It’s been part of my elaborate plan not to binge on every film Bette Davis has ever made, in order to draw them out and enjoy them as something new and undiscovered from time to time. Hence my willful ignorance of the gem that is ‘Dead Ringer’. It came after her success in ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’ which makes it particularly interesting for those of us who enjoyed that period of her film work. This isn’t the greatest movie, but Davis gives it her usual bravado, and wears two of the greatest feather-fringed robes that cinematic history has ever witnessed. That alone makes it worth the watch.
She portrays twins, so you get double the bang for your Bette buck, and there’s even a grand staircase which she ascends and descends several times – another hallmark of every great Davis film. While such artifice and superficial-posturing is what initially draws me to most Davis movies, there’s a bit of a riveting storyline at work too, and it drew me in until the very end. Check off another box for my Gay-of-a-Certain-Age Card.
