Repeat Performance

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.

Terrific soap opera with a twist. A beautiful actress kills her cheating, alcoholic husband on New Year's Eve, but soon finds she's getting the chance to relive the past year of her life all over again! Who among us wouldn't want a chance like this? Fantasy elements in the story are surprisingly subtle, as we realize along with Joan Leslie that some paths can be walked twice, but the outcome is difficult to change. Leslie, who looks like a young Esther Williams, gives a very good performance, aided by some taut dialogue. Neat little item, with plenty of backstage witticisms and show-people with no morals. *** from ****

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.

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.