Karma lives in Branagh’s “Dead Again” 4K UHD
- Peggy Earle
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Director Kenneth Branagh stars in dual roles as cynical Los Angeles
private eye, Mike Church, and Viennese composer Roman Strauss. And, Emma Thompson plays Grace, a woman who has lost her memory and is mute, and as Strauss’ wife Margaret.
(Click an image to scroll the larger versions)
“DEAD AGAIN”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 1991; rated R for profanity and violence
Best extra: Audio commentary by Lindsay Doran, producer, and Scott Frank, screenwriter
ANY MOVIE that Kenneth Branagh both directs and stars in guarantees ample opportunities for him to steal scenes and chew scenery.
In the supernatural mystery, “Dead Again,” he definitely does his share of that, but also leaves some room for his then-wife, Emma Thompson, as well as for the great English character actor, Derek Jacobi. Fresh from his highly touted starring/directing foray into Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” Branagh plays a double role in “Dead Again,” as does Thompson. The movie opens in black and white with shots of newspaper headlines from 1948, that describe a notorious murder and subsequent trial.
The murderer is a famous Viennese composer, Roman Strauss, and his victim is his English wife, Margaret (Thompson). Cut to modern times and living color, where Thompson is now a nightmare-plagued mute amnesiac, being cared for at a Los Angeles orphanage. The present-day Branagh is Mike Church, an ex-cop/private detective, called in to help the frightened woman recover her identity.
Jacobi plays Frankie Madison, an eccentric antiques dealer, who is also a talented hypnotist specializing in regressing people to their former lives. The impressive supporting cast includes Andy Garcia, Robin Williams, Wayne Knight, Campbell Scott, and German actress Hanna Schygulla.
“Dead Again” offers up some laughs, along with the entertaining concept of reincarnation, and is topped with a sly twist of a dénouement. It’s best to approach the movie with a sense of humor, and some playful suspension of disbelief, because taking it too seriously could just make it fall flat.
(1-3) “Dead Again” opens with a black-and-white flashback scene during the postwar 1940s, as Roman Strauss is on death row waiting to be executed for killing his wife. Newspaper reporter Gary Baker (Andy Garcia) tries to get one final interview as Margaret screams. (4&5) Present day, Grace awakens with a violent nightmare after she climbed the fence of a Catholic school, once the home of Roman and Margaret Strauss.
VIDEO/AUDIO
The original 35mm camera negative (1.85:1 aspect) was scanned and mastered in 4K with excellent resolution, especially outside, with imagery from cinematographer Matthew F. Leonetti (“Strange Days,” “Star Trek: First Contact”). But at times, the resolution drops off a notch or two during the numerous composite dissolves and fades.
The HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading (approved by Branagh) reveals a good dose of natural film grain, as the image varies from black-and-white during the 1940s flashback scenes to the bright and more colorful modern-day sequences.
The audio has been remastered in a six-channel DTS-HD soundtrack, which highlights deep thunder effects and Patrick Doyle’s (“Thor”) ominous, orchestrated Hitchcockian Bernard Herrmann-like score. Dialogue is front and center and never gets lost. Kino Lorber also provides a simple 2.0 DTS-HD stereo track for viewers without surround speakers.
(1&2) For two nights, Grace stayed at the school as Sister Madeleine (Jo Anderson) kept a watchful eye, but Father Timothy (Richard Easton) wanted Grace sent to the county hospital. (3) Mike Church, a former student at the school and a former LAPD detective,
is listed in the yellow pages “Finders of Heirs” - Missing Persons, Assets & Locates, Attorney Services. (4) Robin Williams has a small role as Dr. Cozy Carlisle, a disgraced former psychiatrist who now works in a grocery store. (5) English character actor Derek Jacobi plays Franklyn Madson, an antique dealer and part-time hypnotist, who tries to unlock Grace from her muteness and memory loss. (6&7) Campbell Scott plays Doug O’Malley, who says he’s Grace's fiancé.
EXTRAS
The 4K and Blu-ray both include the two archival commentaries recorded in 2021. The theatrical trailer, plus nine other trailers from ‘90s movies, are included on the 1080p disc.
The first commentary with Irish-born director and star Kenneth Branagh – who provides dozens of details and stories, including his first read of the “Dead Again” script. He was in his dressing room during a stage production in L.A., and he decided to read the script out loud to himself and to his wife Emma. “I was gripped by the hypnotic quality just from the opening sequence,” Branagh says.
The commentary with producer Lindsay Doran, producer, and screenwriter Scott Frank – brings some especially interesting perspectives, such as hearing how particular story decisions were made as the production progressed. Doran, for example, explains how difficult it was to present narrative background when the film begins. This was solved by the series of flashback newspapers front pages, with headlines about the 1948 murder and trial.
Doran points out that the score was composed by Patrick Doyle, who also provided the music for “Henry V,” as well as other Branagh stage productions. Doran mentions that Branagh, coming off the great success of “Henry V,” was sent scores of scripts to review. He and Thompson were wading through them, when they read all the way through Frank’s screenplay and immediately called their agent with a thumbs up.
Frank had set out to write a screenplay combining a detective story with the supernatural, and cites as an inspiration the novel “Falling Angel,” by William Hjortsberg, which was later adapted into the popular 1987 movie, “Angel Heart.”
Frank says his original concept was to have four different actors playing the Strausses in the past, and Church and the Thompson character, in the present. It was Branagh’s idea (surprise!) that he and Thompson would play both couples. Frank admits he was “one of the few people in film who didn’t believe in reincarnation,” so he had a lot of research to do on the subject, as well as on amnesia, before he began writing. He notes he struggled to come up with dialogue for a character with amnesia, but then Doran suggested making her mute – and – problem solved! Frank points out the cameo by the British-Australian actress (and Branagh’s good friend) Miriam Margolyes, as a woman being hypnotically regressed by Frankie Madison.
Doran notes that Branagh and Thompson both needed dialogue coaches, because each of their characters had different accents from their natural ones. Doran refers to various “objects with significance” that appear early in the film – and reappear later, reflecting Alfred Hitchcock’s use of what he called “plastic material.” In one scene, in which Hanna Schygulla’s character is watching a movie on television, Doran says she wanted it to be Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder,” starring Grace Kelly, to reflect the scissors used as a weapon in “Dead Again.” The rights for “Dial M,” however, were much too expensive for their budget.
Doran says that the black and white flashback sequences were originally shot in color, because that was what Branagh wanted, but he later agreed that the juxtaposition would help audiences identify the different time periods. The decision to go with black and white, however, says Doran, really disappointed the production and costume designers, who had so carefully chosen the various color schemes. Doran stresses how important it is for audiences to know the movie is funny, while Frank notes that he didn’t want any of the jokes in it to be “too funny.” For example, Doran says that during a “choreographed” fight scene in the film’s climax, one of the characters was supposed to slip on a slice of pizza, but Frank vetoed the idea, because of its slapstick quality, which would put the audience in the “wrong mood.”
— Peggy Earle
SPECS:
100GB disc
TRUE 4K mastering
Captured on 35mm film stock using Ultracam 35 cameras with Cooke lenses (1.85:1 aspect ratio)
Video bitrate: Averages in the mid-70 Megabits per second, with a running time of 107 minutes.
HDR10 maximum light level: 720 nits
Max frame average light level: 93 nits
Box office: $38 million domestically, with an estimated production budget of $15 million. It finished as the No. 34 box office film of the year, while James Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” dominated the box office and was No. 1.
Rotten Tomatoes: Top Critics’ 67 percent, Audiences 76 percent
Metacritic: Critics 66 percent, User Score 7.2
Awards: BAFTA – nominee for Best Supporting Actor, Derek Jacobi
Golden Globes: Nominee for Best Score.
National Board of Review – Selected in the Top Ten Films. “The Silence of the Lambs” was selected as the top NBR film of 1991.
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