Quick viewing(Text Mode)

Repeat Performance

Repeat Performance

BOOK VS FILM

Brian Light slowly emerges from an alcoholic stupor to too-recent past, he was a critically acclaimed find he’s in a shabby, two-bits-a-night dive. Broadway actor with a promising future and illiam O’Farrell’s 1942 an invitation to . Through the novel There was the smell of disinfectant in fog and fumes of what’s become his daily is a tale of competing the room and the cot on which I was sustenance—“two-bit shakeup, the stuff ambitions, adultery, mur- lying had no sheet. I didn’t have to they sold in a delicatessen on Twenty-Fourth der, and a mind-bending open my eyes to know that I was back Street”—he comes to the realization that a lot timeW warp that predates sci-fi writer Philip in the HIGHLAND HOTEL, REAL has happened in the past year…all of it bad. K. Dick by a decade. Centered in New BEDS FOR TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. Sheila, his binge-drinking wife, committed York’s theater district, and populated with I knew the place well; I’d been hitting suicide; his friend and close confidant William the requisite playwrights, producers, actors, it on and off for four months now, on and Mary—a cross-dressing, mildly insane and unavoidable hangers-on, its strongest my good nights. The nights when I poet—was committed to an asylum, and his supporting player is New York itself. Green- had a quarter. co-star, Fern Costello, who he was torching wich Village restaurants and bars serve as a for, was strangled to death… by his hands. congregational weigh station for the prin- When theatrical producer and long-time Repeat Performance was acquired by ciple players, and the Manhattan streetscape friend John Friday shows up at the hotel, he Eagle-Lion Films, which had been founded serves as a road map for Barney Page’s cir- collects Barney and attempts to jump-start his in September 1946 by British film producer cumspect odyssey. Right from the get-go, it’s friend’s sotted memory. Barney slowly recalls J. Arthur Rank specifically to distribute Brit- clear that Barney has hit rock-bottom as he the sordid details of his descent. In the all- ish films to the American market. Most were

filmnoirfoundation.org I SUMMER 2016 I NOIR CITY 63 Dressed to kill…Sheila Page (Joan Leslie) dispatches her husband Barney commercially unsuccessful, with the excep- and, after two more modest films on loan- off on Parsonnet’s script. Composer George tion of the ballet-noir masterpiece The Red out to Columbia, she moved to Italy. In July Antheil had also signed a three-picture deal, Shoes. In 1947, Eagle-Lion acquired Robert 1946, Variety reported that Sylvia Sidney had and was set to score. The following month, R. Young’s Producers Releasing Corporation inked a deal with Eagle-Lion for the role, and Variety reported that Jules Dassin would to make American Bs to accompany the Brit- had come to the studio to do tests and signed direct. Even O’Farrell garnered some press as ish movies on double bills. It quickly ascended Hollywood’s champion transient: “In the last to the top tier of Hollywood’s . six weeks he has lived in a trailer, three hotels, Bryan Foy, formerly head of the B-movie unit the office of a polo stable, and is now headed at Warner Bros., was made head of produc- The subway is for Lake Arrowhead, where he has a line on a tion, and he recruited an A team from the B cabin cruiser.” In October, Bryan Foy bought trenches, with the likes of independent pro- out Parsonnet’s interest—which eliminated ducers Aubrey Schenck, Walter Wanger, and Transportation, and Tone’s involvement as well—and, in Decem- , and directors such as Anthony ber, he assigned Aubrey Schenck to produce Mann and Alfred Werker. Transportation is New York’s and replaced Dassin with Alfred Werker. Initially a package deal, with Franchot Only a few months before, Joan Leslie Tone headlining and Gilda screenwriter Mar- had served notice on Warner Bros. to abro- ion Parsonnet to script and produce, Repeat religion…It’s death and gate her contract, which she’d signed in 1942 Performance went through the usual casting when she was seventeen. As a temporary free carousel. Constance Dowling was first up for burial, dark burial with a agent, she signed a contract with Seymour the role of Sheila Page, but following a small Nebenzal’s Nero-Film AG to star opposite part in The Well Groomed Bride (1946), and in The Chase. But Warner a turn as Dan Duryea’s murdered wife in raucous, hilarious wake. Bros. issued a studio injunction preventing Black Angel (1946), she became disillusioned her from going forward with The Chase and

64 NOIR CITY I SUMMER 2016 I filmnoirfoundation.org He was keenly aware of how essential the “iron horse” is to the life-flow of New York:

The subway is Transportation, and Transportation is New York’s reli- gion…It’s death and burial, dark burial with a raucous, hilarious wake. And it’s Life, an eager plunging into the fertile earth, a noisy rutting and a triumphant orgasm of men and women, human beings, at the other end. The subway is all that and more; it’s transition and rebirth as well. Take a broker, sleepy-eyed, washed-out, impotent. He’s sucked into its morning underground flow at Seventy-Second. In Wall Street he pops up a back- slapping Napoleon of finance. At five in the afternoon a harried little clerk sneaks out of his office in the whole- sale clothing district. Half an hour later he’s at home in the Bronx beating Barney’s () unchecked boozing is becoming a fly in the brandy for all concerned (Joan Leslie, his wife. He’s master in his household Tom Conway, ) and strutting cock in his own chicken she was replaced by French actress Michèle that the plot has been rejiggered—not only run. What did it? The subway. A man Morgan. In 1946, Leslie was released from the characters and their roles, but also the goes in at one end, and when he comes her contract in a Superior Court decision dramatic device that bookends the story. out the other, something’s happened to and signed a two-picture deal with Eagle- Just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, him; he’s changed. Lion, replacing Sylvia Sidney in Repeat Per- Sheila—smoking revolver in formance. Walter Bullock was brought in hand—has just shot and killed to re-write the screenplay, recalibrating the her husband Barney. focus from Barney to Sheila, making her the In the book, however, Broadway star with the bloody hands. Barney is instructed to take In December, Louis Hayward stepped into the subway to John Friday’s the role of Barney Page, having signed a two- apartment at 11:00 pm sharp. picture deal with Eagle-Lion. After knock- While dining with William and ing around Broadway for six years, Richard Mary at their favorite Green- Basehart’s breakthrough came with 1945’s wich Village eatery, he spies play The Hasty Heart. His performance as a two plain-clothes detectives dying Scottish soldier scored the New York eyeballing him. He makes a Drama Critic’s Award for most promising break for it, his sidekick in newcomer. Hollywood took notice, WB giv- tow, the detectives in hot pur- ing him a contract worth $15,000 a week. suit. They descend into the He was cast in a supporting role in the Errol subway to catch the 42nd Street Flynn/ thriller Cry Wolf, shuttle. As the police close in, which languished on the shelf awaiting William and Mary throws his release until August 1947. After some hag- body in front of them as they gling, Basehart was released from his WB draw their guns and fire. Bar- contract and signed a two-picture deal (the ney figures it’s the end of the first beingRepeat Performance) with Eagle- line—but there’s one final Lion, with a proviso that he could still do stop: that exact moment, one Broadway plays. year earlier. O’Farrell wisely chose to Repeat Performance opens with a set this scene on the one sub- pan of the New York skyline at night and a way line in New York with voiceover (by John Ireland) setting the stage only two stops connecting the for a tale of a woman who gets to relive west side (Times Square) with After the fall…Barney (Louis Hayward) lamps Sheila (Joan Leslie) with a one year of her life. It’s clear from the start the east side (Grand Central). look that could kill

filmnoirfoundation.org I SUMMER 2016 I NOIR CITY 65 Sheila (Joan Leslie) receives sound counsel from William Williams (Richard Basehart) in an insane asylum O’Farrell astutely sets up the subway as a Hollywood to prevent them from meeting. screen, Barney and Paula Costello become transformative mode of travel, and it serves These scenes—shot at the exclusive Deau- an item during the production of her play as a deus ex machina for Barney Page. The ville Beach Club in Santa Monica—reveal Say Goodbye, in which Sheila—believ- movie provides no such creative device for Barney’s (and possibly Bullock’s) disdain for ing she’d side-stepped this minefield—has Sheila’s time travel. Her transformation the “Golden State.” Reflecting upon the foul reluctantly agreed to star. takes place enroute to of John scent of orange blossoms, he declares the In the book, Sheila hits the bottle hard, Friday (Tom Conway) as she and William place a “sun-kissed purgatory.” determined to drink herself into oblivion. At Williams (Basehart, renamed sans the cross- Despite all valiant efforts, the stars still a bohemian bash in Fern’s apartment, Barney dressing Mary, but still crazy) are ascending align. Book Barney finds himself co-starring locks Sheila in the bedroom to keep her booz- the stairway; William, right behind her, sud- with Fern Costello in Halfway House, the ing in check. Out of his watchful eye, she con- denly disappears. In proto-Twilight Zone Broadway debut of playwright Paul Gort (a sumes a bottle of cologne that contains wood style, the narrator creeps back in to intone character eliminated from the film), soon to alcohol, rendering her stone blind as a result. that Sheila’s time travel has begun…she just become the object of Sheila’s affections. On- In the film, the pivotal party takes place on doesn’t know it yet. Thanksgiving in the Broadway Theater where From this point forward, in both book and the gossiping harpy, Mrs. Shaw (a pre-Gilli- film, Barney/Sheila struggle to make sense of gan’s Island Natalie Schafer) shines a spot- the inexplicable development. They embrace Time’s unyielding light in the balcony revealing Barney and this chance at a “do-over” and both vow Paula in a cognac-infused clinch. Startled to alter the course of events in the previous by the light, Barney defiantly lurches for- year. Already knowing its outcome, they rea- force grinds on. All the ward, stumbles over the railing, and crashes son, should enable them to derail the deadly to the stage below. He suffers brain damage denoument. In book and film, Barney/Sheila and is partially paralyzed. He’s confined to take different routes to avoid the tripwires fateful events of the a wheelchair … but not for long. Barney/ connected to the year’s cast of characters. In Sheila withdraw deep inside themselves and the book, Barney (having just completed a corrosively brood about their maladies. successful run in the smash Broadway play past year slowly fall Time’s unyielding force grinds on. All the Say Goodbye) turns down a movie offer in fateful events of the past year slowly fall into Hollywood because that’s where he became place once again. William and Mary/Wil- entangled with Fern Costello. On the screen, liam Williams is committed to a sanitarium. Fern becomes Paula Costello (a patrician into place once again. In the book, Sheila is dealt a final blow when Virginia Field) and Sheila takes Barney to she’s rejected by Paul Gort, propelling her

66 NOIR CITY I SUMMER 2016 I filmnoirfoundation.org performance as Barney was against an upright and felt warm, tan- excoriated by the New York gible blood where the bullet creased Times as “…a luscious dis- my forehead, and I was glad. The date play of boiled ham not seen was April the eleventh, nineteen forty- in these regions since Charles four again, and maybe it had never Laughton was on the loose.” been anything else. That didn’t mat- On-screen, Barney attempts to ter. It was all over, anyway, and I was join Paula on her return cruise glad. When the shuttle slid to a stop to England, but, like Sheila in and the doors opened, I was the first the book, he’s rejected. Hay- one on the platform. I looked through ward hits his stride, literally, the blood streaming over my eyes and displaying a marvelous emo- saw them down at the other end. Two tional transition as he exits of them, both in uniforms. I called, Paula’s stateroom, now walk- “There’s no hurry. I’m coming,” and ing with steely resolve, his face walked to meet them as I would have slowly twisting into homicidal gone to meet a couple of friends. rage. This final white-knuckle sequence—as good as any After early previews in Santa Barbara in in Werker’s He Walked by February 1947, Basehart was brought back Night—crackles with drum- from New York to shoot extra scenes with tight cross-cutting, from a Leslie, building up his role. (Production notes wide-eyed Sheila watching don’t indicate which scenes may have been the hands of the clock creep added or expanded.) Repeat Performance, toward midnight to vengeful released three months before Cry Wolf, is Barney limping through the cel- considered his film debut, but it was a role ebratory crowd, sidestepping he did not recall fondly: “My first role was taxis and drunken revelers. nearly my swan song. I played a weak neu- Antheil’s jagged score ratchets rotic poet…After it nobody would cast me in up the tension as Barney slips a good romantic part.” Adding insult to per- into Sheila’s apartment as the ceived injury, Basehart was the reluctant cen- clock strikes midnight. Veteran ter of attention in a “local boy makes good cameraman L.W. O’Connell— celebration” when his hometown of Zanes- who lensed Decoy the year ville, Ohio (where his father was once the before, and whose prodigious town’s newspaper editor) hosted the film’s output includes over 60 films world premiere on May 22, 1947. in the 1930s alone, Scarface Joan Leslie was dealt a professional blow a most eminently—drapes this year later when the California State Supreme gripping tableau in lush black Court overturned a previous ruling, deeming velvet. But as this climatic her contract with Warner Bros. to be binding. showdown unfolds, the film But, in a fit of studio muscle-flexing, WB tore Sixty newspaper, radio, and magazine people, including twenty from contrives to provide its own up her contract soon afterwards. New York, were flown to Zanesville, Ohio by charter airplane to attend the premiere and a dinner in Basehart’s honor (and none-too-successful) deus 1947 was predicted as a banner year ex machina for Sheila in the for Eagle-Lion, with a 22-picture studio to reenact her swan song with an overdose form of William Williams—who had escaped schedule and a production budget in excess of sleeping pills. Barney looks on helplessly, from the mental institution—to serve as the of $25 million. But when tickets were tallied, too sedated by the very same sleeping pills instrument of inescapable Fate. The novel, the studio lost over $2 million. By reshuffling to intervene. It rapidly goes downhill for however, tightens the shackles on Barney as the studio slate and adjusting production him; he becomes a somnambulist in the final he stumbles through the haze of memory— budgets, Eagle-Lion rebounded in 1948-49 chapter, resigned to the inevitable climax, the Highland Hotel, John Friday’s benevolent with four “Dark City” entries bringing in the applying a clinical caress to Fern Costello’s resuscitation, dinner with William and Mary, green: T-Men, Raw Deal, Canon City, and, throat, choking the life out of her. Fern even the mad dash for the subway, the muzzle flash having explored the dark side of the thes- lovingly accepts his mortal embrace, for it of the cop’s gun, then finally, resignation. pian milieu with requisite aplomb in Repeat has been foretold, and hence unavoidable. Performance, Werker (with help from an As it did with the central plotline, the movie I opened my eyes and found I was uncredited ) re-teamed with streamlines the climax, eliminating the mur- looking at the feet of a crowd of peo- Basehart, taking him from the New York der of Fern Costello and circling back to the ple…I struggled to my feet and saw stage to the storm tunnels of Los Angeles New Year’s Eve showdown between Sheila and the people in the car shrink back from in He Walked by Night. ■ Barney that opens the film. Louis Hayward’s me. I didn’t mind. I supported myself

filmnoirfoundation.org I SUMMER 2016 I NOIR CITY 67

Top View