, the characters in the film look just off-screen at the actual stock footage of real scientist doing their thing.
I'm sure in real life the scientists just killed a dog for the expressed purpose of reviving it. And I'm fairly certain, after they brought the animal back to life, the beloved owner didn't kneel before the operating table and cuddle. The movie's in the public domain and is widely available on Youtube. Turning the hilariously incoherent self-generated close captioning on actually makes the film somewhat entertaining. Somewhat.