Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

tomgillespie2002 There were few directors so suited to the film noir genre as Robert Siodmak, whose lengthy career produced everything from B-movie horrors (Son of Dracula) to exotic adventures (Cobra Woman) and forgotten westerns (Pyramid of the Sun God). However, he is best remembered for his work in the noir genre, which spawned tough, pretension-free crime dramas such as Phantom Lady, Cry of the City and Criss Cross. His movies often employed a kind of gimmick as a hook, with his finest film The Killers jumping back and forth in time to keep the audience guessing. One of Siodmak's lesser-known pulpy efforts, The Dark Mirror, leaned towards psychoanalysis as well as the more familiar sleuthing from a craggy-faced, weather-beaten detective. The advancements in mental health studies was all the rage with many screenwriters during the 1940s, and although much of what is said is utter nonsense, it helps give this lively noir a refreshing edge.Quick-witted detective Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) takes on the case of Dr. Frank Peralta, who is found dead in his apartment with a knife in his back. Investigations advance quickly, and after interviewing various witnesses, all the clues points to one woman alone: Peralta's lover Terry Collins (Olivia de Havilland). Many saw her leave the scene shortly after a loud thud was heard from the apartment, and the doctor's appointment book confirms a rendez-vous with the attractive young lady at the time of the murder. Yet when Stevenson corners Terry at her work after various witnesses make a positive identification, she has an alibi that cannot be disputed. Utterly perplexed at the mystery, the veteran dick visits her home to pose a few more questions, only to discover that Terry has, as you probably would have guessed by this point, and identical twin sister, named Ruth. One committed the crime and the other is innocent, but both exercise their right to keep their trap shut to avoid incriminating themselves.Refusing to believe in such a thing as 'the perfect crime', Stevenson brings in Scott Elliott (Lew Ayres), a doctor who frequently encountered both women at their place of work, and who also happens to be an expert in the study of twins. The Dark Mirror doesn't convince when it comes to psychologically evaluating the sisters, but if you can suspend your disbelief and roll with the film's coincidence-reliant plot, this is one of the most engaging noirs the genre has to offer. It's also helped a great deal by the central performance of de Havilland, who takes great delight in playing with the siblings' differing personalities. Their interactions are made even more delightful thanks to some seamless visual effects. The use of clever split-screens make it seem that two different actresses are indeed speaking to one another, putting efforts to recreate the effect as recent as the 1990s completely to shame. There a noticeable tonal issues, particularly with some musical choices heard after Stevenson's wisecracks which grate with the film's darker moments, but The Dark Mirror is yet another of Siodmak's quirky noirs deserving of more recognition.

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

Fuzzy Wuzzy Released in 1946 - It seems that these days we are all too familiar with the movie-scenario of identical twins where one is innocently "good", while the other is deceptively (and murderously) "evil".But way back in the 1940s (nearly 70 years ago) this sort of intriguing plot-line was really quite fresh and its possibilities were far from being fully explored and exploited.Though it contained some dramatically intense moments, I found The Dark Mirror to be too cut & dry to be considered great entertainment.At times its story was very weak and clichéd. And even though the visual effects (showing the 2 De Havilland characters together) were exceptionally convincing, this film (due to its somewhat heavy-handed psychiatric angle) contained far too much senseless psycho-babble and Freudian-related analysis in it to be at all entertaining to the average movie-goer.I also agree 100% with the point that Dalbert Pringle made in his review about the absolute tackiness of a psychiatrist having an affair with one of his patience. That certainly reduced this film's appeal significantly.Filmed in b&w, The Dark Mirror had a rather short running time of only 85 minutes. It was directed by Robert Siodmak whose other films of the 1940s included Son Of Dracula, The Spiral Staircase and The Killers.

Spikeopath The Dark Mirror is directed by Robert Siodmak and adapted to screenplay by Nunnally Johnson from a story by Vladimir Pozner. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long and Charles Evans. Music is by Dimitri Tiomkin and cinematography by Milton Krasner.A man appears to have been murdered by one of the identical twin Collins sisters, but both of whom have an alibi. The police and the psychiatrist have their work cut out...Straight out of the corner of postwar Hollywood that began to take fascination with mental illness, The Dark Mirror triumphs more as a technical exercise than as anything resembling thought provoking analysis. The simplistic Freudian elements aside, film is impressively mounted and performed by Siodmak and de Havilland respectively. Story follows the trajectory of a cat-and-mouse game, with the makers nicely putting us the viewers into the same struggle the authorities have in sussing out which sister is the damaged killer.Siodmak's (The Spiral Staircase) attention to detail and grasp of mood setting really lifts the piece to greater heights. Aided by the considerable photographic skills of Krasner (The Set-Up), Siodmak creates a world of psychological disturbance, a place aligned with suspense and symbolism. Right from the doozy of an opening scene to the denouement, Siodmak manages to keep the contrivances to the rear of the play and let de Havilland and the visual textures be the prime focus.The effects work is very good, with de Havilland having to quite often play off against herself. Sure in today's age of High Definition et al, you don't have to stretch your viewing experience to see how the effects were done, but why would you? Just enjoy de Havillland's riveting performances in the dual roles (see also her excellence in The Snake Pit two years later), her skillful little subtleties as she deftly plays out the respective psychological traits of sibling rivalry gone astray.Is it a gimmick movie? Well no not really, it's honest about what it wants to achieve in terms of psychiatric observations and treatments. Yet lesser lights than Siodmak, Krasner and de Havilland would have struggled to make it work, especially as the romance angle in the screenplay nearly derails the requisite mood come the finale. Thankfully, in spite of some obvious negatives, it's still well worthy of viewing investment. 7/10