Repeat Performance

Run Through Snow Leaving No Footprint. Repeat Performance is directed by Alfred Werker and adapted to screenplay by Walter Bullock from the novel written by William O'Farrell. It stars Louis Hayward, Joan Leslie, Tom Conway, Richard Basehart, Virginia Field and Natalie Schafer. Music is by George Antheil and cinematography by L. William O'Connell. It's New Years Eve 1946 and Sheila Page is standing over the dead body of her husband - with gun in hand. Hurrying to a party to seek solace from friends, Sheila wishes she could turn back the clock and eradicate the problems that the year has thrown at her. Amazingly she gets the chance to do just that... Destiny's a stubborn old girl Sheila. It's the sort of story that would be at home in The Twilight Zone some years later, a fantastical premise involving time travel that still has the bitter requisite of fate standing firm to not be cheated. It seems that no matter what Sheila Page (Leslie) does, her year of misery, and that of the people closest to her, can not be averted. This set up makes for a number of involving scenes as we the viewers yearn for Sheila to achieve her goals. Pic slots into the noir realm since it drips with pessimism, while the central characters (failure of a husband, femme fatale, frustrated poet) have all hoped off the bus from noirville. It mat get too soapy at times throughout the middle section, but there's no grandstanding drama to have you rolling your eyes. Visually it has great moments, notably for the tremendously shadowy finale when story saunters to the conclusion of everything we have just witnessed. There's also a super section where Sheila is visiting a friend at a mental asylum, as she talks (the conversation richly dark) the reflection on the wall behind her is that of a barred window with rain cascading downwards, the metaphor for discord is palpable and a smart touch. Conversely these great visual moments have you wishing that more were within the whole picture, something Werker would achieve a year later with the excellent He Walked By Night (Basehart in the lead). George Antheil's (The Sniper/In A Lonely Place) musical compositions are most interesting, particularly during that finale as he bounces strings and woodwind from the action to that of the ticking New Years Eve clock. Cast are fine, Leslie pitches it right as the woman fighting fate head on, Hayward is a touch too animated but still scores as her boorish drunk of a husband, and Basehart in his film debut hints at better things ahead. There's no bad perfs on show, all contribute significantly. Having not read the novel I did research it to see how this adaptation figured in comparison, somewhat disappointingly I found that the novel has significant differences, differences that would have surely made for a far more darker film noir experience. So with that in mind I understand why fans of the book aren't exactly enamoured with the filmic take. The makers clearly are caught out trying to make a pic to cover most bases, which is why we have a part film noir and part fantasy melodrama. By the by, though, Alfred Werker's movie takes a fascinating premise and holds the attention from the bleak opening to the superb monologue given by Basehart at film's closure. 7.5/10