Very Cool!!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

In the past, I tended to avoid Bette Davis movies because something about her rubbed me the wrong way. So I don't know why I sat down to watch "Dead Ringer", but I am glad that I did. I have to admit that Davis gave a very good performance in both of her roles, making her characters not quite sympathetic, but interesting enough that you keep watching in order to see what will happen to them. Though the fact that the production code was still in effect will tell you what will eventually happen long before it does, director Paul Henreid puts plenty of life and interesting developments along the way that keeps you watching.The movie is good enough to be worth watching. However, I did have a couple of minor quibbles with the movie:(1) At nearly two hours in length, the movie is a bit long. While the movie never gets boring or tedious, and that every scene does provide a purpose, I do think that several scenes could have been cut down in length slightly to make the pace somewhat brisker.(2) The main character does not find herself in serious trouble until the last twenty minutes of the movie. Up to that point, she does have some challenges, but manages to quickly solve them. I think the movie would have been better had the screws slowly been tightened as we followed the main character, leading to tension growing bit by bit.Despite those quibbles, as I said earlier, the movie is worth a look.

"Dead Ringer" is a Bette Davis suspense/horror film reminiscent of both her old studio melodramas and the "shock" cinema wave of the era that began with Hitchcock's "Psycho." Neither element works here and the movie's glacier-like pace makes it almost unwatchable.I'm a big fan of Davis from her glory days at Warner, and I can even appreciate her camp/schlock period, with movies like "The Nanny" and "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" but "Dead Ringer" is dead on arrival: Bette plays a dual role of twin sisters, and the movie opens with a dull, extended conversation between the two... it's Bette vs. Bette, but neither one of them has anything interesting to say."Edith" eventually kills her twin and assumes her identity, for no other reason than she was three months behind on her rent. Now Bette has to fool everyone into believing the death was a suicide, and that she is not Edith but Margaret, her sister. Confused? Good. It's such an outrageous plot twist- and handled with such indifference by the director- that it seems more like a nuisance than a heart-pounding, white-knuckled thrill ride.And a note on the direction: Actor Paul Henreid was behind the camera, and seems to have been suffering from narcolepsy. Scenes run on and on, there are extended wordless, action-free sequences, and the pace of the film is like a funeral procession. It meanders... it trods along... it doesn't seem like anyone involved is invested in the story in any way. Even the great Karl Malden shows up and can't save the movie with one of his typically-stellar performances.If you want to watch Bette Davis at her worst for two solid hours in a story that goes nowhere, this is the movie for you. Otherwise, move along.GRADE: D

A curiously subdued and leisurely-paced melodrama starring Bette Davis in a dual role. Albert Beich and Oscar Millard concocted the enjoyably contrived screenplay, based upon Rian James' short story "Dead Pigeon", involving estranged twin sisters--one wealthy and haughty, the other poor and noble--who reunite at the funeral of the rich twin's husband. Davis had played lookalikes before (in 1946's "A Stolen Life), and even earlier did the good sister-bad sister routine (in 1942's "In This Our Life"); still, she brings her considerable star-wattage to this tale, doing grand justice to the musty 'impersonation' bit while providing a fascinating wallow for her fans. The film starts off with a bang, but director Paul Henreid (Davis' co-star in "Now, Voyager") is too fussy and smooth to keep the kinetic charge going. Karl Malden is his usual blustery self playing a police sergeant who's always on the scene at just the right moment, ditto Peter Lawford as a gigolo, but Davis rides high above the clichés and carries the movie on her stalwart shoulders. *** from ****

This is movie of a type they don't make any more- regrettably. It goes way beyond melodrama and has a plot with twists and turns that is way beyond most movies nowadays. The script is clever as opposed to contrived and keeps the tension up right up till the end. Undeniably this movie is a star vehicle for Bette Davis who carries off the dual roles of two sisters with amazing ease and aplomb. The supporting actors - Karl Malden & Peter Lawford are similarly excellent. Made at a time when special effects were still pretty rudimentary- it is all the more "clever" for the seamless way in which some scenes are covered. Fans of other Davis's films of the 60's that reached into the bizarre, horror genres - this one stands with the best of them. I highly recommend it.