I've Lived Before

Jock Mahoney and Ann Harding (the only legitimate actress in this film, along with John McIntyre, who is the only A actor), give interesting performances in a One Step Beyond type plot: a pilot has assumed the life memories of a WW1 pilot who died decades before.

As a child, he steals a plane at an air show and lands with great skill, without ever having had a lesson (and probably giving his mother a stroke).

As an older airline pilot after WW2, he suddenly puts a commercial plane getting ready to land into a steep nosedive; as he has flashbacks to WW 1 combat.

This, of course, does not go over well with his employers, and they suspend him while he is in the hospital recovering. John McIntyre is the psychologist given the task to find out what is wrong with him and to fix it. I not reveal the incident that jolts his memory, but Ann Harding is involved that sequence, and a few other important sequences later.

Not a classic, or a great noir film, but entertaining, and will keep you engaged.

****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".

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.

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.

... 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.