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So much average

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Whether you like or hate "I've Lived Before" will depend entirely on what you think of the notion of reincarnation. I myself think it's a lot of crap....but I cannot simply dismiss a movie because I disagree with the premise. But if the film is trying to convince the audience, it's got a lot more to do.John Bolan (Jock Mahoney) is an airline pilot. During what would seem to be a routine flight, he loses his mind and tries to smash the plane into the ground!! If it wasn't for the co-pilot slugging him, everyone aboard would have died.John is sent to a sanitarium and a psychiatrist (John McIntire) works with him to determine if he's mentally ill, psychotic or normal Well, he obviously isn't normal...so he, along with John's fiancee, work to determine what happened...and the ultimate answer is that in a previous life he must have been a WWI pilot! The problem with this film isn't so much the subject matter but that there is some poor acting (the fiancee was a weak character and often seemed poorly written) and a tendency for characters to go off on long and annoying monologues. Not a terrible film but one that really lacks the polish and believability to get its subject across effectively.

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.

****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 easy to criticize this entry in 1950s' very brief and now forgotten "reincarnation" cycle. Most of the scenes simply consist of two or three people sitting around in standard studio-interior sets laying out the plot in straightforward expository dialog. These scenes progress with unimaginative efficiency from one plot-point to the next. The acting and the technical aspects of the production are never more than B-movie competent, and the flat ending is no more than John McIntyre delivering the kind of tie-up-the-loose-ends sort of speech which screenwriters are supposed to avoid.And yet ... something about "I've Lived Before" merits a certain grudging admiration. Perhaps it's that unvarnished, minimalist quality which both limits and distinguishes it. In any case, those with a taste for the slightly off-beat may find this worth a look.The opening two sequences, one set in 1918 France and one set in upstate New York in 1931 are unnecessary and get the movie off on the wrong foot, and there are the usual quirks which are now dated and provoke unwanted laughter such as the co-pilot smoking in the cockpit, the boyfriend sleeping on his fiancee's couch while she chastely retires to the bedroom, and Federal Airways optimistically billing itself as "The World's Safest Airline."On the other hand, this provides a good showcase for Jock Mahoney, one of those beautiful men who doesn't seem to realize how beautiful he really is. It's both puzzling and unfortunate that he never became a star. Sadly, by the time he played the lead in two Tarzan movies, he was a bit past his prime as was the whole Tarzan genre. In this movie, he has only two fleeting bare-chest scenes contained inside a brief montage of medical examinations.Fans of movies from the '30s and '40s will be pleased to see Ann Harding in a good supporting role, and the stewardess on the airplane is played by April Kent who later appeared as the female midget in "The Incredible Shrinking Man."