The Dark Mirror
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Robert Siodmak
Olivia De Havilland
Lew Ayres
Thomas Mitchell
Richard Long
Charles Evans
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When a prominent physician is found stabbed to death, police detective Stevenson's investigation leads him directly to magazine store clerk Terry Collins, who works in the doctor's office building and is identified by co-workers as the murdered man's girlfriend. Stevenson is puzzled by the conflicting descriptions of Terry he hears from people with whom she works, even that of another doctor, Scott Elliott. When Stevenson goes to Terry's apartment, she introduces him to her identical twin sister Ruth, and he understands the witness' discrepancies. The sisters admit that they often fill in for each other at the magazine stand, but when neither will confirm her whereabouts the night before, Stevenson arrests both. During a police lineup, however, none of the eyewitnesses can tell the sisters apart, so Stevenson is forced to release them. Ruth is nervous and upset by the incident, while Terry is angry. Stevenson seeks assistance from Scott, who was consulting with the murdered doctor on the topic of split personalities. Stevenson is sure one of the twins committed the murder and wants Scott's help in proving it. Scott explains it is possible to do character analysis tests to indicate whether either sister has the proper psychological makeup to commit murder. Claiming that he is conducting the research on sibling personalities, Scott then asks Ruth and Terry if they will participate in a study. Ruth is wary of the procedure and refuses, but Terry accepts and soon reveals that she was the murdered doctor's girl friend. She also admits Ruth was willing to lie to protect her to keep them together, but denies having anything to do with the killing. At home Terry talks Ruth into enrolling in Scott's study and eventually Ruth agrees. Scott gives both the Rorschach ink blot test, in which each sister is asked to describe what she sees in a variety of ink blots. Later, Scott conducts a word association test and Ruth's linking the word "mirror" with "death" upsets Terry. Terry questions whether Ruth doubts her in any way, but Ruth denies it, although she remains uneasy about Scott's questioning and cannot sleep, a long-standing condition for which she regularly takes sleeping pills. Scott begins seeing Ruth casually outside of the office and comments about the deep-seated competitiveness between the two sisters. Mildly surprised, Ruth admits the only real difference between her and her sister is that Terry has never liked any of Ruth's boyfriends. At the end of one of their walks to the Collins' apartment, Scott kisses Ruth, which Terry observes from the window. Later, Terry asks Ruth if she has been feeling ill as, despite the sleeping pills, she is agitated each night, crying out. Ruth has no memory of any disturbing dreams and is upset by Terry's suggestion that she is worried about possible insanity, which is rumored to occur in twins. A little later, Scott conducts a final exam on each sister, a polygraph test. During Terry's test, Scott asks about Ruth's early boyfriends, and Terry's embellishments of Ruth's story cause the recorder to vacillate wildly, indicating she is lying. That night Ruth is startled out of her sleep and panicked by bright flashes, unaware that Terry intentionally has caused them. The next day, Scott informs Stevenson that his tests clearly indicate Ruth is incapable of committing murder, but that Terry is paranoic. Stevenson believes Ruth may be in some danger from her sister and asks Scott to tell Ruth the results immediately. Scott telephones the Collins', reaching Terry, who pretends to be her sister and promises to meet Scott that evening at his apartment. As Scott hangs up the phone, Ruth walks into his office, somewhat unsettled. Scott takes her out and she asks him if it is possible she is suffering a mental breakdown. He assures her she is mentally sound, but does not give her the examination results. Later after Ruth returns home, Scott calls Stevenson to tell him he is meeting Terry, who is pretending to be Ruth. When Terry arrives, masquerading as Ruth, Scott proceeds to give her the true test results, stating that Terry is never successful in romantic situations and that some childhood incident has provoked years of jealous resentment and hostility in her. After Terry grows furious at this diagnosis, Scott acknowledges her true identity, then accuses her of murdering the doctor. Terry responds by declaring that Ruth has suffered a nervous breakdown and committed the murder. Just then, Stevenson telephones from the sisters' apartment with disturbing news about Ruth and asks the two to come to the Collins' apartment. Upon their arrival, Stevenson announces that Ruth has committed suicide. Terry remains calm, claiming her sister was responsible for the murder and plagued by it. She then asserts that she is Ruth and that Terry killed the doctor out of jealousy, as he preferred Ruth. At the height of this confession, Ruth walks out of the bedroom and, in an hysterical fury, Terry throws an object at her sister's reflection in the mirror before collapsing. After Terry has been arrested, Stevenson explains to Ruth and Scott that he felt a trauma was necessary to force Terry's confession and that Scott was in as much danger from Terry as Ruth. When Stevenson departs, Scott comforts Ruth.
Director
Robert Siodmak
Cast
Olivia De Havilland
Lew Ayres
Thomas Mitchell
Richard Long
Charles Evans
Gary Owen
Lela Bliss
Lester Allen
Marta Mitrovich
Amelita Ward
William Halligan
Ida Moore
Charles Mcavoy
Jack Cheatham
Barbara Powers
Ralph Peters
Rodney Bell
Lane Watson
Ben Erway
Jean Andren
Jack Gargan
Lane Chandler
Crew
Leon Becker
Duncan Cramer
Harry Davis
Mary Freeman
Hugh Hunt
J. Devereaux Jennings
Arthur Johns
Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Johnson
Milton Krasner
Fred Lau
Paul Lerpae
Phyllis Loughton
Norbert Miles
Ernest Nims
Vladimir Pozner
Irene Sharaff
Dimitri Tiomkin
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Writing, Screenplay
Articles
The Dark Mirror - Olivia De Havilland as Twins - One Good, One Evil - in THE DARK MIRROR
It's hard to watch 1946's The Dark Mirror without sensing some unintentional subtext given the longstanding and legendary feud between De Havilland and her own real-life sister, Joan Fontaine. De Havilland is wonderfully understated and effective here, delivering a performance at least the equal of the one that earned her an Oscar the same year, To Each His Own. (Incredibly, she also appeared in two more films back to back with these before 1946 was out!)
1946 was also a banner year for director Robert Siodmak, whose classic adaptation of The Killers shortly preceded this film into theaters. A gifted German émigré with a knack for elevating lean narratives to the levels of pulp poetry, Siodmak had already proven his noir mettle with Phantom Lady (1944) and two fascinating horror/noir hybrids, Son of Dracula (1943) and The Spiral Staircase (1945), though arguably his greatest contribution to this cinematic style would come later with Criss Cross in 1949. In this films he manages to also overcome a hurdle that tripped up many of his peers, the use of Freudian psychoanalysis to move a thriller plot forward. In this case the use of Rorschach tests and casual therapy sessions merely serves as tools to differentiate two personalities rather than offering the key to unlocked a suppressed psychosis. There's no big traumatic revelation here, which makes this far easier for modern audiences to take than, say, Spellbound, whose portrayal of analysis is more than a little difficult to swallow.
Much of this credit can also be attributed to screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, the Georgia-born scribe who adapted The Grapes of Wrath (1940). He certainly isn't known for working on thrillers, though he did write the twisty The Woman in the Window for Fritz Lang two years earlier and would go on to another excellent De Havilland suspense vehicle, My Cousin Rachel (1952), as well as one of the rare genuine film noir titles in color, Black Widow (1954). Years after The Dark Mirror he again returned to the realm of psychology for another exploration of a twisted psyche with The Three Faces of Eve (1957), which would actually make for a fascinating double feature with this film.
A popular title on both TV and home video well into the 1980s (partially spurred on by a surprisingly entertaining made-for-TV remake in 1984 starring Jane Seymour), The Dark Mirror was available widely on VHS from Republic but dropped out of sight once the company's assets went through a series of rights changes. As with all of Siodmak's monochrome work in the '40s, this is a film that depends on a solid presentation for its full effectiveness; the shadows here should be deep but detailed, while the details in facial reactions and the textures of clothing add immeasurably to its impact. Fortunately the Olive Films edition (on Blu-Ray and DVD, but the former is easily the recommended option) gets it right with a strong high-definition transfer that's also one of the company's cleanest to date. The original elements appear to have been preserved in excellent shape, and any signs of wear and tear are very, very minimal. The mono track also sounds very robust, doing justice to the dramatic score by the great composer Dimitri Tiomkin. Like almost everyone else in this film, he was also having a very busy and notable year in 1946 by also going through additional emotional extremes on Duel in the Sun and It's a Wonderful Life!
For more information about The Dark Mirror, visit Olive Films. To order The Dark Mirror, go to TCM Shopping.
by Nathaniel Thompson
The Dark Mirror - Olivia De Havilland as Twins - One Good, One Evil - in THE DARK MIRROR
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The onscreen credit for Nunnally Johnson reads: "Produced and written for the screen by Nunnally Johnson." The Dark Mirror marked Lew Ayres's return to the screen after a four-year absence. Shortly after the U.S. entered the World War II, Ayres declared himself a conscientious objector and, as a result, was confined to an internment camp. He later requested a change in status from conscientious objector to "non-combatant" and joined the Army Medical Corps and served with distinction in the Pacific as a medical corps sergeant and chaplain's assistant. Ayres suggested he might take up the ministry when the war ended, but upon returning to the U.S. acknowledged the positive influence of motion pictures and decided that he could do the most good in the field in which he was trained. Ayres became a free agent in 1946, and although he was well received in this comeback role, made few films in the following years. For additional information about Ayres's postwar career please see the entries on Calling Dr. Kildare, Dr. Kildare's Victory and Fingers at the Window. For his work on the film, Vladimir Pozner received an Academy Award nomination in the Writing (Original Motion Picture Story) category. Olivia de Havilland recreated her roles as "Terry" and "Ruth" on a Screen Directors Playhouse radio broadcast on March 31, 1950.