REPEAT PERFORMANCE (1947)

Eagle-Lion Films, 93m 18s

 "They say that fate is in the stars, that each of our years is planned ahead, and nothing can change destiny. Is that true?"

—voiceover by John Ireland

 

Most every proper film noir is enmeshed deeply in fate, or as it is stated repeatedly in this Eagle-Lion Films release, "destiny." One of many effective noir exercises from Bryan Foy Productions, REPEAT PERFORMANCE conflates the crime movie and the fantasy film for a woman's melodrama in the vein of MILDRED PIERCE (1945), with a career-oriented woman confronted by a stringent noir universe.

Set in New York City on New Year's Eve, 1946, Broadway actress Sheila Page (21-year-old Joan Leslie) guns down her husband playwright Barney Page (Louis Hayward, top-billed) in their high-rise apartment. In a daze over what just transpired, Sheila seeks the comfort of her trusted friends writer William Williams (Richard Basehart, his debut) and stage producer John Friday (Tom Conway). She laments the past year's events and wishes for a do-over. While the narration anticipates the type of conditions made famous in the television series THE TWILIGHT ZONE (1959–1964), Sheila realizes to her bewilderment her wish has been granted! A dead-end 1946 is about to play out once again, for the better she hopes. Though not everything works out exactly the same as before, Sheila recognizes fairly early occurrences she wanted to avoid crop up anyway. The mysterious force of fate is at work when somewhat supercilious playwright Paula Costello (Virginia Field) rings the wrong doorbell and attends a New Year's Eve party hosted by Sheila and Barney. Although under entirely different circumstances, Barney meets Paula, as he had the first time 1946 unspooled. What has not changed is the same dagger is aimed at Sheila. Can she keep them apart this time?

Though a cross-genre film, REPEAT PERFORMANCE honors standard film noir assumptions of the mid-to-late 1940s. Unhappiness within the boundaries of marriage is a frequent film noir concern, the structural material that supports noir narratives such as DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), THE SUSPECT (1944), SCARLET STREET (1945), MILDRED PIERCE (1945), THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946) and POSSESSED (1947). Barney's hit play "Out of the Blue" made a Broadway star of his wife Sheila five years ago, but that one triumph did not make him an ascendant creative force. An undisciplined writer who has waddled into alcoholism, Barney has failed to follow-up with anything as impactful as the play that catapulted his wife to stardom. Hardly a sympathetic figure, the resentful, frequently embarrassing drunkard Barney is the story's homme fatale and ultimately the sort of noir psychopath memorialized by Richard Widmark in KISS OF DEATH (1947). Particularly when drinking Barney is an impossible personality to confront. And just get a load of the level of misogyny directed from Barney to his wife:  "...you're only a woman. You're not expected to have either judgement or intelligence." He also lies to Sheila about his feelings for Paula and her attraction to him.

A filmmaking cliche I always seem to respond to is that for one person to rise another inevitably must fall (that setup is an especially intriguing dynamic in a modern society based upon crony capitalism). The narrative's sense of urgency really accelerates when Barney's professional fall becomes literal. After Barney totters off a theater balcony, the accident converts Barney into an invalid, thrust into the great tradition of hobbled noir males that depend upon crutches (DOUBLE INDEMNITY [1944]), canes (GILDA [1946]) or even dual walking canes (THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI [1947]) for mobility. The case of Barney especially recalls Richard Mason (Humphrey Bogart) from CONFLICT (1945), a man who actually could walk but sat in a wheelchair in front of his wife for selfish reasons.

Female archetypes are consistently of interest in the film noir, and REPEAT PERFORMANCE offers an assortment of females worthy of our attention. The story revolves around Sheila, who at one juncture looks into the camera as she defends her worthless husband, as if pleading with viewers directly for understanding of her failing relationship. The filmmakers are on her side from beginning to end as she clings to whatever good is left in Barney. Other female characters are decidedly less endearing. Actress Bess Michaels (Benay Venuta) is a boozing busybody, and Eloise Shaw (Natalie Schafer), who backs the careers of young male artists who excite her, literally turns the spotlight on Barney and Paula locked together for a stunned Sheila to witness in front of her peers. Eloise also commits William to an insane asylum, presumably because she found out he was gay and thus uninterested in fulfilling her sexual desires. But the featured femme fatale is the playwright Paula, who barely reacts to being slapped by Sheila (who subsequently takes an open hand to her face from her frustrated husband, now turned physically abusive). Interestingly we are granted a hint of Barney's inability to contain Paula when he is unable to light her cigarette. Sure enough, later we learn Paula's attraction to Barney has faded after she has learned he might never fully recover from his fall. His pathetic attempt to follow the spider woman to London results in his descent into madness; at this point he is the certifiable psycho, not William. As Barney leaves the ship for a confrontation with his wife, the scene both rhymes and contrasts with Sheila's gaze into the camera in that earlier sequence. Now it is Barney who seems to be looking right at us, though obviously without any of the hopefulness conveyed by Sheila. The bandages that remain on his forehead speak to his disturbed mental state and dangerous frame of mind, a casualty of an unforgiving noir world he believes pushed him aside.

The film noir's attachment to rainfall is a trope probably even the occasional noir watcher recognizes. For those who like to take note of symbolism, it rains the evening Barney and Paula first share an embrace. Rainfall is emphasized again when Sheila visits Barney at the hospital three weeks post-fall. And later at the sanitarium rain links William, the poet being evaluated by psychiatrists, to Barney, the man with the bandaged head determined to kill his wife. The elements seem to provide the connective tissue in both versions of 1946, beginning with the clouds and stormy weather that accompany the opening credits and introductory sequence.

In the final analysis, the hand of fate discussed in the film's opening narration offers no second chance for a doomed marriage. Though certain events of Sheila's repeat of 1946 unfold differently, neither year spares her husband Barney, a man undeserving of additional opportunities. Some people cannot be helped, no matter how hard their loved ones try. Sometimes love and devotion results only in recurring disappointments. Rather surprisingly, neither Paula nor Sheila is punished for transgressions almost always dealt with definitively during the Production Code era.

Director Alfred L. Werker also helmed SHOCK (1946), a fine film noir of its time with Vincent Price in the lead. He also co-directed the Richard Basehart vehicle HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) with Anthony Mann. Cinematographer L. William O'Connell shot the gangster film classic SCARFACE (1932) and also DECOY (1946), one of the wildest of B-noirs. Though the intermingling of the noir film and the fantasy film was not common, there are some other instances of merit, including FLESH AND FANTASY (1943), PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948), NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES (1948) and ALIAS NICK BEAL (1949). The holiday favorite IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) also must be mentioned as an influence; recall the noirish Pottersville that bared so little resemblance to Bedford Falls.

The new Flicker Alley dual-format edition Blu-ray / DVD set (ALL REGION) presents the feature film framed at 1.37:1 and save for a random scratch looks about as good in motion as one could imagine. In fact, this is an incredible restoration of a film noir I likely never would have seen had it not been for the efforts of The Film Noir Foundation to preserve it, and other important works like it, for future generations of movie fans. Supplemental material includes an audio commentary track anchored by film historian Nora Fiore, AKA “The Nitrate Diva,” who credits REPEAT PERFORMANCE as the first big production from Eagle-Lion Films. Though estimates vary depending on the source, producer Aubrey Schenck recalled a roughly $600K budget. Fiore mentions the original source material was focused on Barney, not Sheila, who was a villainess. That arrangement would not have been an ideal match for Joan Leslie, thus the adaptation reversed things. Critical consensus at the time was uncharitable. Fiore's most astute observation is that Sheila is at her most confident when focused on her career; in her private life she wields far less leverage. She also points out William is sacrificed in the interest of his straight friend Sheila's preservation, although the film does conclude with a personal proverb from the defeated man William.

A brief introduction (5m 27s) to REPEAT PERFORMANCE comes by way of film noir historian and frequent NOIR CITY film festival host Eddie Muller, who credits Flicker Alley, UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Packard Humanities Institute for their work with The Film Noir Foundation to make this restoration a reality. This much-appreciated Blu-ray release arrives roughly 15 years after Muller first presented the film for public viewing. That print, from a private collection, was in desperate need of restoration. The finished product looks fantastic and should be snapped up by noir devotees while it is readily available.

Next up is a profile (9m 22s) of actress Joan Leslie by author and film historian Farran Smith Nehme. While under contract at Warner Bros., Leslie was noted for her portrayal of ingénues in well-known Warner titles such as HIGH SIERRA (1941), SERGEANT YORK (1941) and YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942). Eventually she reached the conclusion her luck had run out at Warner, where she found herself appearing in titles she deemed beneath her, i.e. TOO YOUNG TO KNOW (1945), CINDERELLA JONES (1946) and JANIE GETS MARRIED (1946). After she sued Warner to get out of her contact that was signed by her parents when she was still a minor, she was blackballed by the other major studios. Leslie made her debut at Eagle-Lion Films with REPEAT PERFORMANCE, in which she replaced Constance Dowling in the lead role.

"Eagle-Lion: A Noir-Stained Legacy" (34m 25s) is a documentary by Steven C. Smith, narrated by author and film historian Alan K. Rode, who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of noir. The British-American film production company was owned by J. Arthur Rank, with attorney Arthur B. Krim and skilled businessman Robert Benjamin in charge of the American division. With the acquisition of Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures in 1947, the idea was to create some "cross-Atlantic synergy" as Rode puts it. Their ambitions were daring since it was very difficult for anyone but the "Big Five" (Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox, MGM and RKO) to secure significant theatrical screens. Their timing was unfortunate; box office revenues had cratered in 1946. Another challenge was so much of the major talent was contractually bound to the major studios. REPEAT PERFORMANCE would become Eagle-Lion's first prestige picture. Krim converted Eagle-Lion into a filmmaking playground for independent producers like Edward Small and Walter Wanger, with the small studio attached for a piece of the action. Without beloved movie stars, major distribution channels or the capital necessary to create a large number of prints, that approach was to be the template for profitability, along with a focus on gritty crime films now recognized as noir powerhouses, i.e. T-MEN (1947), RAW DEAL (1948), HOLLOW TRIUMPH (1948), HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948), TRAPPED (1949) and PORT OF NEW YORK (1949). Despite many quality titles and the emergence of ace cinematographer John Alton and contributions from director Anthony Mann, profits were limited and Eagle-Lion was unable to grow. Though Eagle-Lion Films only existed for five years, Benjamin and Krim found greater success after they assumed control of United Artists in 1951 and took the company public in 1957.

Another welcome feature of this two-disc set is a digital edition of the film’s original 1947 promotional pressbook. Also bundled in the packaging is a glossy souvenir booklet that includes Brian Light’s book-to-film comparison of the 1942 William O’Farrell novel with screenwriter Walter Bullock’s adaptation, as well as original photos, lobby cards and posters. The cover art is reversible.

REPEAT PERFORMANCE was remade in 1989 as the TV movie TURN BACK THE CLOCK with Joan Leslie on board in a cameo role.