Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

begob A murderer is caught bang to rights as witnesses saw her leaving the scene of the crime ... except nobody can tell her apart from her twin. How will the boys down at the station get themselves out of this pickle?Enjoyable murder mystery with an impressive performance by the lead actress in both twin roles. Being naive and uninformed I did not realise it was the same actress, even when the seam showed in a scene in front of a mirror as the story geared up for the climax. I was fooled the same way by The Devil's Double.The story is probably too neat, the psychological angle too simple, but the mood is just right while the lead actress raises the tension with her sometimes manic, sometimes icy menace. Helped along by good dialogue and pace.The score sets the tone in the opening pan of the murder scene and never overwhelms.Overall, a pleasure to watch albeit lightweight.

Leofwine_draca In its depiction of a pair of twins, one of whom is a psychotic killer, THE DARK MIRROR is a film very much ahead of its time. It's an engrossing period piece that benefits greatly from a fine performance from Olivia de Havilland playing the twins, Terry and Ruth Collins. Accompanied by some excellent back projection work (you won't see the seams!), you never stop believing for a second that both twins are separate people.Elsewhere, the plotting is fairly ordinary for a film noir type thriller. There are the flat-footed policemen getting nowhere, a dedicated shrink who finds himself falling for the murder suspect(s) and some effectively grim, doom-laden atmosphere from director Robert Siodmak. It's the sort of film somebody like David Cronenberg would have been making had he been working during the 1940s. The twist ending is particularly strong.

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

Neil Doyle Fans of this movie will be delighted to know that the new DVD release from Olive Films is in pristine condition and makes viewing it a double pleasure, especially for de Havilland fans.THE DARK MIRROR ('46) is a brisk, supercharged 85 minutes, a taut psychological suspense tale directed by Robert Siodmak (who directed THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE and THE KILLERS). Dimitri Tiomkin's clever background score is an added bonus.It stars Olivia de Havilland in a fascinating dual role as Ruth and Terry Collins, sisters involved in the murder of a doctor they were both dating. When good sister Ruth gives her bad twin an alibi, detective Thomas Mitchell asks psychiatrist Lew Ayres to determine which twin could be the killer, based on their differing personalities. Of course he falls in love with the good twin and solves the case in an effective ending which gives de Havilland the chance to do some real emoting. A clever scene has the bad twin pretending to be the good one in a serious talk with doctor Ayres in which he reveals what makes the psycho sister tick.It's a double-layered cat-and-mouse scene in which he is really talking about her (not her sister) and de Havilland's reactions are fascinating to watch. Thomas Mitchell is excellent as a relentless but befuddled detective unhappy with the game the sisters are playing. Richard Long has a small role as an admirer of one of the twins--or is it both of them? Bit roles are well played with occasional flashes of humor and the whole thing moves swiftly under Siodmak's tight direction.By the way, 1946 was a strong year for de Havilland. After being off the screen for more than two years due to legal action against Warner Bros., she suddenly had four films in release: DEVOTION (as Charlotte Bronte), THE WELL GROOMED BRIDE, TO EACH HIS OWN and THE DARK MIRROR, entering a four-year period climaxed at the end of the decade by THE SNAKE PIT and THE HEIRESS--and two Oscars.Summing up: two Olivia de Havilland's are better than one. Life magazine reported that she "contributes to the impression gained from TO EACH HIS OWN that she is the actress to beat for this year's Academy Award."