blanche-2 Crystal Bernard is "As Good as Dead" in this 1995 film written and directed by Larry Cohen. Before the day of home computers, Larry Cohen's grammar school-aged daughter had to write a short report. Mr. Cohen used the typing agency where I worked to type his scripts. So on a Sunday, I took a cab to his beautiful home in New York City, got the hand-printed paper, went home, typed it, got in a cab and brought the typed paper back. We also typed a couple of scripts for him in the office. He would dictate them and take on the accent or emotion of the characters. I've followed his prolific career with great interest.In "As Good as Dead," Bernard plays Susan Warfield, who works in an office. She takes a hep, sick young woman, Nicole (Traci Lords) to the hospital and gives the desk her own insurance card so that Nicole can be treated. Otherwise, they would have to go to the county hospital.Susan tells her office she has to have surgery (as Nicole does) and then takes off on vacation so as not to run into anyone she knows. When she returns, Nicole, assumed to be Susan, is unexpectedly dead; Susan's apartment has been cleared out, and her job is gone. The strangest part of it is that a half-brother that Susan isn't aware she has made all the arrangements. Susan has no choice but to move into Nicole's apartment and wear Nicole's trendy, too short clothes until she can find out why Nicole died and who this mysterious half-brother is.This is actually quite an interesting film, very Lifetime, very TV movie, but entertaining with good performances. Bernard is likable, Lords is Lords, and Judge Reinhold does very well as an attractive man who becomes part of Nicole's (Susan's) life.Mr. Cohen's daughter is undoubtedly married now with children of her own. Though this film was made in 1995, he is still very active as a writer. Thanks to the computer, I'm still typing.

ShootingShark Susan's friend Nicole takes ill suddenly and has no medical insurance, so they swap identities, but then Nicole dies during surgery. With her bank accounts closed and fearing she may be implicated in manslaughter, Susan continues the pretence of being Nicole and tries to figure out what happened and how to get her life back.This is a good TV thriller, due to writer-producer-director Cohen's considerable skill as a scripter - for me, he always gets the balance just right between intriguing premise, plot development and plausibility, and this story is typically full of good ideas. What would happen if the authorities mistakenly thought you were dead ? How could you fake a blood-type on a patient-ID ? How could you assume someone else's identity ? As well as grappling with these ideas, Susan is also dealing with her own guilt and her new-found relations, including a half-brother with a closetful of secrets. The four leads are good and the story keeps you guessing in a pleasant way, although inevitably there's a little bit of a TV-movie sheen of blandness. If you've never heard of him, check out Cohen's rich body of work; his movies are all cheap and nutty, but highly original and caustic; my favourites are God Told Me To, Full Moon High and The Ambulance, but he's written many other good films (Best Seller, Guilty As Sin, etc). A minor work by a great writer-director.

guilfisher I don't see the thrill in watching Crystal Bernard on screen. In this vehicle she impersonates a sex-pot. Her clothes alone, what there is of them, look like they shrunk on her in the wash. Her makeup is over the hill and she has this mop of hair that belongs in THE LION KING. Sorry, I just don't get it. Judge Reinhold has the male lead and I wonder why he did this loser. He's too good for this kind of trite written and directed by Larry Cohen. Then there's Traci Lords, the porn star which is why I wanted to watch it in the first place. However, she's only in the first part and sadly we are forced to watch Bernard the rest of the time. From 1-10 in TV movies I give it a 2.

jukedout23 I got home from work and was about to go to bed until I turned on the television. After flipping through the channels I thought that I saw Traci Lords and that woman from "Wings" in a movie so I decided to watch it. The concept was really amazing, a woman who commits insurance fraud ends up paying for it by supposidly dying and has to remake her life into something that she wanted to be at the beginning of the movie. I know that it was a chick flick and I should've went past the Lifetime channel but this movie had Traci Lords who really knows how to act, and I was also on the edge of my seat to know what really happened. If you want to see hot girls in a suspenseful thriller, you should watch this movie.