Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

mrb1980 Bette Davis is the whole show in this film that again recycles the "evil twin" plot. Two sisters, Margaret (rich, widowed, and condescending), and Edie (poor and slovenly) begin to talk again after years of estrangement. Because of a simmering grudge over Margaret's late husband, Edie kills Margaret and assumes her identity and lavish lifestyle. Margaret's boyfriend Tony (Peter Lawford) soon figures out the switch, tries blackmail, and is mauled to death by Margaret's huge dog. Karl Malden plays Edie's police detective boyfriend, and although he's good, Malden just looks confused all the time. Since no one could get away with crime in a 1964 movie, Edie is sentenced to death as Margaret for poisoning her husband!The movie moves along swiftly, aided by such old pros as Jean Hagen, Ken Lynch, and George Macready. There's a strange subplot about religion that really doesn't add very much to the plot. However, watching Peter Lawford wrestling with a stuffed dog head is worth the price of admission. There's also very good direction by Davis' old costar Paul Henreid. It's no classic, but this is wonderful for fans of Davis, who easily steals the show.

Movie Critic This would have gotten a 10 if Davis had pulled off the crime but this is Hollywood and that can't be damn.I love this type noirish movie---yes it is a bit of a run on attraction from Baby Jane but it is still decent.It just irks me that Hollywood never lets them get away with things there was a very similar movie Hollow Triumph that is worth watching.To get a movie where the bad guys win you need to turn to cynical Europe...The Double Hour is good. This is a lot better than Sunset Boulevard...watchRecommend.

bkoganbing Among her contemporaries Bette Davis is the only one I know who managed to carry off playing twin sisters twice in films. The first time was in A Stolen Life and in 1964 she did it again in Dead Ringer. The first time she was a good and a bad twin, but in Dead Ringer both twins commit evil acts during the course of the movie.Bette's former co-star Paul Henreid directed her in Dead Ringer with co- stars Karl Malden and Peter Lawford. Back in the day one twin stole the man the other was in love with because he was rich, prosperous, and part of old California society. That one got rich, the other never married and now lives owning a bar that she's way behind in debt with.When the husband dies the bar owner learns that back in the day he was tricked into marriage with a false pregnancy story and as the family was Catholic he married her and couldn't divorce. That sets the bar owner into a murderous frenzy and she kills the widow and then assumes her place while she also fakes a suicide story.With a few bumps along the way Bette settles into the other Bette's life. Then a lowlife boyfriend played by Peter Lawford comes back in the picture. Lawford is a gigolo/golf pro and he and society Bette have some deep secrets. The rest you can see for yourself.Oddly enough A Stolen Life also involved a twin taking another's place and as for the rest of the story, if you know what happens in The Postman Always Rings Twice you know what happens here.With the possible exception of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, Dead Ringer maybe Davis's best film of the Sixties. She throws herself into both roles so well that it like watching twins in action. She also has a nice group of supporting players in roles they are well cast in. But this one is Bette's show.Watch her steal another life.

jimddddd Back in 1948 Paul Henreid produced and starred in "Hollow Triumph," a.k.a. "The Scar," the story of a criminal on the run who murders and disposes of a psychiatrist he closely resembles, in order to assume the man's identity. But soon he discovers there are people out to kill the psychiatrist. And now, in 1964, Henreid reworks the same basic story, this time with aging Bette Davis playing twin sisters, one of whom kills and replaces the other, only to find that her sister has a fatal secret of her own. Like so many B-movies of the 1960s, "Dead Ringer" has the flat look and glacial pacing of a TV mystery, which is no surprise since Henreid by this time was a busy television director. It would have been a much better picture if he had trimmed about twenty minutes.