Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1974’s Live Again, Die Again! It can be viewed on YouTube.
30 years ago, Caroline Carmichael (Donna Mills) died.
Except, she really didn’t. Instead, when on the verge of death, she was put into cryogenic suspension. She has spent the last three decades in suspended animation and, as a result, she has not aged in all that time. In fact, her hair still looks perfect. (I have some doubts about the scientific validity of any of this but let’s just go with it.) As this movie begins, Caroline Carmichael finally wakes up.
Caroline has an entirely new world to discover. At a party to celebrate her awakening, Caroline is shocked to discover that, while she still appears to be young, all of her friends are now in their 60s. Her husband, Thomas (Walter Pidgeon), is now old and sickly. Her beautiful home is now looked after by a strict and suspicious housekeeper (Geraldine Page). Her two children (played by Mike Farrell and Vera Miles) both appear to be older than her. In fact, her daughter was so traumatized by Caroline’s “death,” that she is now terrified of being left alone with her mother.
You might expect that this film would be dedicated to Caroline adjusting to the world of the 70s and that it might feature some thoughts on whether it’s ethical to keep someone in suspended animation for 30 years. And there are elements of that. Caroline is amazed by all the tall buildings. Her daughter’s reaction to Caroline’s return is hardly heart-warming and even Caroline’s whiny son doesn’t seem to be quite as happy about it as one might expect. Her husband has spent the last 30 years of his life waiting for Caroline to wake up and it’s hard not to consider how many opportunities for happiness or success that he missed as a result.
That said, the film itself quickly becomes more of a gothic murder mystery, as Caroline comes to realize that someone is trying to kill her. That’s kind of a shame because I actually found all of the cryogenic stuff to be much more interesting and the idea that one could basically just stop aging for 30 years was an intriguing one. It’s an interesting question. If it could save your life at some undetermined point in the future, would you be frozen? Myself, I think I would be reluctant to do so because you never know what type of world you might wake up in. Caroline is lucky enough to wake up wealthy in the 70s but what if you woke up and discovered that your entire family had died while you were in your coma? What if you woke up and discovered that your country had become some sort of socialist Hellhole? Imagine if someone went into hibernation in 1994 and then woke up in 2024? They would probably want to go back to sleep.
The film was written Joseph Stefano, who also did the script for Psycho and was one of the producers behind The Outer Limits. Not surprisingly, the script is full of snappy dialogue and the cast features two Psycho cast members, Vera Miles and Lurene Tuttle. Director Richard Colla keeps the action moving and, early on in the film, he does a good job of depicting Caroline’s disorientation with finding herself in an entirely new world. The film is well-acted by the entire cast, with Donna Mills especially doing a good job as Caroline. This was an intelligent, well-made, and — most importantly — short made-for-TV movie. At a time when almost all movies and TV shows seem to be too long for their own good, it’s hard not appreciate Live Again, Die Again‘s 73-minute runtime.
Through the Shattered Lens