SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Martin Bradley
Olivia de Havilland is, or should that be are, identical twins, one of whom is a murderer in Robert Siodmak's noirish thriller "The Dark Mirror". It's something of a technical marvel in the way it places both Miss de Havillands in the same frame, (remember, this was made in 1946), and Olivia is excellent in the way she juggles the two personalities but it's also pretty daft, a load of psychological mumbo-jumbo as Dr Lew Ayres tries to figure out which of the sisters might be a killer. This certainly isn't one of Siodmak's better films; it's never quite as clever as it thinks it is and the only point of interest is the guessing game of which de Havilland is which, (both Ayres and a very miscast Thomas Mitchell as the investigating cop are totally lifeless). This is a movie in which the twist is basically the whole film and I got bored long before the half-way mark.
daleholmgren
I've only seen the beginning, but Terry is the smoker and Ruth is the nervous mouse. However, Terry answered the door and answered the questions rapidly when asked by the detective. We are being led to believe that Terry is the 'bad' twin for being so combative while the counter girl was so sweet, so we suspect Ruth is being pressured into silence. However, that seems too obvious, so it's probably the reverse, although I will be very disappointed if it was Terry behind the counter, since she seemed so sweet.How Ruth could put up with Terry for one minute, let alone for decades, is beyond any normal viewer. A great twist ending would be that the doc thinks he's hospitalized the crazy one and is romancing the sane twin, but it's actually the crazy twin that has managed to get the sane twin institutionalized. Bwaahaha!!You do wonder if Olivia made this movie to twist the knife in deeper in her own famed rivalry with her sister Joan Fontaine. If not it's a rather brutal coincidence.I don't blame witnesses for not being sure AFTER finding out that they are twins. We don't expect twins, triplets, or quints when being asked to identify a suspect, so why get mad at us for withdrawing our opinion of "knowing" who is who?
howardeisman
Lew Ayres, suave, handsome and sophisticated, tests a pair of twins with "tests' which a decade later were found to be no better than tarot cards. He discoveres that one of the pair is a murder but he doesn't know which. There are two Olivia de Havillands, one good, one evil, but which is which? There is also a cop who keeps telling everyone that he is dumb, but is he?There is, of course, the psychotic, homicidal maniac, 1940s style, who appears to be perfectly normal until the end of the picture.Not bad material for a psycho, mystery melodrama. Olivia has a chance to show her acting chops, segueing from person to person, from personality to personality with facial expressions, voice intonations, and body language. A nice job but the story doesn't play out well. The background music swells up for dramatic moments, but it is counter-productive. It is loud and intrusive and it detracted attention from the scene being played out. Everything is played so that the viewer gets caught up in the mystery and the danger. But, all this just didn't pull me in.The film is a time passer and there are interesting things in it, but don't expect too much. Freud wouldn't have liked it, but there were very few things he did like
blanche-2
I hadn't seen this film in years until tonight, and I love it as much as ever. I had an acting teacher who used to say that Olivia de Havilland was held back because she played Melanie, that she was a fantastic actress and capable of so much more but had a hard time getting those meatier roles. But she did, and she truly was one of the great actresses of the classic era, not to mention one of the great beauties.De Havilland stars as twins, Terry and Ruth. When Dr. Frank Peralta is found stabbed in his apartment, two neighbors swear to the veteran Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) that Ruth Collins is the murderer, as witnesses saw her leaving his apartment.Alas, Ruth has an alibi, and three witnesses confirm she was listening to a concert in the park the night of the murder. When Stevenson visits Ruth in her apartment, he discovers that she has an identical twin sister, Terry.The prosecutor discourages Stevenson from building a case, because how is he going to prove which one of the women did it? He decides to investigate on his own, and asks Dr. Scott Elliot, who knows the women, to help him. Scott has been studying twins for years.Scott gives the twins a series of tests. And he discovers that one of the twins is crazy.Psychology was a big thing post-war, and "Dark Mirror" is another example of a psychological story. Some of it to today's audience will sound a little lame, but that does not deter from the film being entertaining.Olivia de Havilland creates two distinct women in Terry and Ruth. People have been asking for years how the two Olivias intertwined on the couch. It probably was a cut and paste job, but it was fantastic - makes you realize what ingenuity filmmakers needed before computers.Lew Ayres as another doctor - well, that did seem to be his lot in life; he was even a medic in World War II. A delightful, easy actor with a sweet personality, he really rose out of the ashes after being a conscientious objector, even winning an Oscar. Thomas Mitchell is very good as the detective in charge.All in all, highly entertaining and a chance to see Olivia de Havilland at her absolute peak. Looking at her, I was struck by how good she would have been as Blanche Dubois in Streetcar, which would premiere on Broadway a few years later. A missed opportunity.
