The Dark Mirror

A woman is suspected of murder… or was it her twin sister?  Olivia de Havilland does a very good job in the double role.  Movies of this nature have a fine line to walk between being clever and not making the audience too hyper-aware of how clever it’s being.  Moon, for example, pulls it off beautifully.  This film… not so much, but it doesn’t get too gimmicky.  There are a couple of attention-calling shots, especially involving mirrors, but for the most part it’s simple technique like split-screen and body doubles that isn’t too distracting.  The story is compelling enough, with Lew Ayres as the psychiatrist trying to untangle the mystery.  It exploits the twin angle fairly well, although I wish the psychology had been a bit more subtle.  Also, the Tiomkin score is pretty bad.  When Mitchell says, “Don’t make any more sense to me than Chinese music,” of course there’s a little snatch of a stereotypical Oriental theme.  At other times it’s just too oppressive.  Still, despite the flaws, it’s a rather enjoyable movie, thanks mostly to de Havilland and Siodmak’s terrific sense of visual style.  Rating: 8

IMDb