It has been over 70 years since the last Eagle-Lion film was made and the company was quickly forgotten as almost all of their movies became public domain property. Thanks to the recent renewed interest in American Film Noir, the company has been resurrected and several of their best titles are now available in quality home editions. Among their best films were HE WALKS BY NIGHT, T-MEN, RAW DEAL, REIGN OF TERROR (THE BLACK BOOK), THE AMAZING MR X, and CANON CITY. Several of these movies were made by celebrated Hollywood director Anthony Mann and photographed by John Alton, the acknowledged master of the classic film noir look. Yet before those there was REPEAT PERFORMANCE.
But first a little bit of film history. It all began with a Poverty Row outfit called Grand National Pictures which existed from 1936-1939. GNP then became PRC (Producers Releasing Company) one of the best known and most prolific of all Poverty Row studios even though it was considered the bottom rung on the Hollywood ladder. After churning out numerous Westerns, crime and horror pictures (many with Bela Lugosi), they were acquired in 1947 by British mogul J. Arthur Rank as a distribution outlet for British films in America hence the name Eagle-Lion Films. They quickly decided to produce American films in the old PRC facilities and made movies there until 1950. Most were well regarded but few made money.
REPEAT PERFORMANCE fell into that category. However it was so highly regarded that it enabled Eagle-Lion to secure financing and move from being just a film distributor to becoming a producer of high quality B movies. The opening is classic film noir. On New Years Eve, a woman (Joan Leslie) is standing over the body of her husband (Louis Hayward) holding a gun. the movie then proceeds to tell the story in flashback. What makes it really different is that it utilizes a fantasy element where the woman wishes she could relive the past year over to correct her mistakes. She is granted her wish but, with the foreknowledge of what is going to happen, her attempts to prevent them only make things worse.
Leslie is an actress in a hit play. Her husband is an alcoholic who is having an affair with the British author of the play (Virginia Field). She seeks solace and advice from her two best friends, a successful producer (Tom Conway) and a gay poet (Richard Basehart) but they are puzzled by her behavior. Just as before it all comes to a head on New Year’s Eve but with a different outcome. The movie is loaded with good performances especially Basehart in his film debut and the look of the cinematography is just right. Long unavailable, REPEAT PERFORMANCE has been beautifully restored by the Film Noir Foundation and released by Flicker Alley. Loaded with extras, it’s a must have for Noir enthusiasts and fans of film fantasy.
The Capsule Critic 