Dead Ringer
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Movie Reviews of Dead Ringer
Movie Review: B-MOVIE WITH "A" LIST ACTORS: a footnote to Davis' career!
Summary: 4 Stars
"Dead Ringer"(1964) (not to be confused with "Dead Ringers" 1988) is the story of rival twin sisters Margaret DeLorca and Edith Philips, both played by Bette Davis. Years earlier Margaret married a wealthy so and so who once courted Edith but has since passed away. Edith's sudden appearance at his funeral sparks Margaret to invite her sister back to her mansion for drinks after the service. However, Margaret's cavalier attitude toward life and her not so subtle snubs at Edith's decidedly down to earth life style (she owns a bar on the east side that is in danger of foreclosure) drives Edith to distraction. She concocts a diabolical revenge scenario on a bluff, gets her Margaret to come to her apartment, and then murders her. Making it look like a suicide, Edith steals Margaret's clothes and identity, returning to her sister's mansion as though nothing had happened. However, Edith's cop boyfriend, Sergeant Mike Hobbson (Karl Malden) begins to suspect that something is afoot from the start, though even he can not conceive that his one time girlfriend is impersonating her own sister. However, the transition from frump to Trump is a difficult one for Edith. Eventually eschewing into social graces, Edith's cover is blown when Margaret's old time, loud mouth friend, DeDe Marshall (Jean Hagen) invites her to a party at which Margaret's former lover, Tony Collins (Peter Lawford) is in attendance. The deceptions run high as Edith slowly comes to realize that Tony and her sister murdered Margaret's husband. When Tony discovers Edith's fraud he blackmails her into keeping his secret.
Filmed at a time when Davis' career had begun the slow decline into B-movie oblivion, "Dead Ringer" emerges as something of a red herring. The film is directed by Davis' "Now Voyager" costar, Paul Henreid and the roster of talent amassed, including George Macready, Estelle Winwood and Philip Carey is impressive. Still, what emerges for the experience is more schlock B-romance with a Lizzy Borden spin than high octane suspense. Davis held out long and hard before securing the dual role. She had previously played twins in "A Stolen Life" so the rehashing must have seemed like a solid choice. Unhappy circumstance that the film itself emerges as little more than a footnote - one of many for its star - on her way toward becoming a relic from Hollywood's golden age.
There is a lot to celebrate in Warner Brother's DVD transfer. The anamorphic image is remarkably clean, with a very solid and beautifully rendered gray scale, deep blacks and excellent contrast levels. Only during the split screen shots of the two sisters do we get a hint of film grain. The rest of the transfer is ultra smooth and sumptuous to look at. There are several fleeting hints of edge enhancement and some extremely minor pixelization, but neither distracts from your viewing pleasure. The audio is mono but with a considerable - if tacky punctuated punch. Extras include a very brief featurette with Davis biographer, Boze Hadleigh, a thorough audio commentary with Hadleigh and Charles Busch, a vintage featurette shot during production on the film and a theatrical trailer.
Movie Review: "But I am Margaret De Lorca!"
Summary: 4 Stars
By the time 1964 came around Bette Davis was having career resurgence. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was a huge hit for her and Joan Crawford; therefore, it was only logical that both actresses would be offered a variety of quasi horror and gothic-like roles. While Dead Ringer isn't really a horror film, it certainly has enough spooky and unnerving elements to involve the viewer and create an atmosphere of foreboding.
Is Dead Ringer a piece of B grade junk designed as a vehicle for a fading star's last gasp at glory? Or is it a cleverly wrought psychological thriller, made redeemable by the presence of a true star and great actress? Well, the answer is probably a bit both - theres no doubt that movie has elements of a second rate melodromatic thriller, but the film is also surprisingly tense and in the end provides a perfect showcase for the glamorous Ms. Davis to do what she does best.
Dead ringer is ultimately a campy gothic thriller about estranged twin sisters Margaret and Edith (Davis, playing both roles). The film begins with a funeral for Margaret's husband who has just died of heart failure. When the wealthy Margaret invites Edith back to her mansion in Westwood it is soon revealed that the insensitive, social-climbing Margaret actually stole Edith's insanely rich beau away from her and has since been living the high-life while Edith struggles to keep her run-down nightclub afloat.
With her rent three months in arrears and frantic for money, Edith hatches a desperate plan to murder her own sister by making it look like suicide. Thinking that she can just walk in and take over her life, Edith scrambles to carry off the masquerade, pretending she knows Margaret's safe combination by heart, or that she can differentiate between the mansion's hundred rooms, all the time trying to figure out what sort of person Margaret really was.
There are lots of surprises as Edith gradually discovers that Margaret possessed a lot of dark secrets that she was desperate to hide. Murder, betrayal, and infidelity all follow with Edith ultimately learning a hard lesson: when you adopt someone's assets, you must also accept their liabilities, for better or for worse. Viewers are in for such side attractions as Davis slapping checkbooks across rooms, contemplating burning her own hand with a red-hot fire poker, and even shoving herself backwards into a chair.
The supporting cast is strong with Carl Malden competently playing an affable, nice-guy cop who is in love with Edith, and just can't believe that she'd ever commit suicide. Jean Hagen absolutely chews up the scenery as a blithely indecent social butterfly and Estelle Winwood is terrific as a dour, doily-wearing Bible-thumper.
But in the end, Dead Ringer totally belongs to the commanding Bette Davis. This is one of her campiest and most ham-fisted roles ever, and where she's at her chain-smoking, eye popping, and out of control best. Mike Leonard August 05.
Movie Review: It will keep you hooked!
Summary: 4 Stars
Dead Ringer is a sensational thriller starring Bette Davis in a dual role as twin sisters Edith and Margaret. Edith is poor, while Margaret is loaded, having married into wealth. Trouble is that Margaret's wealthy husband was once Edith's first love, and when the sisters meet at his funeral after a decade of silence, sparks beging to fly again, and Edie plots a fiendish scheme to escape from her unhappy and debt-ridden life.
If you don't know the film, and have not heard much about the plot, you are in for a treat. This is a first class, highly entertaining thriller. For a black and white Hollywood star vehicle from 1964, the movie still stands up strong today with a plot that keeps you gripped from the moment the wheels of crime start turning, until the bitter end - and it's bitter, believe me! Bette Davis makes a real feast of her dual role, and the effects that keep her on screen as both sisters at the same time are flawless. I was scrutinizing the screen to spot the joins on some occasions, but completely failed. Davis also skilfully makes herself into two different personalities, showing why she is considered to be one of the greats of the Hollywood golden age. True, at this point in her career some of her subtlety had gone, and the familiar Baby Jane screech is in full effect, but she still does a great job, constantly smoking like a chimney as Edie (amusingly lectured by the other sister at one point, that smoking is unhealthy!), and throwing juicy insults around. Although the direction and cinematography are fairly mundane, Davis' performance makes the film shine. You can practically see the machinations of Edie's mind as she starts to flounder among the constant stream of obstacles that threaten to sabotage her plan, and its great fun to watch her. There are good performances all round from the rest of the cast as well, plus some fantastic surprise twists in the plot, so do yourself a big favour and avoid reading any plot summaries before you watch it.
It may only be Saturday matinee entertainment now, or a filler DVD for a rainy afternoon, but Dead Ringer will keep you hooked right through to the end if you give it your time, and there's no shortage of films around even today today that can't beat that.
Movie Review: "Now who's the fairest twin of all?"
Summary: 4 Stars
Nobody in film has yet portrayed evil bitch, and sometimes crazy evil bitch, as well and as often as the late great Bette Davis, as evidenced by such films as "Of Human Bondage", "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane", and "The Nanny", just to name a few that come immediately to mind. Capable of spitting out lines such as "Ah'd luv tuh kiss yuh, but ah jus' washed mah hair" (from "Cabin In the Cotton", 1932), "Every time you kissed me, I had to wipe my mouth! Wipe my mouth!" (from "Of Human Bondage", 1934) to "But Blanche, yuh ahhh in that chair, yuh ahhhhhhh!" (from "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane", 1962), Bette Davis made a lucrative living with her hip-swinging sashaying stride and her mannerisms that still make her a favorite of drag queens everywhere.
In "Dead Ringer", Bette was once again cast in the dual role of good sister/bad sister (Edith Phillips/Margaret DeLorca) similar to her dual roles in "A Stolen Life" (1946, with Glenn Ford). "Dead Ringer"'s premise is simple: good sister impulsively tries to step into shoes of deceased bad sister in an ill-conceived move to improve her own quality of life, without thinking of the inherent consequences. In this case, as in the case of "A Stolen Life", Davis inherits the dead bad sister's myriad mix of self-imposed problems, but with worse consequences.
And as veteran filmgoers have realized for many years, the family dog always knows who's who.
Karl Malden, as Davis' earnest boyfriend (and cop) Sgt. Jim Hobbson is basically re-enacting his earnest boyfriend characterization from "A Streetcar Named Desire", and Peter Lawford, who was a real-life playboy and drunk, (in addition to allegedly acting as a bit of a pimp for the Kennedys, circa the Marilyn Monroe/John F. Kennedy/Robert Kennedy liasons era), plays Tony Collins...the drunken playboy boyfriend of the dead bad sister, Margaret DeLorca.
"Dead Ringer" was made in an era of more rudimentary special effects, so Davis's two characters interacting almost face-to-face in some scenes was quite innovative for the time, well-done (better than the obvious stand-in used for some scenes) and still holds up well.
Fun times ensue for all. Classic Bette melodrama.
Movie Review: "To OUTAH SPACE!"
Summary: 4 Stars
The creepy yet memorable poster the studio released for DEAD RINGER of Bette Davis partially superimposed over a skull suggests its a horror film, but its really a kind of recap of 40s women's pictures with a few highly memorable Gothic elements in it. Davis was offered this role after the success of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, but it's much tamer than either that film or Davis's other entry into the Grandes Dames Guignol sweepstakes, HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE, and offers her more chances for more subtle acting moments. As in her 40s film for Warner's A STOLEN LIFE, Davis plays twin sisters, one of whom substitutes for the other when the richer twin is suddenly killed; in this instance, the down-at-heels Edie actually murders her wealthy sister Margaret so as to take her place.
The film is satisfyingly silly with wonderful camp elements: Edie intentionally grabbing a redhot poker so as not to be given away by her signature the next day at her lawyer's office; Edie wrestling with Margaret's corpse to take off her clothes and change her hairstyle; Edie loudly pretending to sing "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" with her dead sister when detective Karl malden is on her staircase; etc. These are the moments Charles Busch gets to celebrate hilariously in this DVD commentary (although he is disastrously paired with Bose Hadleigh who bores the audience blind with his incessant facts about every minor actor in the movie; Buschs hould have been allowed to do the commentary himself). One of the most interesting things about the film is that Margaret de Lorca moves in the circles of Los Angeles "Old California" moneyed society, a milieu rarely explored on film: thuis we get the pleasures of seeing Mildred Natwick (of all people) done up in a mantilla as "Dona Anna," the doyenne of this society. And Davis really does have some fine redemptive moments where she really gets the chance to show she's a fine actress, even when she's being manhandled by a elderly gigolo (Peter Lawford) or siccing her giant Great Dane on him.