Intrigue

On New Year's Eve 1946, Sheila Page kills her husband Barney. She wishes that she could relive 1946 and avoid the mistakes that she made throughout the year. Her wish comes true but cheating fate proves more difficult than she anticipated.

Sheila kills her husband at the start of the film with a smoking gun. We don't know how or why. All we know is men are banging on her door and she escapes. There is a notable dialogue as she makes her way to a New Years celebration with Richard Basehart as the poet William Williams. As she goes up the stairs to John Friday's apartment (her producer), she wishes she could relive the year and undo what she has done. William Williams, in an offhand remark, states he wishes he was the one who shot Barney, her erstwhile husband. We see that Destiny is not too happy with making changes to her plans.—Jim Mourgos

1946 has been a bad year for celebrated Broadway actress Sheila Page, culminating with a few minutes before midnight she shooting her playwright husband Barney Page dead, she whose first Broadway hit was his last hit five years ago, his inability to write exacerbated by his increasing alcoholism. She ultimately turns to her poet friend William Williams, who has also had a bad year. She not only confides to him what she did to Barney, but muses to him that if she could do the year all over again, she would do it differently. What happens instantaneously after that statement is made at a few minutes after midnight is that time reverts back to one year earlier, January 1, 1946, something she quickly realizes, indeed giving her the opportunity to avoid the people that led to the problems, for William matron of the arts Eloise Shaw who expects something more than good work in return, and for Sheila herself writer Paula Costello in whose play "Say Goodbye" she is currently starring. In being her confidante the first time, Sheila takes William into her confidence again if only to warn him of what may happen. But Eloise and Paula enter and interact in their lives in different ways this second time around. Sheila has to find a way to escape, to take matters into her own hands or look for another destiny for themselves.—Huggo