Lack of good storyline.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

I love 1940's melodramas in general, let alone pseudo psychological studies. Speaking of breaking confidentialities! And simplistic diagnostic evaluations. Oh, well - nevertheless it was fun seeing Olivia torment herself at every turn. Probably wishing it were Joan playing opposite her. The questioning of the witnesses in the beginning had some nice characters playing their parts with an air of rightness. Olivia is a bit cloying at times in any of her movies when she is emphasizing the sweet side of her nature rather than just trusting her innate nice self. And when she goes evil, she can pull that off as well, letting that side come out. Thomas Mitchell as often as not can walk away with a movie and he went in that direction here. A little too claustrophobic even with their being many different settings. I like Robert Siodmak's directorial decisions in all of his movies and Nunnally Johnson writes good scripts as a rule. This one was of its time and sounds pretty naive now. But it is fun and nice way of showing both of them, the 2 Olivia's in the same shot vying for screen time. Get some popcorn, stretch out and enjoy yourself.

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

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.

A blend of suspense and dark romance, The Dark Mirror is a well acted film which at most showcases the impressive acting ability of Olivia De Havilland.Starting as a darkly atmospheric piece after a murder is committed, the investigation quickly moves onto a suspect named Collins, a woman who was a known associate of the murder victim. However the apparently simple investigation goes into a tailspin when it's revealed Collins is one half of identical twins. It must have been a daunting task as a performer to take on the roles of protagonist and antagonist in the same film yet Olivia De Havilland pulls it off to great conviction. Playing the parts of Terry, a cunning and manipulative psychopath and Terry's twin Ruth, a shy and more naive woman. By changing her mannerisms, vocal tone and demeanour for both roles De Havilland showed to spectacular range of her acting ability.Although the acting on show by De Havilland and others in The Dark Mirror was top standard, the same cannot be said for the narrative. It starts off well with the dilemma of identical twins causing The Dark Mirror to become a gripping mysterious piece along with the wise cracking dialogue between Detective Stevenson and Terry adding to the film's aura. Yet when the narrative shifts from thriller to dark romance with the introduction of Doctor Elliot, a man who falls for Ruth yet bitters Terry into jealously, The Dark Mirror becomes tedious due to its predictability. Although the acting throughout the romantic portion of the narrative makes for emotional involvement it also makes the actions of Terry, Ruth and Doctor Elliot predictable resulting in being able to know the narrative's outcome before its reached.On a lighter note The Dark Mirror has a good amount of comic relief served up by Thomas Mitchell as Detective Stevenson, whose wise cracks create breathing space from the drama and earlier on has great chemistry with De Havilland as her more sinister character. Unfortunately this tense relationship is under developed due to relatively small role Mitchell plays here. The comic relief also comes in the revelation of Collins being an identical twin particularly for the witnesses who are dazed by this fact resulting in a few laughs on the audience's part.Although story wise The Dark Mirror is not the most superb of films, it does not get in the way of the fine acting on display which for a time entices us into the narrative.