Leofwine_draca REPEAT PERFORMANCE is a quirky little film noir/mystery with a female lead. The plot is a variant on that old-time favourite in which a character goes back in time and has a chance to live her life again, hopefully learning from her past mistakes along the way. As it turns out, this version of the tale is quite staid and boring at times, feeling a little flabby in terms of pace when it should be tauter and more suspenseful. The heroine, played well by Joan Leslie, seems to take a heck of a lot of time to figure out what's going on, and as such feels more than a little dim. The rest is watchable, if no classic.

blanche-2 Joan Leslie stars with Louis Hayward, Tom Conway, Richard Basehart, and Virginia Field in "Repeat Performance" from 1947.I actually saw what I thought was a very good TV movie version of this - "Turn Back the Clock" with Connie Selleca, David Dukes, Jere Burns, Gene Barry, and Dina Merrill. Leslie plays a stage actress, Sheila Page who, at the very beginning of the film, on New Year's Eve, shoots her husband. Panicked, she meets up with a close friend, William, and heads for a New Year's party at her producer's (Tom Conway) apartment. She says she wishes she could do the whole year over. When she turns to her friend, he's gone, she's in last year's gown, and the New Year's Eve party is for the previous year. She's gotten her wish.Well, we know how these things usually turn out -- but the way it turns out is interesting, to say the least.This is a noirish film, and everyone is very good - Leslie is glammed-up and appropriately confused. Hayward is effective as an obnoxious drunk, Field an arch femme fatale, and Basehart as a good friend. I have to admit, in "Turn Black the Clock," things are a little more fleshed out, especially the Basehart and Field roles, and I actually liked that aspect better.Nevertheless, this is a fascinating film from the '40s.

hpssahni-1 I watched the very first screening of 35 mm restoration of this movie at Noir city film festival at San Francisco and I am glad, i did that.This is a story of Broadway actress Sheila Page, who gets to live one year of her life on new year eve of 1947 in the roaring city of New York to correct a mistake she just committed. Movie depicts the misery of a failed writer, who lives under the shadow of his famous actress wife and the efforts that actress does to save her marriage. Director beautifully captured the night life, party culture of New York city enjoyed by high society of late 40s era. One scene makes it quite obvious that women were still considered a second class citizen in front of men during that period of time. Also, There are many one liner funny dialogs in the movie that keeps viewer entertained along with well paced movie plot. Overall, this is a funny, entertaining and quite well made mystery movie.

danashley WhenI was a kid in the 50's, this film was always shown on TV on New Year's Eve. I would look forward to it and always enjoyed it. As New Year's Eve approaches this year, I just happened to think about it for the first time in years and could not find it on TV, VCR or DVD. I was happy to read the very positive user comments on the quality of the film and lamenting its lack of availability. I note that Leaonard Maltin even dropped this film from his 2006 edition of his guide, perhaps because there is no tape or DVD version. I hope someone, somewhere, with rights to this little gem does release it for home viewing or a TV channel like TCM or PBS finds it in their library and decides to show it, perhaps on a New Year's Eve.