Repeat Performance

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.

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.

Very good drama/fantasy which is billed as a noir. Given the moving goalposts for a film noir I suppose it qualifies, but is more like "It Happened Tomorrow" ('44), which is a fantasy but not billed as a noir. In any case, it is an engrossing film that holds your interest from start to finish. Lovely Joan Leslie never looked lovelier, and this must be her best performance in a spotty career. Suave Tom Conway is here as well as Louis Hayward. Another B-lister, he does a nice job as Leslie's alcoholic husband.

According to the TCM host this picture was nearly lost but was discovered after a copy showed up inadvertently in someone's collection. Lucky for us. This is a well done minor gem of a film which benefits from a good script and screenplay. Film fans and noir fans especially would appreciate this unheralded drama with a unique twist.

I was given a copy of this film on 16mm and watched it with great curiosity for years without really knowing what it was. Why it has not been put onto DVD I don't know, but hope that it will soon. The premise of a woman wishing she had a year to live over again is not new, but is given a poignant treatment here, and is quite believable. Richard Basehart as a poet is really a fine performance, even an heroic one. Top it off, the music is written by George (Ballet Mecanique) Antheil, an idol of mine that I had no idea had scored this film--and it is quite a nice score at that, with a pounding climax that must have had everyone on the edge of their seat.

This one is a real sleeper from Eagle-Lion. If you get a chance to see this on TCM or on Amazon please see Repeat Performance by all means. It's a melodramatic fantasy about a Broadway actress who is given a chance to live the last year of her life all over to see if she can avoid the terrible way she ended the year.

What Joan Leslie did is no less than shoot her husband, playwright Louis Hayward on New Year's Eve. But while running to tell her friend and producer Tom Conway of the tragedy when she opens the door she realizes quickly enough that it is last New Year's Eve, but she knows how the year is to end. Or does she? Can she avoid the oncoming tragedy of her killing her spouse?

Louis Hayward is someone whose work is worthy of a second look that he's not likely to get. He freelanced and didn't have the benefit of a major studio building him up as they did for Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn for example. But Hayward got to play a variety of parts that their studios would never let Power or Flynn play. Hayward did the swashbucklers as well as Power or Flynn, but did considerably more. He's wonderful as the dissolute husband of Leslie.

Richard Basehart made his screen debut here as the friend and confidante of Joan Leslie. Had this been made today Basehart's character would be most definitely gay. He's a poet and he acquires a patroness in rich Natalie Schaefer.

It certainly isn't Schaefer's fault, how could she know that she would wind up playing THE millionaire wife 20 years later taking a cruise on the SS Minow. But seeing her I wonder if this was how she was spending Thurston Howell's money. She's different here than the rich patroness of the castaways.

Virginia Field plays another playwright who starts paying attention to Louis Hayward and puts the Hayward/Leslie marriage on the rocks. This role is the typical Gail Patrick/Helen Vinson part of the other woman and Field plays it with gusto.

Repeat Performance is a great sleeper of a film and absolutely catch this one if broadcast.