Seeing Double

 

 (TMDB) 

THE DARK MIRROR-1946-Police Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) investigates a murder. Olivia de Havilland plays twin sisters Terry and Ruth. One of them may be a murderer. Stevenson asks twin expert psychiatrist Dr. Elliot (Lew Ayres) to help distinguish which one is a murderer. Though questions and ink blots the shrink determines one of them is insane. Richard Long (in his third role after Orson Welles' THE STRANGER) has a small role. This is nice but overlooked little psychological film noir directed by Robert Siodmak (he made THE KILLERS the same year) It has an excellent dual performance by de Havilland and good use of trick photography.

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The End

 

 (rotten tomatoes)

END OF THE WORLD-1977-A priest (Christopher Lee; in AIRPORT 77 the same year) enters a roadside cafe and asks to use the phone but it explodes and the owner is electrocuted. The priest then goes to church where he's greeted by... himself. After the credits Prof. Andrew Boran (Kirk Scott) picks up some strange signals from outer space. He's so famous there's a banquet in his honor but he's more interested in the signals. His boss (Dean Jagger)) sends him on a lecture tour but before his next lecture he and his wife Sylvia (Sue Lyon; LOLITA) decide to try and track the signals because they seem to be coming from Earth. They visit a nunnery then wander around in the dark. 

They stumble into the underground radio lab of Beckerman (Lew Ayres) who's listening to Russian space talk. Their investigation leads them to St. Catherine's, a church overseen by Father Pergado (Lee). He lets them check around but they don't find anything. Later they return to the place and are captured by Pergado and his nun horde. It turns out they are really aliens who killed Pergado and his nuns and assumed their form. They are stuck on Earth and want to go home. They force Boran to steal a device that will enable them to leave. He gets them the device but they left out one small detail: they are also going to destroy the Earth. Alien Pergado and his phony nuns escape through some kind of transporter. Boran and Sylvia follow. The Earth explodes. The future Sir Chris must have had a free weekend when he agreed to star in this sci-fi bore-fest with a lot of too dark night scenes. Macdonald Carey is the head of security in two quick scenes. 

Director John Hayes had been kicking around low budget cinema for quite awhile when he made END OF THE WORLD. Earlier he made GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE and GARDEN OF EVIL (both 1972). Screenwriter Frank Ray Perilli wrote the soft core takeoff CINDERELLA (with Cheryl Smith in the title role) the same year, which Kirk Scott co-starred in. He also penned LITTLE CIGARS, DRACULA'S DOG and LASTERBLAST.

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Good Night!

NIGHT WORLD-1932-The wild world of NYC in the prohibition era. Bright lights, speakeasies, mob rub outs and lots of frolicking in Happy's night club.There's lots going on. 

Owner Happy (Boris Karloff)) is a charming gangster whose wife (Dorothy Revier) is having an affair with Krause (Russel Hopton). John Rand (Lew Ayres) is a drunkard because his mother (Hedda Hopper) killed his father. He's befriended by Ruth (Karloff's FRANKENSTEIN co-star Mae Clarke), a dancer at the club. Ed Powell (George Raft) is a sleazy suspicious character who tries to date Ruth. I really didn't get the story line of the philosophical doorman (Clarence Muse) with a sick wife and what happens to him. One gay character calls a drunk Frankenstein! (That movie was made the year before) The entire movie takes place in the club. Hobart Henley directed this entertaining but ignored little gangster film from Universal.

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Calling The Doctor...

THE SECRET OF DR. KILDARE-1939-MGM produced the Dr. Kildare series from 1938-42. They all starred Lew Ayres as the young intern Jimmy Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as his cantankerous but lovable mentor Dr. Gillespie. Laraine Day was the nurse/love interest in most of them and Nat Pendlelton played the dumb but helpful hospitial intern in a few.This was the third entry in the series and considered one of the best.

This time out Kildare is assigned to care for a wealthy young socialite (Helen Gilbert) who suffers from mood swings and temporary blindness. Her father is played by the great Lionel Atwill, who had co-starred with Barrymore (and Lugosi) in the MARK OF THE VAMPIRE remake in '35 and was the one armed inspector in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year this was made.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gillespie is having his own health problems and is sent on a forced vacation. And why have Jimmy's parents come to town with a mysterious note?

Samuel S. Hinds plays his father (he and Barrymore were later in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE). The always recognizable (and great) character actor Byron Foulger has a cameo as well as other "familiar faces" like Martha O'Driscoll, Don "Red" Barry and William Tannen. Dated but painless.

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