[ April 25, 2024 ]
Tonight’s Saturdy Night Cinema is the 1946 psychological thriller The Dark Mirror starring Olivia de Havilland .“Twins! One who loves…and one who love to kill!” That was the dramatic tagline that advertised this film noir.
Impressively unusual thriller with typically simplistic Freudian elements as psychiatrist Ayres is called in by the police to help investigate a murder committed by one of two identical twins…but which one? Intriguing cat-and-mouse games and perverse power struggles as both he and we try to fathom which of the sisters is the warped psycho, with de Havilland (in the dual role) and Siodmak managing admirably to counteract the contrived plot. What really makes it work, though, is Siodmak’s firm grasp of mood and suspense; the opening scene, in which the camera prowls a darkened room until it finds a corpse, sets the tone perfectly for the sense of uncertainty and chaos that follows.
Siodmak’s direction shows his experience in German Expressionistic film – making The Dark Mirror a satisfying noir to look at. It’s all mirrors and dark corners in a contemporary city setting. And his interest is in the disturbed mind more than the murder mystery. You can tell that right from the beginning with the film’s titles over Rorschach ink blots. The film itself is kind of a Rorschach test. Watch it once and it’s a simplistic murder mystery with a romantic happy ending. Watch it again and you may see something else.
Story continues below advertisementLeading the investigation is a bumbling detective (Thomas Mitchell – the simpleton who ruined Jimmy Stewart’s life in It’s a Wonderful Life), an unethical doctor (meeting with his patients outside of his office. Immediately becoming romantically involved with one. Sucking on candy like it’s an addiction. And played by Lew Ayres – a guy the public didn’t exactly have big love affair with. This was the former “Doctor Kildare”s first film back from being blacklisted for being a conscientious objector in World War II.) Honestly, these two men are not to be trusted! But it’s 1946 and it’s the fairer sex that’s causing the trouble. (Film Noir of the Week)
https://youtu.be/fm-TDYFrrRI
Opening with a promising gait, the pic [from a story by Vladimir Pozner] gets lost in a maze of psychological gadgets and speculation that slow it down. Olivia de Havilland, playing a twin role, carries the central load of the picture. She’s cast simultaneously as a sweet, sympathetic girl and her vixenish, latently insane twin sister. A murder is committed and while one girl has been positively identified as coming out of the man’s apartment on the night of the murder, the other establishes a fool-proof alibi.(variety)
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18 Comments
4 years ago
Pam understood destructive dualism,
and her “Janus-faced Gemini mind”.
Although this allows her to look at
things from different perspectives.
But we cannot avoid it forever, we must choose
light or shadow, every second of our existence.
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
Our shady sides are our weaker self (inner child)
that has finally to be overcome. Whoever fights it
makes it the more stronger and mightier, feeds it.
Important to get from blaming parent and guilty child
ego (transaction analysis) into responsible adult ego.
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
Another plausible at-
tempt at explanation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpman_drama_triangle
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
Ultimately, we only ever see the beauty or ugliness within
ourselves. He who expects good will receive good, and
vice versa. Whoever wants to reap love must sow joy.
http://omswami.com/2016/01/the-hall-of-one-thousand-mirrors.html
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
It’s about creating a selfish “feel-good filter.” Someone said,
don’t look at the negative if possible, but look at the positive
infinitely. Do it like the sundial, just count the cheerful hours.
Even if others morally blackmail you to make you feel bad!
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
It’s the only way to get true compassion. He who has inner strength can also look
at suffering without it grabbing and eating you up. He has learned to separate
himself from others and to distinguish between the inner and outer world.
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4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
The picture symbolizes a “man” who feels at the mercy of the wo-
man’s power over him. He has gone into his little boat and laid his
fate completely in her hands, is the “evil woman” to blame for this?
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
A picture that at least radiates “equality of arms” would dimension
man $ woman equally. The fundamental inferiority complex (presu-
mably sexual bondage) has thereby betrayed itself for all the world.
It is again about deceptive, even pathological illusion and idealization.
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
Women really seem to hate me when I deprive them of their ridi-
culous childish romantic illusions. And yet respect me for it. Often
a self-confident mature man has never faced and met them before.
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
Recently a mature woman tried to bewitch me with her bitchy voice on the telephone.
However, I treated her just kind and friendly, without going into her sexual advances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
What are these women to do without a lifetime
of coveting men they can’t have? Their always
lonely hearts don’t belong even to themselves.
4 years ago
Havilland certainly co-
mes from “Havelland”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:De_Havilland_family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelland
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
The Knight of Kahlbutz is
at home in the Havelland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Friedrich_von_Kahlbutz
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
Today’s Europe exists only
because of Charlemagne.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne
4 years ago
Reply to
Marc
Is Olivia actually celebrating
her 103rd birthday tomorrow?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_de_Havilland
4 years ago
news tip Pam,
This is a pig flying moment from the BBC. Watch episode 3 and 4 of this 4 part series. Muslim drugs gang members saying they are targeting white Christians in the North of England. The same place where the muslim pedophile gangs were.
This was shown on BBC TV, and the programme was made by a British Pakistani.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07brjf8/hometown-a-killing-series-1-1-a-killing
This is big, I mean for the BBC to show this,
The British people are waking up to the Islamic threat. The american media have not yet reported on this BBC drama.
