Watch The Dark Mirror For Free

Very best movie i ever watch

Sorry, this movie sucks

People are voting emotionally.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Psychologist works with the police in determining which of two sisters committed a murder--the trouble is, the ladies are identical twins, with one sibling apparently covering up for the other. Good optical effects and editing can't quite make this scenario convincing, particularly as Olivia de Havilland is wide-eyed and artificial in both her incarnations; the histrionic schlock music rising up in the background doesn't help, either. Director Robert Siodmak's work is hit-and-miss: he handles doctor Lew Ayres' investigation scenes well, however the opening interviews in the police station are awfully corny. Nunnally Johnson adapted his screenplay from an original story by Vladimir Pozner (who alone was Oscar-nominated). The plot builds to a melodramatic boil, yet the final tally isn't all that intriguing. ** from ****

I hadn't seen this film in years until tonight, and I love it as much as ever. I had an acting teacher who used to say that Olivia de Havilland was held back because she played Melanie, that she was a fantastic actress and capable of so much more but had a hard time getting those meatier roles. But she did, and she truly was one of the great actresses of the classic era, not to mention one of the great beauties.De Havilland stars as twins, Terry and Ruth. When Dr. Frank Peralta is found stabbed in his apartment, two neighbors swear to the veteran Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) that Ruth Collins is the murderer, as witnesses saw her leaving his apartment.Alas, Ruth has an alibi, and three witnesses confirm she was listening to a concert in the park the night of the murder. When Stevenson visits Ruth in her apartment, he discovers that she has an identical twin sister, Terry.The prosecutor discourages Stevenson from building a case, because how is he going to prove which one of the women did it? He decides to investigate on his own, and asks Dr. Scott Elliot, who knows the women, to help him. Scott has been studying twins for years.Scott gives the twins a series of tests. And he discovers that one of the twins is crazy.Psychology was a big thing post-war, and "Dark Mirror" is another example of a psychological story. Some of it to today's audience will sound a little lame, but that does not deter from the film being entertaining.Olivia de Havilland creates two distinct women in Terry and Ruth. People have been asking for years how the two Olivias intertwined on the couch. It probably was a cut and paste job, but it was fantastic - makes you realize what ingenuity filmmakers needed before computers.Lew Ayres as another doctor - well, that did seem to be his lot in life; he was even a medic in World War II. A delightful, easy actor with a sweet personality, he really rose out of the ashes after being a conscientious objector, even winning an Oscar. Thomas Mitchell is very good as the detective in charge.All in all, highly entertaining and a chance to see Olivia de Havilland at her absolute peak. Looking at her, I was struck by how good she would have been as Blanche Dubois in Streetcar, which would premiere on Broadway a few years later. A missed opportunity.

Released in 1946 - It seems that these days we are all too familiar with the movie-scenario of identical twins where one is innocently "good", while the other is deceptively (and murderously) "evil".But way back in the 1940s (nearly 70 years ago) this sort of intriguing plot-line was really quite fresh and its possibilities were far from being fully explored and exploited.Though it contained some dramatically intense moments, I found The Dark Mirror to be too cut & dry to be considered great entertainment.At times its story was very weak and clichéd. And even though the visual effects (showing the 2 De Havilland characters together) were exceptionally convincing, this film (due to its somewhat heavy-handed psychiatric angle) contained far too much senseless psycho-babble and Freudian-related analysis in it to be at all entertaining to the average movie-goer.I also agree 100% with the point that Dalbert Pringle made in his review about the absolute tackiness of a psychiatrist having an affair with one of his patience. That certainly reduced this film's appeal significantly.Filmed in b&w, The Dark Mirror had a rather short running time of only 85 minutes. It was directed by Robert Siodmak whose other films of the 1940s included Son Of Dracula, The Spiral Staircase and The Killers.

As stated in everyone's write-ups, this is a story of a murder with a twist; the perp is one of two identical twins. One alibis for the other, and since both can't be prosecuted for the crime, the guilty one walks. This does not sit well with Insp. Thomas Mitchell, who tries to think of a way to implicate the guilty one - whichever one that is. And so he enlists the help of psychiatrist Lew Ayres.At first, the murder is presented as an unsolvable conundrum and in a light-hearted vein, but things get serious thereafter and, unfortunately, the plot begins to bog down over some technical psychological data. But Olivia DeHavilland saves the day and the movie with a splendid performance (or two) as the twins. Gradually there appear personality differences so that even the audience can tell the difference between the two. Not many actresses could have pulled off the layered performances of the twins, but not many actresses are as proficient or as skilled as DeHavilland.This is another neglected gem from Universal's cobwebbed movie vaults that needs to be put into circulation by that comatose studio. It is one of Ms. DeHavilland's best performances and raises an average, talky movie to classic status.