Turn Back the Clock

Lee Tracy earns a meager living as a cigar store owner with his wife Mae Clarke. One night, after a fight with his wife over money, he's hit by a car and wakes up in the hospital to find he's twenty years in the past. Now he can do things differently, including marrying wealthy Peggy Shannon. Armed with knowledge of the future, he becomes successful and powerful. But over time he comes to realize how good he had it in his other life.

A good role for Lee Tracy, a largely forgotten star from the 1930s. Tracy was a versatile actor, equally great at both comedy and drama. Mae Clarke and Peggy Shannon are both excellent here. Fine support from Otto Kruger, C. Henry Gordon, and Clara Bandick. Look out for the cameo from the Three Stooges. It's the first film appearance of the Stooges after Curly had joined. Love those MGM sets. A compelling tale of "what might have been," years before It's a Wonderful Life and countless other movies used similar ideas. Especially interesting for history buffs as the movie offers insights on views back then regarding a variety of topics from World War I on up to the Great Depression.

I had never heard of this movie until just catching it on TCM. What a pleasant surprise, as I've always loved alternative reality stories, whether "It's A Wonderful Life, the "Back to the Future" series or the several Twilight Zone episodes that this movie seemed to be a model for.

This is not literally a time travel movie, and I kind of like that it's made clear this is all a dream (induced by anesthesia). But it still has a lot of dramatic impact. The idea of "what if I had my life to live over again, knowing what I know now" seems to have a universal appeal. The very clever screenplay spins several variations on this theme, and even if the "lesson" learned by the hero is predictable, there are enough plots twists to maintain viewer interest. And as another reviewer commented, the script makes great use of true historical event. This movie is actually a pretty good history lesson. Probably a lot of viewers are unaware that our entry into World War I was very controversial and not at all universally favored at the time.

The script is particularly clever in it's parallel construction between the "real" story and the dream. The roles of the rich guy vs. the struggling storekeeper are reversed, but in both cases, there is the concept of changing one's life with a bold and maybe risky investment of one's life savings.

My only quibble is that the movie seems to end abruptly after the Lee Tracy character regains consciousness and finds that he's still married to Mary and back to reality. I actually thought there would be another plot twist, with him discovering that Otto Kruger is a con man trying to get his $4,000, and not really a rich success. That would've added another wrinkle to the "be happy with what you have" message.

This is worth seeing for its amazing story, which although fantastic is completely logical all the way. It's Ben Hecht, of course, and at his best, working together with Edgar Selwyn to produce a cinematic wonder of plot and imagination, playing with destiny and accomplishing a wonder of plausibility in spite of its character of total conjecture.

The only problem of the film is Lee Tracy's acting, which is rather exhausting, since he is constantly overdoing it. Maybe that was the fashion of actors in the early 30s, but today it's just annoying.

The other actors are doing alright, especially the two ladies and Otto Kruger, but it's the plot that is the main thing of this film. Who hasn't one time or another dreamt of reliving one's life and doing it over again but better? That's what happens to Joe Gimlet, he gets an alternative chance and really makes the best of it and everything he wanted to do different, and still it all goes wrong...

The most ingenious thing about the story construction is how it is combined with the story he left behind, he meets the same people but under different circumstances and making different careers, and so in the end he finds his best friend, president of the National Bank, in his own original position as a petty shop owner.

Ben Hecht was in his prime throughout the 30s, beginning with "Front Page", bringing forth a flood of script masterpieces, until he was allowed to make a film of his own, "The Specter of the Rose", an ambitious art film of ballet, very much ahead of its time, which flopped, so he was never allowed to make another movie. Still he continued writing excellent scripts, but his sharpest edge was lost.

This is the type of fantasy Frank Capra put his stamp on just a few years later. It stars Lee Tracy as a working-class guy who begins to regret his humble life after meeting up with old friends who have become wealthy; he gets his chance to go back in time and live his life over again. Premise has since been used time and again, but here it's given a surprisingly fresh and clear-eyed take. Tracy is the only acting liability among the performers(he's too broad for a subtle picture like this one). It's well-paced, amusing, shies away from mushy sentimentality, and features The Three Stooges--unbilled in a cameo as wedding singers!

Joe Gimlet (Lee Tracy) owns a cigar store in New York along with his wife Mary (Mae Clarke). They aren't poor, but they do struggle to make ends meet. On March 6, 1933, in walks someone he knew when he was growing up, Ted Wright (Otto Kruger), now a banker. Ted invites Joe and Mary to dinner with him and his wife, Elvina, and tells Joe that if he will give him the four thousand he has in savings, he can turn it into twenty thousand in a few months. Joe wants to do this, Mary does not because it is all they have. They argue, and Joe says that if he could live his life over he would not have married Mary and would have instead pursued wealth. Joe then storms out of their apartment and into the street, and is hit by a car. While he's unconscious, he imagines he gets to live his life all over again, starting in 1910 when he is a young man.

In this alternate reality, Joe takes up Pete Evans (George Barbier) when he offers to let him in on a real estate deal in return for his 400 dollar life savings. He marries Pete's daughter, Elvina, to seal the deal. And since he knows everything that's going to happen through March 6,1933, he's a tremendous success in business, becoming not only a rich but a powerful man. Among the bad things he knew - He figured that his wife would probably two time him since he saw signs of her two-timing Ted in 1933. Joe didn't think he'd mind, but it turns out he does. And then March 6, 1933 comes and he no longer has the advantage of prescience. Complications ensue.

It's not like anything in this film is a big surprise, although time travel was not common story material at the time. It's all about learning to appreciate what you have or, in the words of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz "There's no place like home."

The make-up job done is pretty impressive for the time - MGM really does make the lovely Mae Clarke look like a middle aged frump at age 23.

MGM really "got" what worked as far as Lee Tracy vehicles. Starting with "The Nuisance" when he came over from Warner Brothers, they always gave him parts that used his penchant for fast talking comedy while letting him show his dramatic chops as well. An example of the latter in this film is when Tracy realizes he's back in 1910, in his boyhood home, and goes downstairs to see his mother cooking breakfast. In 1933 she must have been dead for years, because here he embraces her like he hasn't seen her for years - he hasn't - and tells her he's never leaving her side again. It's a very touching moment that, if you've lost a parent, you can easily relate to.

Lee Tracy ended up throwing away his own career at MGM, as did Buster Keaton, but at least MGM gave Lee Tracy the sporting chance that they never gave Buster Keaton.