Welcome to The Best Picture show You NEVER Saw, a cavalcade dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either earlier it's time and/or has aged like a fine vino.

This week we'll exist looking at Expressionless AGAIN!

THE STORY: Mike Church building (Kenneth Branagh), a laid-back private center, tries to help an amnesiac (Emma Thompson) plagued by visions of a by life. She'due south especially troubled by the sense that she was murdered by her composer hubby, Roman (besides Branagh) who happens to be the spitting paradigm of Church. .

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi & Robin Williams. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.

THE HISTORY: In the tardily-eighties, many considered Kenneth Branagh, who received dual best actor and best director nominations for his film of HENRY V, the heir apparent of Laurence Olivier. Having been a star at RADA, and 1 of the bright lights of the London stage before moving on to film, his ascendency was quick, merely Branagh seemingly bristled at being typecast in upper-crust English parts. While adapting Shakespeare's works for the screen has arguably been his life'southward work, he conspicuously relished the opportunity to branch out a bit with the noir-inspired Dead Over again, which was written by the great Scott Frank (THE LOOKOUT, LITTLE MAN TATE, Become SHORTY, OUT OF SIGHT & LOGAN).

"They had to exist worried. I could have been a full . . . disaster. They were certainly worried nigh both of us doing American accents." – Emma Thompson Baltimore Sun  Interview

Recruiting his brilliant married woman, Emma Thompson, to co-star along with a rich supporting bandage, Expressionless Over again proved to be a give-and-take-of-mouth striking in the fall of 1991. Opening at number one at the box office and staying there for several weeks, it grossed $38 meg ($68 million bookkeeping for inflation), and was a much rented tape in those Blockbuster Video days. Even still, in the twenty-six years since information technology's been released, DEAD AGAIN has sunk into minor obscurity, and is often overlooked when discussing the careers of anyone involved, fifty-fifty Branagh, despite it beingness the movie that bankrupt him and Thompson through to an American audience.

WHY IT'S GREAT: Branagh's DEAD AGAIN was a childhood favorite of mine. In fact, it might have been my start thriller. I was well-nigh ten when information technology hit the Canadian HBO (First Option – subsequently The Movie Network) and it was on a whole bunch. So, I became very familiar with this ane, and re-examining information technology recently, I'm please to say information technology holds upwardly really well; this bodes well for Branagh'due south return to thrillers – MURDER ON THE ORIENT Express.

''If you have your tongue in your cheek, you can appreciate the conceit and too the grade. The film has an operatic nature. It'southward large, on a grand calibration. The score is enormous. This is actually a yarn, a big one, and then y'all can make the grand geste at the end. It is non a movie of stark realism.'' – Emma Thompson Baltimore Sun Interview

A love letter to film noir, Expressionless Once more takes place in two distinct periods, 1940's Fifty.A (shot in gorgeous black and white) and the "modernistic day" equivalent. The flashbacks are done in eccentric noir mode, while the latter scenes opt for the high style of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The mystery is quite gripping, and the romantic subplot between Branagh'southward detective and Thompson's amnesiac works well. The ii had not bad chemistry, and both make pretty beauteous attempts at American accents. Andy Garcia also steals scenes equally a dissolute party-hound in the forties department, simply to be laid low past time in the modernistic department (if anything – the flick serves as a strong anti-smoking ad). Branagh'southward stage-mentor, Derek Jacobi, besides looks to be having the fourth dimension of his life as an antiques dealer drawn into the mystery – it's the type of role Claude Rains would have played in a 1940's version.

Best SCENE: Given Branagh'south anointing by Hollywood as the "next big thing", he was able to recruit a lot of popular actors for minor parts, including Campbell Scott (riding high off DYING YOUNG and SINGLES) and the late, cracking Robin Williams, who plays a disgraced psychiatrist reduced to working as a supermarket stock boy. Williams took no billing, merely his part is an important 1, with him delivering the central thesis of the motion-picture show in his large scene with Branagh and Thompson, and he more than holds his own reverse them. However some other reminder of how much we lost when he passed away.

Meet IT: DEAD Once more never made its way to Blu-ray, but the DVD can exist gotten for around five bucks on Amazon. Probably the best way to spotter it is through streaming, with an Hd version of the film available on Google Play and iTunes.

PARTING SHOT: DEAD Once more is the type of mid-level studio thriller they don't make whatever more. Even Branagh's ain MURDER ON THE ORIENT Limited is more than of an event given the prestige attached. I miss quickie thrillers like this one. Hopefully someone will come along and testify y'all don't need to have $100 million to make a fun studio movie – just until then gems like Dead AGAIN are ripe for rediscovery.