Repeat Performance

the problem is, i cant locate a copy of this movie. i have looked for literally years, ever since vcrs became popular, and it is nowhere to be found. for some reason i remember the plot of a woman getting to relive the past year with incredible fondness. it was indeed a delightful movie, and i would so much love to see it again.

Basehart's introduction to film has him appearing in a memorable supporting role here. This is well acted by all and superior to the remake, decades later. It hold suspense, with good performances managing to shy away from being overly melodramatic. A woman tries to avoid a terrible destiny when she is given a chance to relive the last year of her life.

REPEAT PERFORMANCE (Eagle-Lion Studios, 1947), directed by Alfred L. Werker, became this independent studio's initial attempt on a major motion picture. Taken from a 1941 novel by William O'Farrell, and starring Louis Hayward and Joan Leslie, REPEAT PERFORMANCE has often been compared to an earlier release of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (RKO Radio, 1946) starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, in a story set on Christmas Eve revolving around a man getting his chance to see how his life would have been had he not been born. For REPEAT PERFORMANCE, set on New Year's Eve, the central character here wants to relive her previous year so to amend any mistakes made resulting to her tragic outcome.

Opening with an off-screen narration (reportedly by John Ireland) who provides viewers what to expect: "The stars look down on New Year's Eve in New York. They say that fate is in the stars, that each of our year is planned ahead and nothing can change destiny. Is this true? How many times have you said, "I wish I can live this year over again?" This is the story of a woman who did relive one year of her life." The story begins minutes before the strike of Midnight for the New Year of 1947. Gun shots are heard and a woman, identified as Sheila Page (Joan Leslie), an actress of the Broadway play, "Say Goodbye," is seen standing in over her victim, Barney (Louis Hayward), her husband and drunken failed playwright, now deceased. With pounding on the door, the frightened Sheila runs out the back way into the crowded street of New Year's celebrators. Entering a crowded restaurant, Sheila comes to the table of her friend, William Williams (Richard Basehart), leaving his guests to be told elsewhere what she had done. As they leave for the apartment of Sheila's friend and producer, John Friday (Tom Conway) for assistance, Sheila makes a wish to herself wanting to relive 1946 all over again. Suddenly, Sheila finds herself transformed back in time, this time knowing what to expect yet hoping to prevent any mistakes leading to her husband's murder. Others in the cast are Virginia Field (Paula Costello, playwright); Natalie Schafer (Eloise Shaw, a socialite); Ilka Gruning (Mattie, the Maid), and Jean Del Val (Tony, the Waiter).

Often classified as a "film noir" with ingredients of murder and flashback, REPEAT PERFORMANCE is a different type of film noir where flashback isn't played for the benefit of its audience but the central character. This style could be labeled "fantasy noir" without the fantasy elements attached to it. This new premise is good enough to hold interest throughout its 93 minutes.

Regardless of Louis Hayward heading the cast, REPEAT PERFORMANCE is Joan Leslie's film from start to finish. Type-cast as girl-next-door types for Warner Brothers Studio (1941-1946), REPEAT PERFORMANCE was the sort of role Leslie needed to prove she could play mature roles with conviction. Though labeled by many to be her finest screen performance up to that time, her subsequent roles, often forgettable, failed to give her this same opportunity again. Interestingly, Leslie got to appear in its 1989 made for television re-title remake of TURN BACK THE CLOCK starring Connie Sellecca, with Leslie having a cameo playing a party guest. Louis Hayward makes due as her boozing playwright husband who falls clutches to another playwright (Virginia Field) of the theater. Tom Conway resumes his droll suave character type he had done for RKO Radio in the "Falcon" mystery series (1942-1946), while Richard Basehart (in movie debut) nearly steals the show as Leslie's closest friend and poet, William Williams. It is his character, who later realizes he's also living 1946 all over again, to be the one to come up with the result whether if destiny can be changed or will the outcome always remain the same?

Though REPEAT PERFORMANCE did have numerous commercial television broadcasts dating back to the 1950s, particularly New York City where it last played in June 1978 on WNEW, Channel 5, the film in itself did have limited cable television showings (Arts and Entertainment) in 1986 before disappearing from view for many years to come. With no known availability on video cassette, thanks to Turner Classic Movies cable for giving REPEAT PERFORMANCE its long overdue revival (TCM premiere: December 28, 2019) on its weekly series, "Noir Alley" as hosted by Eddie Muller with his very interesting insights on the movie and actors before and after the movie, with hope with future revivals or repeat performances to make this a better known product from the "film noir" genre. (***)

The first time I watched REPEAT PERFORMANCE was on Nickolodeon in the late 1980s, circa 1987-1988, when the cable channel was still showing old movies in the wee hours of the morning. I was caught up in the trials and tribulations of glamorous actress Sheila Page (Joan Leslie) who shoots her philandering horndog of a husband (Louis Hayward) in a fit of passionate rage on New Year's Eve and hears police sirens off in the distance, and wishes that she could live the past year all over again. She does. Will Sheila shoot her husband again? You'll have to find out for yourself. I can't spoil it for you. I can say this, however: REPEAT PERFORMANCE was one of the first movies put out by Eagle-Lion Films after the name change from Producers Releasing Corporation; it had been purchased by the J. Arthur Rank Organisation based in England with the purpose of making bigger-budgeted films. I had this movie on tape, taped over it for some unknown reason, and now it's hard to find. Darn. Anyway, fine movie. Ahhh, one more thing: Joan Leslie made a cameo appearance in the television remake TURN BACK THE CLOCK (1989) with Connie Sellecca and William Russ.

Interesting noir that issues from an imaginative premise-- suppose we had a year that we could live all over again. So who wouldn't want that opportunity. Naturally, we could change our own actions to better optimize outcomes, but what about others-- would their actions have to change too.

The premise may even require the entire world to live that same year over so as to fit into the changes that ripple out from our own changes. Conceptual questions aside, the premise is simplified here into a rather clever soap-operish plot— namely, can sympathetic Sheila (Leslie) avoid killing her louse husband (Hayward) a second time around. That is, can she maybe just ignore his many provocations, given a second chance.

Instead of playing up occult aspects, the screenplay concentrates on revolving relationships among sophisticated show-business types. It's a good cast, especially an agreeably addled Richard Basehart. However, I'm not sure the sweetly gentle Leslie has the gravitas for a difficult role, especially for the wronged woman part. Still, she certainly wins our sympathy. Director Werker films in noirish style lending the visuals a suitably twilight quality. The ending too is appropriate, without obvious cheating on the premise.

The movie seems more obscure than deserved and I'm not sure why. It certainly made an impression on me on first viewing many years ago. I suspect the obscurity is because of a B- movie cast-- no matter how accomplished—and a non-studio pedigree. But whatever the reason, the film remains a thought provoking 90-minutes even this many years after.