Connie Doyle (Ricki Lake) walks away from home to make it in New York. She gets taken by a hustler and left pregnant. Alone and penniless, she accidentally boards a train to Boston. She is befriended by Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser) who is bringing home his pregnant wife Patricia from Hong Kong. When the train crashes, both Hugh and Patricia are killed. Connie wakes up 8 days later after delivering the baby. The authorities had mistaken her for Patricia. When she is brought to Hugh's mother Grace Winterbourne (Shirley MacLaine),she is shock that Hugh has identical twin Bill. Paco (Miguel Sandoval) is the chauffeur.

The premise needs one central idea that can never be breached. Connie is not a gold digger. She has an easy excuse to see Grace. She needs to give her the news in person and return the ring. When she sees Grace in a sickly state, she can't bring herself to give her the bad news. Then she can spend her time caring for Grace. Bill can come home later and the rest is easy to write. With a few structural tweaks, this could be "While You Were Sleeping" 2 but it's not up to that level. Then it goes into black comedy area. It's kinda fun to go dark and that helps save the last act. This could be better.

Excruciating, impossible comedy, an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's story "I Married a Dead Man", concerns homeless, pregnant, incredibly naive young woman (Ricki Lake, three years after debuting as a TV chat-show hostess) coming in contact with a wealthy Bostonian family who believe she's an in-law of theirs. The wonderful cast includes Brendan Fraser, Shirley MacLaine and an unbilled Paula Prentiss, but not even their lively efforts can make this script easy to swallow. Story previously filmed several times over, most notably in 1950 with Barbara Stanwyck as "No Man of Her Own", however this version seems to have a case of "While You Were Sleeping"-itis. Unfortunately, Lake isn't the polished comedic actress that Sandra Bullock is; she certainly tries hard, but doesn't have the soft charm or the innate presence to carry a major role such as this. *1/2 from ****

The third version of William Irish's absorbing psychological thriller "I married a dead man",after Leisen's "no man of her own" (1950),starring Barbara Stanwyck, which I have not seen but would like to,Robin Davis's 1982 "j'ai épousé une ombre" starring Natalie Baye.That French attempt,although it did a lot of francs (no euros at the time),was a disappointment,because the heroine ,without her terrible guilty feeling,was devoid of interest, and because the scenarists felt compelled to secure a ridiculous happy end which the novel had not.William Irish's world is noir,desperate ,some of his short novels to rival the best of Poe.

What about Richard Benjamin's work?It's an insult to the great writer who once gave Hitchcock "rear window" .You simply cannot turn an Irish tragic heroine into a Pygmalion/my fair lady character .Connie was not a crude vulgar woman,she was a frail girl who said to us at the beginning of the book-which like Benjamin's film is a long flashback- "We've lost;that's all I know,we've lost".Oddly the part of the father has been ruled out,probably to make room for MacLaine who gets here the lion's share .The director does not know what he wants to do,a comedy or a thriller ,and the movie suffers accordingly.

Best performance:Baby Hughie.

Since I wrote my comment I had the opportunity to see "no man of her own";It's the best by far!