Turn Back the Clock (1933)

Joe and Mary run a tobacco store and are just scraping by. When old friend Ted comes into the store, they renew their friendship, even though Ted is now wealthy and married to Elvira, whom Joe could have married himself, and become the rich one. After a domestic squabble Joe is hit by a car, and when he wakes up he is 20 years younger and can rectify his error and marry Elvina and her money. He does, relives his life as a wealthy man who still remembers his 'other' life, and what happened during those years. In the end he realizes that he isn't as happy as he was formerly, and things come to a head when his 'new' life catches up with his old one.

Director: Edgar Selwyn
Cast: Lee Tracy, Mae Clarke, Otto Kruger, George Barbier, Peggy Shannon, C. Henry Gordon, Clara Blandick, Norman Ainsley, Hooper Atchley, Don Brodie, William Burress, Nell Craig, Lester Dorr, Larry Fine, Edward Gargan, Charley Grapewin, Sherry Hall, Irene Hervey, Harry Holman, Curly Howard, Moe Howard, Donald Kerr, Wilfred Lucas, Harold Miller, Broderick O'Farrell, Phillips Smalley, Carl Stockdale, Forrest Taylor, Guy Usher, Leo White




A unique film of the "if I had it all to do over" variety, Turn Back The Clock gives Lee Tracy a chance to show the full range of his talents as an average Joe who wants a second chance at life and gets it.

Director Edgar Selwyn and screenwriter Ben Hecht delivered a small masterpiece in 1933 that might seem familiar now to later generations. Everyone from Frank Capra to Rod Serling has used the same theme successfully - the lesson to be learned: you can't change the past without consequences, so maybe its better just to be happy with what you have.

TCM has this one in its vault, so see it if you're a Tracy fan. You won't be disappointed. Excellent performances by Mae Clarke and Peggy Shannon as well. Funny and dramatic with some of the delightful over the top stuff you'd expect from an early Thirties film, but fast and insightful at the same time.

Oh, and an uncredited guest bit with The Three Stooges as wedding singers!
~ Rich La Bonte

Extras
- Trailer

IMDb