MovieChat Forums > The Dark Mirror (1947) Discussion > Was 1946 a great year for Olivia? You b...

Was 1946 a great year for Olivia? You bet!

posted 20 years ago by Doylenf
14 replies | jump to latest

1946 marked a "comeback" year for Olivia de Havilland after winning her freedom from her seven year Warner Bros. contract.

She returned in a popular romantic comedy THE WELL GROOMED BRIDE with Ray Milland and Sonny Tufts but then went straight into TO EACH HIS OWN (which would win her a first Best Actress Oscar), THE DARK MIRROR (an interesting dual role as twin sisters with Lew (Dr. Kildare) Ayres returning from the war for his first post-war assignment); then Warner Bros. finally released DEVOTION, the Bronte biography with Olivia as Charlotte Bronte.

Her return in four films made her fans happy after the more than two year absence. THE DARK MIRROR is an enjoyable noir melodrama, and one critic called it "Olivia's finest hour" as an actress. Well worth watching!

[–] csu16387 19 years ago

I saw The Dark Mirror last night, and Olivia de Havilland was once again stellar. These are two extremely demanding parts, and in a way she plays them with such ease. I wonder why she was never in a Hitchcock film? Olivia might have been nominated, and possibly have won, for this film if not for To Each His Own (her Oscar-winning performance in which she was equally superb).

"Dry your eyes baby, it's out of character."

[–] Doylenf 18 years ago

Like her sister, JOAN FONTAINE, Olivia would have been great in a Hitchcock film. He did want her for a couple of his: SHADOW OF A DOUBT and I CONFESS--but it never happened.

She proved, in films like THE DARK MIRROR, HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE and MY COUSIN RACHEL, that she excelled at playing other than sweet heroines--although she never had that hard sort of edge that Joan Crawford, Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck had. Even so, she was good at playing ambiguous women of mystery.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Doylenf 16 years ago

Actually, she almost was nominated for THE DARK MIRROR. Her agent asked her which film she'd like them to push for a Best Actress nomination, and she had to choose between THE DARK MIRROR and TO EACH HIS OWN. She thought the latter offered a wider range, so that's what they decided on.

BTW, Life magazine said, of THE DARK MIRROR, "She contributes to the impression gained from TO EACH HIS OWN, that she is the actress to beat for this year's Academy Award."

"Somewhere along the line, the world has lost all of its standards and all of its taste."

[–] Noir-It-All 15 years ago

I found this at my public library and I'm glad I did. If you read about film noir, this title appears often.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

[–] csu16387 15 years ago

I didn't know that info. Thanks for sharing!

I'm dying to see this movie again. Our library doesn't have a copy of this movie anymore. Hopefully, TCM will air The Dark Mirror in the future.

"Now what kind of man are YOU dude?"

[–] Xcalat3 17 years ago

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

[–] franzkabuki 14 years ago

De Havilland´s absolutely brilliant in The Dark Mirror - and this is the first movie I saw her in. There´ll certainly be more. As for 1946 however, then this appears to be some kinda charmed year for director Siodmak at least as far as I´m concerned - within one month I´ve seen The Killers and now this and been blown away by both. Now I´magonna get and watch his third feature from 1946, The Spiral Staircase. Would be quite remarkable to rate 3 movies from the same year, from the same director 9/10... or higher.

Oh and btw this obnoxiously underrated The Dark Mirror is the creepiest film I´ve seen in a long time; felt kind of like reading them Agatha Christie murder mysteries as a kid - always there´s this drive to prolong the solution, to go over the stuff once more and yeah, got bloody scared when this two twins conducted their transactions in the stark shadows of their bedroom. A beautifully photographed thing.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] Errington_92 12 years ago

Although The Dark Mirror became predictable in its latter stages nobody can fault De Havilland's performance as the twin sisters. It takes a great amount of ability to convincingly play two contrasting roles in the same film.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".

[–] ridge-m-1 8 years ago

You must have ESP. This film provides a superb twist at the end.

[–] deRider84 12 years ago

Olivia was fine in that stilted 40s way, and I imagine the extensive use of split screen was quite innovative for its time. However, the film's idea of pop psychology was no less cringeworthy than in Hitchcock's idiotic Spellbound and Marnie. Viewed through modern eyes, the story feels hopelessly predictable and full of cliches in general. It's not even particularly tense, since the sisters and the doctor are all such uninteresting one-dimensional archetypes. And far from being an ingenious way to tell the twins apart, the name tags were embarrassingly, unintentionally comical.

Still, nice chiaroscuro. 6.5/10.

[–] pacificboy 10 years ago

To each his own (no pun intended), but Spellbound is hardly "idiotic." It's widely -- and rightly -- regarded as one of Hitchcock's masterpieces. I'm no fan of Marnie, but "idiotic" isn't a word I find appropriate there, either.

Your criticisms seem broad enough to take in most films of this era; why do you bother to watch them?

"You liked Rashomon."
"That's not how I remember it."

[–] marhefka 10 years ago

@pacificboy.

Good post. I'm one of those who after a movie, someone is explaining parts of it to me. In this movie, I still don't understand how they knew that Terry was the killer. I get it that Terry thought Ruth was dead and she pretended to be Ruth and somehow implicated herself. And the music box. I don't even remember it being in the movie until the very end.

[–] DorianGray502 9 years ago

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