Dead Ringer

1964 "What Bette Davis does to Bette Davis and to Karl Malden and Peter Lawford in DEAD RINGER is just what "Baby Jane" people will adore!"
7.3| 1h55m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 19 February 1964 Released
Producted By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

The working class twin sister of a callous wealthy woman impulsively murders her out of revenge and assumes the identity of the dead woman. But impersonating her dead twin is more complicated and risky than she anticipated.

Genre

Drama, Thriller, Crime

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Director

Paul Henreid

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Pictures

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Dead Ringer Audience Reviews

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
bkoganbing Among her contemporaries Bette Davis is the only one I know who managed to carry off playing twin sisters twice in films. The first time was in A Stolen Life and in 1964 she did it again in Dead Ringer. The first time she was a good and a bad twin, but in Dead Ringer both twins commit evil acts during the course of the movie.Bette's former co-star Paul Henreid directed her in Dead Ringer with co- stars Karl Malden and Peter Lawford. Back in the day one twin stole the man the other was in love with because he was rich, prosperous, and part of old California society. That one got rich, the other never married and now lives owning a bar that she's way behind in debt with.When the husband dies the bar owner learns that back in the day he was tricked into marriage with a false pregnancy story and as the family was Catholic he married her and couldn't divorce. That sets the bar owner into a murderous frenzy and she kills the widow and then assumes her place while she also fakes a suicide story.With a few bumps along the way Bette settles into the other Bette's life. Then a lowlife boyfriend played by Peter Lawford comes back in the picture. Lawford is a gigolo/golf pro and he and society Bette have some deep secrets. The rest you can see for yourself.Oddly enough A Stolen Life also involved a twin taking another's place and as for the rest of the story, if you know what happens in The Postman Always Rings Twice you know what happens here.With the possible exception of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, Dead Ringer maybe Davis's best film of the Sixties. She throws herself into both roles so well that it like watching twins in action. She also has a nice group of supporting players in roles they are well cast in. But this one is Bette's show.Watch her steal another life.
st-shot Well past her peak as a star but not her aptitude for deviousness Bette Davis gives you your money's worth in this stilted suspense drama that jerks along under the less than inspired direction of old smoking buddy Paul Henreid. Dead Ringer has some interesting plot twists but it is a long way from The Letter and William Wyler.Living in the back of a bar and stewing over the fact twin sister Blanche got the man and the money intended for her Edie DeLorca hatches a plan to off sis after her husband dies. She has a few close calls but pulls it off fooling everyone except Tony (Peter Lawford) Blanche's lover who she was unaware existed. Like John Barrymore, Davis over the top performances late in her career may have bordered on self parody but they still remained interesting and entertaining. Like Norma Desmond said the pictures got small and Dead Ringer is just that but Bette's presence looms large. What better an actress to try and pull off such an audacious deception than Ms. Davis? Even as the film becomes more implausible Bette remains the glue that keeps it absorbing.Henreid's lifeless direction is also evident in the flat acting of Karl Malden as Edie's police sergeant beau and Lawford's smarmy gigolo. Estelle Winwood chips in a biting eccentric performance as well but the films center remains Davis, weathered by time but still as defiant and as absorbing as ever to observe.
dan-2522 This is movie of a type they don't make any more- regrettably. It goes way beyond melodrama and has a plot with twists and turns that is way beyond most movies nowadays. The script is clever as opposed to contrived and keeps the tension up right up till the end. Undeniably this movie is a star vehicle for Bette Davis who carries off the dual roles of two sisters with amazing ease and aplomb. The supporting actors - Karl Malden & Peter Lawford are similarly excellent. Made at a time when special effects were still pretty rudimentary- it is all the more "clever" for the seamless way in which some scenes are covered. Fans of other Davis's films of the 60's that reached into the bizarre, horror genres - this one stands with the best of them. I highly recommend it.
Claudio Carvalho In Los Angeles, after eighteen years without speaking to each other, Edith Phillips meets her twin sister Margaret de Lorca (Bette Davis) in the funeral of Maggie's husband and former love of Edith that died of heart attack. Maggie invites Edith to visit her mansion, and Edith finds through her sister's driver that Maggie used a fake pregnancy to trick her and marry her passion. When Edith arrives in her bar, she is evicted by her landlord. Edith calls Maggie, kills her and assumes her identity. The police, including her boyfriend Sergeant Jim Hobbson (Karl Malden), believe that Edith committed suicide in an act of despair. Edith lures Maggie's servants and friends, but when Maggie's lover Tony Collins (Peter Lawford) appears, the situation becomes complicated for her."Dead Ringer" is a great film-noir, with thriller and black humor in an ironic story where justice is reached through the wrong and unexpected way. I have never had the chance to see the original Mexican movie "La Otra", but this remake is magnificently supported by the awesome Bette Davis, performing double and ambiguous roles that permit her to be rich, poor, simple, sophisticated, killer and victim. Her final line to Jim Hobbson ("-She wouldn't hurt a fly!") gives a bitter touch of class and irony to the conclusion of this enjoyable film. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Alguém Morreu em Meu Lugar" ("Somebody Died in My Place")