Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Nothing to see here unless you want to watch Onslow Stevens mope on screen for an hour looking like a bum and a group of kids doing Our Gang style of stuff. In the end of the film, you can watch the "real film" of the guy bringing dog back to life (but I don't think that was real).This is a very slow, pretty boring film for the most part. It seem they threw the Our Gang stuff into the movie as a time filler - really served no purpose. You would think the film would revolve around a man coming up with his scientific discovery and maybe failing a couple of times then succeeding in the end but the film is not like that at all. As I said, the film flips from Onslow Stevens moping on screen to Our Gang then back to more moping by Stevens.You'd do well by skipping this film and finding something else to watch.2/10

Life Returns (1935) ** (out of 4)Dr. John Kendrick (Onslow Stevens) is obsessed with bringing the dead back to life but everyone laughs at him. This pretty much forces him out of the profession and before long his wife dies and his young son ends up in a gang where his life goes all wrong. Pretty soon a chance comes along and the doctor can prove his scientific theories.LIFE RETURNS is often confused as to being a Universal horror movie but that's not the case. Thsi was just distributed by Universal for some reason but it wasn't actually produced by them. Another bit of confusion is that Valerie Hobson has a brief role here and we know she appeared in Universal's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and WEREWOLF IN London the same year. If you're expecting a flat out horror film then you'll certainly be disappointed as this is more family drama mixed with science fiction.The weirdest thing about this ultra weird movie is the fact that it tries to do so many things yet it isn't successful at any of them. For starters, this is a personal drama dealing with the doctor losing everything while he battles to try and prove himself. The film also rips off the Our Gang shorts with the story of the son who falls in with a group of misfits. I'm really not sure why Universal would want to distribute this film because even for a "C" studio this thing would be pretty embarrassing.Onslow, who would eventually appear in HOUSE OF DRAULA, at least manages a decent performance and I'd also argue that Hobson is better here than in the two Universal horror movies she appeared in. The problem is that there's just nothing overly interesting here. This was based on the life of Robert E. Cornish but I'll let you look up what he did and how. As far as the film goes, LIFE RETURNS briefly hits the "horror" genre with the doctor trying to bring life back to a dog but the weirdness level of the picture keeps it somewhat entertaining.

The tale of LIFE RETURNS is more interesting in what they're not showing you, rather than what they are. I was intrigued by the title card preceding the movie proclaiming, "This part of the picture was originally taken to retain a permanent scientific record of our experiment" and "Everything shown is absolutely real." It was presented as a sort of letter to the audience and it closed with the name Robert E. Cornish. Then it continues with yet more text, this time a scrawl that dedicated this "unusual screen play" to the "determination and genius of those men who have unselfishly devoted their lives to the service of humanity." So it's got a nice pro-science message, as opposed to the usual doom and gloom sci-fi morality tales. We then join three friends in college: Louise Stone (Lois Wilson), Robert Cornish, and John Kendrick (Onslow Stevens). For the record, Cornish actually plays himself for this movie. This matters little because, once our three friends graduate college with their doctorates following a brief montage, Kendrick breaks off from the trio to pursue the chance of performing his research at the Arnold Research laboratories. Rather than follow Cornish, who wrote us that nice letter for the opening and referenced his own experiments, we go along with Kendrick to his new life at Arnold Research. So Kendrick's our main character? All right, then. We're treated to some more quick glimpses of life moving along with news that Kendrick has married a socialite and had a son.Life seems to be going smoothly for Kendrick for a while, practicing medicine while also continuing his research. What's his research involve? Oh, that's right: returning people from the dead. Not like zombies unfortunately; that'd be too fun. It's the ability to revive people from recent death due to accidents or illness. It's all going swell until the big boss pays a visit to the office and not only refuses a requisition order for new equipment but also shuts down Kendrick's research entirely. He wants him to focus on more important things in life, such as nail polish and assorted ointments. Then Kendrick's wife dies (incredibly suddenly) from an undefined illness. It's all going to crap now, and Kendrick is left to tend to his young son Danny (played by future director of THE MANSTER, George Breakston). Sadly, Kendrick can't keep it together. He's quit his work at Arnold Research (he wasn't interested in shifting his research to creating the ultimate hair-restoring brush), ditches his medical practice, and now the county has decided to take his son away. Honestly, it's probably for the best. Danny is to be placed in the county's juvenile hall since Kendrick isn't a fit father. Which is true; he's a total wreck at this point. Danny won't have any of it, and escapes with his dog Scooter to live among street hooligans in their makeshift clubhouse. The entire second half of the movie deals with Danny's new street life with his rascally friends and his attempts to pull his dad out of his rut.Now back to what I said at the beginning. LIFE RETURNS is more interesting in what it's not showing you versus what it is. We waste an entire hour-long movie following the sorry luck of Kendrick and his son's street adventures with plucky 1930's street kids, but why aren't we following Cornish? This movie is (vaguely) about his true-to-life experiments in reviving the dead. Google him. He's a real dude. So why isn't this movie about him? When the trio of new doctors split, we should go with Cornish and see where his life goes. Instead we reconnect with him in the last ten minutes of the movie for the big experiment we were promised in the opening text. I had the thought that the surgical footage looked a little too real and I noticed the reaction shots from Dr. Stone and Danny seemed tagged on. Sure enough, it was and they were. The final ten minutes of this movie is one of Dr. Cornish's actual surgical procedures to return a being to life after death. So that's cool, I guess. I can't help but feel kind of bad for Cornish though because a lot of the victory goes to Kendrick because he needs his big win to end the movie on a high note. Cornish is performing the procedure, but the movie sort of gives Kendrick credit. It's a bummer for Cornish, and it's a bummer for us having had to sit through an hour of family drama and one man's total breakdown when we could've been following Cornish's tale the entire time. From the little bit I read about him on Wikipedia, I can guarantee it would've been way, way more interesting.

Self-absorbed scientist Dr. John Kendrick (Onslow Stevens) becomes so obsessed with realising his dream of bringing the dead back to life that he neglects both his successful medical practice and his loving family, losing his wife and his mind in the process. Rather than face a stint in juvenile hall, Kendrick's son Danny (George P. Breakston) runs away from home and joins a gang in the next neighbourhood, where his lovable mutt Scooter proves popular with the other kids until it is nabbed and gassed to death by the local dog-catcher. A distraught Danny gives his father one last chance to prove his worth: teaming up with old college pals Dr. Louise Stone (Lois Wilson) and Dr. Robert Cornish (played by real life pioneering scientist Robert Cornish), Kendrick performs a revolutionary procedure to bring the mutt back from the dead.Part heavy-handed drama, part Little Rascals-style kids' adventure, and part scientific curio, this has got to be one of the most unusual films to come out of Universal Studios during the 30s; however, despite its undeniable credentials as a genuinely bizarre obscurity, the film utilising real-life footage of Cornish's experiments on a dead dog during its climax, Life Returns offers very little in the way of real entertainment value, being too dull, depressing, and devoid of genuine entertainment value to be of much interest to anyone but the most avid fan of Universal's output.