DEAD RINGER has spite-infected Bette Davis knocking back a decent thriller in 1964, playing twin sisters, neither of whom are exemplars of decency, under the direction of her old Now, Voyager comrade Paul Henreid, one of six times he did that job instead of acting. Bumped back into a latter limelight by 1962’s hit Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, Davis, who was 55, scored a 3-fer in ’64, playing baddies in each. Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte drew the most attention and money (24th place), the fun trash Where Love Has Gone was next (32nd) and this one trailed at 52nd. Yet the milder $5,700,000 gross easily put paid to the $1,200,000 tab, Henreid getting the job done without fuss or excess. He had pro assist from vaunted cinematographer Ernest Haller, on one of the last of his 173 feature film assignments, 14 with the peppery star, including Jezebel, Dark Victory, A Stolen Life (where she also played twins) and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? *

Recently widowed ‘Margaret DeLorca’ (Davis) has a surprise mourner attend her wealthy husband’s funeral: ‘Edith Phillips’ (Bette II), her twin sister. Edith is unmarried, out of money and comes bearing two decades of animus toward Margaret for stealing the deceased gentleman from her, and doing so in the underhanded way, faking pregnancy. Not very perturbed about her recent loss, the blithely airy (and filthy rich) Margaret wants to let the past alone, but Edith’s ire (looming poverty not helping) is lethal. When push comes to shove—or gunshot—it appears that Edith has offed herself. The truth about this sudden, unexpected sib tragedy will pique the interest of two men, L.A. police detective ‘Jim Hobson’ (Karl Malden) who wanted to marry Edith, and ‘Tony Collins’ (Peter Lawford), a golf pro and cad who has been Margaret’s ardent lover.

“It’s gotten so I’m afraid to turn around for fear of what will happen next.”

Written by Albert Beich and Oscar Millard (The Conqueror, Song Without End), the script was a revamp of one first done back in 1944 by Rian James, and that had been shopped the following year as a Mexican film, La Otra, starring Dolores del Rio. André Previn punches up the tension with one of his better music scores, and Davis x Two makes for an engaging enough way to use up an extra 115 minutes. Malden is in his excitable over-emphatic mode, and Lawford—recently ousted from Sinatra’s Rat Pack—comfortably fits into the manner and attitude of a sleazeball. The supporting cast is studded with familiar dependables.

With Estelle Winwood, Jean Hagen, George Macready, Cyril Delevanti, Philip Carey, George Chandler, Monika Henreid, Bert Remsen, Ken Lynch, Charles Watts, Henry Beckman.

* Davis dished—“The original script of Dead Ringer was appallingly bad. Paul and I worked very hard to make it plausible at all. We did not completely succeed”. About camera ace Haller: “I never told him what to do, but I put my trust in him to do what he knew how to do, to make me look my best”.