The Dark Mirror
The Long Night of Museums this year included the German History Museum which showed “The Dark Mirror” in its little movie theater, the Zeughauskino. From this year’s Berlinale, we learned that the Zeughauskino is a lovely venue, and we were interested in seeing another Siodmak after we fell in love with “People on Sunday”. In fact, the Zeughauskino was showing a Siodmak retrospective, but we were too cheap to pay 9 euros for the films and most of all, we were too lazy to get our butts out to see a movie. But we decided to go to the Long Night of Museums, and the showing of “The Dark Mirror” was included in the ticket. Of course we could not pass up that opportunity.
I had wished they showed “The Killers” but then again there is a nice Criterion version of it, which I may or may not get my hands on one day. I imagine the “The Dark Mirror” is similar in tone and style, and in fact it’s a fairly classical film noir much like “Laura”. Its psychology doesn’t really make any sense (or at least I can tell that it’s utterly unrealistic) but it still makes for a great detective story, in which a splendid Olivia de Havilland can show off her acting skills. Oh boy I loved her as the evil twin. It would surprise me if Siodmak was very in love with the script, but he managed to make the best out of it, with dramatic bedroom scenes with the sisters and masterful play with light and dark heightening the suspense. I was absolutely in love with the visuals of the film, perhaps influenced by the fact that we saw it in a dark movie theater.
However, the clothing style in the film is so 40s. Oh God those ugly shoulder pads. If there is any vintage style I am not into, it’s the 30s and 40s and I guess I am totally with the mainstream opinion on that one. The 40s were not exactly a great time for the world, and neither it was for the arts really. I am also not a big fan of “The Philadelphia Story” in which a fantastic Katharine Hepburn wears those shoulder pads. She is fantastic in men’s clothing, but even on her the wide-shouldered, thin-hips 40s silhouette looks terrible.
Apparently Siodmak made many film noirs, and “The Dark Mirror” made me want to see more of them. If I had the choice between a film noir and a screwball comedy, I would always choose the latter (more “Trouble in Paradise” please!), but sometimes I can get into stylish visuals coupled with a suspenseful crime story. “The Dark Mirror” is a perfect example for that.