Review of Dead Ringer (1964) by Juli N — 31 Aug 2014

When watching Dead Ringer, you have to remember that this was a point in time when Bette Davis was on a career rebound. She had just had some big success with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and she was being offered a lot of projects at the time.

The trouble was that she was offered many of the same types of roles: crazy and disturbed women doing despicable things. This film really isn't an exception. Although it feels slightly like Paul Henreid had Psycho in mind when he was cutting the film together, the film itself is just a mediocre sort of thriller.

Davis does some nice work, but the twists and turns in the storyline feel like they're trying too hard, but it also feels like they didn't really know what to do with the premise. It's executed well enough, but it feels lacking, as if half the script was cut out before shooting began.

There's no real payoff in the end, despite the so-called "twist ending." It's not a terrible movie at all, but it lacks a little in the story department mostly.