La double énigme

Those were the days.Every director had his Freudian movie during the glorious forties:Hitchcock had " spellbound",Lang "secret beyond the door" Tourneur "cat people".... and Siodmak "the dark mirror".and it stood the test of time quite well ,almost as much as the three works I mention above.Of course ,the film owes a lot to Olivia de Havilland's sensational rendition,well half a century before Jeremy Irons' "dead ringers" or Keaton's "multiplicity".We run the whole gamut, as Siodmak brought out all his equipment :inkblood test, lie detector,mirror,and the whole kit.But De Havilland's charisma -at a time when actresses mastered their audience-survives and remains intact.We often feel ill-at-ease when we do not know who we're watching anymore(she plays twin sisters who are suspects in a criminal affair).De Havilland was perfect when it came to portraying ambiguous women (see also "My cousin Rachel")

Robert Siodmak had an eventful career:after his debut in Germany,he made some works in France ("Pièges" (1939) is the best and deserves to be watched)then came to America where he made remarkable thrillers ("the spiral staircase";"the killers").His career ended in Europa with interesting -but difficult to see- movies about Nazism ,but the only one of those late movies we can see now is "Katia" (1959),pure schmaltz

A murder is committed , and identical twin sisters , Ruth and Terry (Olivia de Havilland) are suspects . A prominent psychologist (Lew Ayres) and a detective (Thomas Mitchell) investigate the deeds to determine which good-bad siblings killed the mysterious corpse , because one of whom is a psycho and nutty woman .

This noir film contains suspense , tensions , psychological drama , a love story and is quite entertaining . Excellent actress Olivia De Havilland gives a completely convincing tour-de-force as a dual role as good and bad girl . Good and fine support cast as Lew Ayres , Thomas Mitchell, Gary Owen and Richard Long . Startling finale climax with an amazing plot twist . Nice special effects perfectly adapted , enabling De Havilland to play two diverse characters , FX are stunningly made by Deveraux Jennins . This psychological thriller has an interesting screenplay brilliantly written by Nunnally Johnson , also producer. Atmospheric musical score by Dimitri Tiomkin based on classic music and evocative cinematography in lights and shades by Milton Krasner . This was first film produced by the new joint venture Universal Pictures-International Pictures . The motion picture was well directed by German director Robert Siodmak who realized his best films during the 40s . His movies reflect a world of desperation , of dark , of threat and killing . The Siodmak's best films are¨ Phantom Lady¨, ¨The spiral staircase¨ and especially : ¨Criss Cross and ¨The killers¨-both starred by Burt Lancaster-, now acknowledged as a classic noir films in which Robert Siodmak set the pattern of the rest of his Hollywood's work, and of course ¨Dark mirror¨.

The film is a little bit light, with a bumbling detective played by Thomas Mitchell and vintage Freudian psychoanalysis presented by Lew Ayres, but the twin sister role, one a good girl the other very bad, played by Olivia De Havilland has its moments. Her soft voice can go either direction, sweet and innocent or cold and devious, and the scenes where she is playing both parts, essentially talking to herself, convey a split personality, which might not have been such a bad idea, instead of making two distinct persons. It reaches a zenith in one scene in their dark bedroom with the innocent twin tormented by the mean one, who's telling her to take her sleep medication, and who in fact would like to see her overdose. Freudianism and bungling detective work win out in the end, making this all seem too convenient, and dodging a lot of the possibilities, but the central part, or parts, is DeHavilland at her best.

A man is murdered, and a woman called Ruth Collins is seen at the scene of the crime.The case gets tricky, when is found out that Ruth has a twin sister, Terry.They both have to then go see a psychiatrist, Dr.Scott Elliott.The doc falls for the normal sister, but which is which? The other one of them is capable of committing a cold blooded murder, but which one? Robert Siodmak's Film-Noir The Dark Mirror (1946) takes some Freudian turns as it goes on.Olivia de Havilland shines in a dual role.She's terrific as the psychotic sister as well as the normal one.Lew Ayres is great as the Shrink.Character actor Thomas Mitchell does very fine job as Lt.Stevenson.This movie was very fascinating to watch.It gave some challenge finding out which one did it.60 years has done no harm to this film.

As stated in everyone's write-ups, this is a story of a murder with a twist; the perp is one of two identical twins. One alibis for the other, and since both can't be prosecuted for the crime, the guilty one walks. This does not sit well with Insp. Thomas Mitchell, who tries to think of a way to implicate the guilty one - whichever one that is. And so he enlists the help of psychiatrist Lew Ayres.

At first, the murder is presented as an unsolvable conundrum and in a light-hearted vein, but things get serious thereafter and, unfortunately, the plot begins to bog down over some technical psychological data. But Olivia DeHavilland saves the day and the movie with a splendid performance (or two) as the twins. Gradually there appear personality differences so that even the audience can tell the difference between the two. Not many actresses could have pulled off the layered performances of the twins, but not many actresses are as proficient or as skilled as DeHavilland.

This is another neglected gem from Universal's cobwebbed movie vaults that needs to be put into circulation by that comatose studio. It is one of Ms. DeHavilland's best performances and raises an average, talky movie to classic status.