Not sure myself how much use a dark mirror would be to anyone, but anyway here's a hoary old Hollywood melodrama / noir with Olivia De Havilland working twice as hard for the money as single twins Ruth and Terry who still live together and conveniently often do that twinny thing of wearing the same clothes. Director Robert Siodmak helpfully has them wear either a huge pin or necklace bearing their names, you know just in case either one of them wakens up thinking they're the other one but more obviously to help the viewer identify which is which until it is plain enough through characterisation.
You see, there's been a violent murder attributed to one of the two but back in the days before DNA, each sister is the other's alibi and of course the guilty one isn't going to confess. It seems that one of them suffers from extreme jealousy of the other's more amiable personality, especially when it comes to attracting men, while the good one suffers from a guilt complex secretly built up by the manipulative bad one.
For all the talk of the significance of mirrors as the narrative unfolds we're never actually told why they trigger the reaction they do in them both as I kept waiting for an explanatory flashback like for instance in "Spellbound". Still Siodmak often has one or both Olivias positioned in front of one reinforcing the idea of split personalities and one being the evil reflection of the other. It must be said that he handles the split-screen photography deftly and you're actually more aware when he does resort to the artificial use of a back facing double as at other times you're so convinced there are two separate presences of the sisters when they both fill the screen.
While the plot is cliched and far-fetched right up to the somewhat predictable climax, it's undoubtedly stylishly directed and carried off in the main by De Havilland even if she goes slightly overboard near the end. Lew Ayres convinces as the smooth psycho-analyst who becomes the women's next battleground and Thomas Mitchell is fun as the one-step-behind detective cold on the sisters' trail.
In the end I probably enjoyed the set ups and special effects more than the acting or story but as twin-flix go, this was still pretty enjoyable.
You see, there's been a violent murder attributed to one of the two but back in the days before DNA, each sister is the other's alibi and of course the guilty one isn't going to confess. It seems that one of them suffers from extreme jealousy of the other's more amiable personality, especially when it comes to attracting men, while the good one suffers from a guilt complex secretly built up by the manipulative bad one.
For all the talk of the significance of mirrors as the narrative unfolds we're never actually told why they trigger the reaction they do in them both as I kept waiting for an explanatory flashback like for instance in "Spellbound". Still Siodmak often has one or both Olivias positioned in front of one reinforcing the idea of split personalities and one being the evil reflection of the other. It must be said that he handles the split-screen photography deftly and you're actually more aware when he does resort to the artificial use of a back facing double as at other times you're so convinced there are two separate presences of the sisters when they both fill the screen.
While the plot is cliched and far-fetched right up to the somewhat predictable climax, it's undoubtedly stylishly directed and carried off in the main by De Havilland even if she goes slightly overboard near the end. Lew Ayres convinces as the smooth psycho-analyst who becomes the women's next battleground and Thomas Mitchell is fun as the one-step-behind detective cold on the sisters' trail.
In the end I probably enjoyed the set ups and special effects more than the acting or story but as twin-flix go, this was still pretty enjoyable.