REPEAT PERFORMANCE (1947)
Article #588 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-24-2003
Posting Date: 3-19-2003
A woman who has just committed a murder wishes she could live the last year of her life over again and is granted that wish.
The idea of someone going back over a bad year in her life and trying to change things is a potentially interesting idea, but the second I heard the word “destiny”, I had a pretty good idea of what the upshot of the whole thing was going to be, and though the story does have its share of novel twists, it really never veered off the course of what I ultimately expected. It’s not this aspect, though, that really made the movie difficult for me; it was the fact that the whole story is done in that pure soap-opera style that I find almost nauseating, where everyone is so high class and polite, and where everyone engages in chattery small-talk merely to fill in the dead spaces in the soundtrack (which is one way of saying that practically every character in the cast is painfully shallow and obvious), and where our heroine repeatedly tries to be nice and happy with her husband (who hates her) merely so we can watch him snub her and then so we can feel sorry for the poor woman—I’m sorry, but I just find this type of movie unbearable and tedious. It reminded me of a Douglas Sirk movie like THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION; pretty, proper and reverent, but mannered, artificial and soulless. This is the type of movie that needs some teeth in order to effectively inflict the bite of the premise.
Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings 
Good review mate! Couldn’t agree more… I ALWAYS have made a point to read your reviews if there is a link to one listed on IMDB for a film that I am interested in.
Oddly though, on THIS site, it seems that there are only reviews that you did a very long time ago. However, I checked your ‘other’ site or blog or whatever it is, and it looks like you are still going and current with your reviews. But, I never see more recent ones here on this site.
On IMDB, they ONLY seem to reference this site as containing your reviews. I wonder why IMDB never seems to have any links to your more recent reviews…?
Great job though! I’ve kept up at least with your older reviews for many years now! 😊
Thank you so much for your comments!
I do find it odd, though, that you’re accessing a site that only has my older reviews. For the record, I post on three sites. This one (fantasticmoviemusings.com) is my archive site, and it should have every review I’ve written. I also have a Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings page on Facebook where I post, and in the Movie of the Day subcategory of The Classic Horror Film Board. These other two sites are missing much of my older stuff.
I used to post at http://www.scifilm.org, but that site should be defunct now.
I will point out that for about 17 years, I wrote on review a day. I’ve slowed down quite a bit in recent years, with only about one review a week or so.
At any rate, I’m glad you enjoy my work!
Yeah, always appreciate your direct and informative reviews. Just right! 👍
I believe it is the Daily Review that I also have Speed Dialed/bookmarked. Like many of my ‘Film’ bookmarks, I had not looked at this one for years. When I checked it the other day I noticed that you were indeed still currently reviewing movies, which is good to know.
BUT… what I am saying is that, as far as I can tell, whenever I look up a movie on IMDB, which is where I always start and then go to the external reviews, THAT is where I seem never to see anything recent LINKED TO THIS SITE (or the other site of yours) that is not many, many years old. That is what I am referring to. In other words, so far for YEARS, the ONLY time I see a link to this site as an External Review, which is always when I come here, it is ALWAYS an older review of yours. The most recent that I can recall is maybe 12 years ago! See what I mean.
What would be really nice, is if ALL of your reviews, including everything you have apparently reviewed in the last 12 – 15 years were linked as external reviews on IMDB. For some mysterious reason they are all really, really old reviews only.
I don’t know if it is your responsibility to link your reviews to the external reviews on IMDB, or if it is supposed to be done automatically, but when I am looking up a film that has come out in the last 15 years, I never see a link to this site with one of your reviews. I GUESS I could go to your Daily site and try to then look up the movie, but it would be far, FAR more convenient if the links to your archive here were current there so that when I go to research a film, then ALL your reviews, including current ones, will be right there with everyone else’s when I’m checking them.
Do you know why IMDB doesn’t seem to have any of your reviews linked for the last 10+ years or so…?
Ah, I see what you’re talking about. I can explain that easily.
I actually don’t review recent movies much; there’s only a very small number of movies from the last fifteen years that I’ve reviewed. My emphasis is heavily on classic fantastic cinema, and I’m pretty complete from the seventies and earlier. There’s some scattershot reviews from the eighties and nineties. However, I will take note that you’d like me to review some more recent fare, so I’ll start considering doing so.
I maintain the links on IMDB myself, and every time I add a new review, I make sure to link the IMDB listing to it.
I hope my explanation clarifies things, though it may be a bit disappointing to hear.
Awesome, thank you kindly Dave. Heh…, yeah I guess that would explain it 🙄
Well, those are the better, Classic films that you do really well anyway. And, FWIW, I DON’T mean that I want you to take your valuable time and review a bunch of mindless mainstream movies! No…! I would just humbly suggest that if a film falls say into a category where you feel it would be worth your time, then you might consider reviewing it.
For example, and this is just off the top… But, the recent Ben Wheatley film ‘INTO THE EARTH’ was what thought was a very well made, great, atmospheric, and VERY different kind of Folk/Horror film (as a matter of fact, it is actually included in this really nice Folk Horror box set that I just got from Amazon ‘ALL THE HAUNTS ARE OURS’) :
You know, anything that you would find special and interesting. That would be great!
Thanks again for taking the time to help me understand what’s goin’ on 😁