I was surprised to learn that this was a product of Universal Studios because it looked very much more like a product of Poverty Row. Despite what you could reasonably expect, it isn't one of Universal's horror cycle though, it's barely even sci-fi either and is mostly a melodrama. It's about a doctor who continues to try and develop a formula that will re-animate the dead. He eventually succeeds in bringing his son's dog back to life.The film tries to suggest that we will witness footage from an operation that indeed did bring a dog back from the dead. Apparently a Dr. Cornish devised this procedure and tested it successfully. He stars in this one and it's footage of his surgery we see in the finale. In reality the dog may have been briefly resuscitated but it died very soon afterwards. Of course the movie doesn't show this! On the whole this is an okay medical drama that could probably have been told in a more exciting manner. On a side note, I did find it quite amusing that the paperboy in the film used his dog to carry his newspapers in a little dog cart, the lazy little git.

"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.

I'm a huge fan of the classic horror & sci-fi films of the 1930s and 1940s, particularly those of Universal. So when I came across this obscure title, starring Onslow Stevens and Valerie Hobson (both of much better Universal titles), I thought I'd struck paydirt. Unfortunately, I struck just plain old ordinary dirt. For starters, this movie looks cheap. If you're expecting any of the Universal polish that you find in most of their classic films, forget it. This looks like the kind of Poverty Row cheapie Bela Lugosi would be doing in years to come. The story is basically about bringing dead dogs back to life. The main selling point is supposedly this guy Robert Cornish, who appears in the movie but hardly speaks and rarely has the camera focused on his face when he does. Apparently for about 5 minutes back in the day he made headlines for bringing a dog back to life. The actual footage of that is crammed into this movie and it's about as cheap and bland as you might expect. Although seeing the guy give the dog mouth-to-mouth is worth a gander. However, despite this movie basically only being made because of Mr. Cornish, he's not the real star of it. The star is Onslow Stevens, turning in a dreary performance as Dr. John Kendrick. He staggers around in a daze for most of the picture (when he's not acting crazy, that is). But it's not entirely his fault. The character is written so unlikeable that you can't root for him even though the movie's objective is to make you do just that. After suffering ONE setback, Dr. Kendrick turns into a total loser wandering around like he's lost and looking disheveled. The guy lets his practice go to ruin, lets his wife die and kid live on the street, all the while whining and moping. He's a mess. Speaking of the kid, he's very annoying and the actor playing him is awful ("Scoota! Scoota!"). Anyway, the best part of this whole movie to me was a minor tidbit. When they show the newspaper article announcing Kendrick's engagement, the headline below that reads "Dog Saves Lad From Wasps." That would have made for a much more interesting film, I think. I was pretty disappointed in this movie and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody but Universal completists and people who like movies they can make fun of.

Universal created this picture with a horror theme that was too upsetting for the British and it was censored. "Life Returns" was fiction and created by director Eugene Frenke and his writers James Hogan, John Goodrich, Arthur Homan, Wolfe Gilbert and Mary McCarthy. Onslow Stevens, formerly the invisible scientist of Universal's science-fiction serial "The Vanishing Shadow",'34, played John Kendrick, a doctor devoted to seeking a formula to restore life after death. He succeeds when his son's pet, called Lazarus is gassed by the dog-catcher. It was surprising to see Valerie Hobson playing the faithful doctor's wife. Great Film for 1935!