The black mirror (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The black mirror |
| Original title | The Dark Mirror |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1946 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Siodmak |
| script | Nunnally Johnson |
| production | Nunnally Johnson |
| music | Dimitri Tiomkin |
| camera | Milton R. Krasner |
| cut | Ernest J. Nims |
| occupation | |
| |
The Black Mirror (Original title: The Dark Mirror) is in black and white twisted American film noir of Robert Siodmak from 1946 in which Olivia de Havilland , Lew Ayres and Thomas Mitchell play the leading roles. Nunnally Johnson wrote the script based on an original idea by Vladimir Pozner .
action
The respected doctor Dr. Perada is found murdered in his apartment. The investigation leads the police to Ltd. Stevenson soon became Perada's friend Terry Collins, who was seen by two witnesses near the apartment at the time of the crime and is initially considered a likely murderer. At the same time, however, several confidence-inspiring witnesses saw Terry at a music concert during the time of the crime. Stevenson quickly finds the solution to the riddle: Terry has a twin sister named Ruth who looks very much like her. Stevenson arrests both of them after the sisters refuse to reveal where they were at the time of the crime. It is clear to Stevenson that one of the two sisters is the murderer - but Stevenson and his witnesses do not know which one, so the sisters have to be released.
To find out which of the two committed the murder, Stevenson hires the psychologist Scott Elliott, whose specialty is twins and - because he has a practice in the medical center where Terry worked - is only briefly acquainted with the sisters. Elliott regularly conducts studies on twins and now plans to do one with the sisters. At first the sisters suspect a trick by the police, but especially the more self-confident Terry is eager to take the test, while Ruth reacts anxiously. Among other things, Elliott subjects the sisters to a Rorschach test , in which Ruth accidentally associates the word mirror with death . Terry is furious at this combination of words and demands that Ruth read the murder story of Dr. Perada should finally forget. Scott becomes friends with Ruth and talks to both sisters. Terry tells the doctor that the only difference between them has always been that she didn't like any of Ruth's lovers. When Scott and Ruth kiss in front of the sisters' apartment, Terry watches jealously. In the following years Terry tries to destroy her sister with the gaslighting technique by showing her false facts. So she tells Ruth that she regularly wakes up from nightmares at night - which Ruth cannot remember, so she fears that she will go insane.
During a test using a lie detector, Dr. Elliott Terry on Ruth's early relationships and the polygraph pans regularly. The doctor realizes that Terry is driven by hatred and paranoia towards her sister because Ruth - although they both look the same - has always been liked more by others. The test results point to Terry as a murderer, and also suggest that Ruth would not be capable of murder. Stevenson tells Elliott to report the test results to Ruth immediately, as she may be in danger. On the phone, Elliott reaches Terry, who pretends to be her sister and wants to meet him that evening. Shortly afterwards, the real Ruth appears in the psychologist's office, who now believes she is insane. The doctor denies this, but does not give Ruth the test results. When Terry arrives later that evening in the role of Ruth, Elliott reveals her true identity and confronts her with the diagnosis that she is insane and that she murdered Perada. At that moment Stevenson calls from the Collins apartment that Ruth has committed suicide. Terry still claims to Stevenson that she is Ruth and that Terry murdered the doctor out of jealousy. At the climax of the confession, the real Ruth appears, who was in the next room. In hysterical rage, Terry throws an object at her sister's reflection in the mirror before she is arrested. In the final scene a love affair develops between Ruth and Dr. Elliott on.
Production, publication
Filming was completed on March 29, 1946. The photographic effects that help Olivia de Havilland in both roles in the same attitude was shown were from the opening credits undisclosed camera veterans Eugen Schüfftan worried. Siodmak later admitted that, despite the success of the film, he did not consider Johnson's script to be particularly successful and had difficulties with his leading actress de Havilland, who defied his directing instructions.
The black mirror was launched on October 18, 1946 in the USA (New York, Loew's Criterion) and in German cinemas on April 21, 1950 .
synchronization
The synchronized version was created for the German cinema premiere in 1950 at Ultra Film Synchron GmbH, Munich. Bertha Gunderloh wrote the dialogue book and Alfred Vohrer directed the dialogue .
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Terry Collins / Ruth Collins | Olivia de Havilland | Eva Vaitl |
| Dr. Scott Elliott | Lew Ayres | Hans Nielsen |
| Ltd. Stevenson | Thomas Mitchell | Bum Kruger |
| Rusty | Richard Long | Gert Günther Hoffmann |
| Prosecutor Girard | Charles Evans | Walter Holten |
| Witness George Benson | Lester Allen | Richard Münch |
| Sgt. Temple | William Halligan | Otto Wernicke |
criticism
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times found the film suffered "from the author's lack of ingenuity in solving the puzzle in a satisfactory manner." The lexicon of international film sees “a sophisticated, sophisticated intellectual game. Psychoanalysis to scare you, excitingly staged and brilliantly played. "
Award
The film was nominated for an Oscar in 1946 in the “Best Original Story” category.
Aftermath
In 1984 a TV remake was broadcast on the US television station ABC . Jane Seymour took on the dual role of twin sisters.
Web links
- The black mirror in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Robert Siodmak, Hans C. Blumenberg (Ed.): Between Berlin and Hollywood. Memories of a great film director. Herbig, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-8004-0892-9 , pp. 128-130.
- ↑ Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , p. 83.
- ↑ a b The black mirror. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 2, 2017 . .
- ↑ The black mirror. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on April 2, 2017 .
- ^ " The Dark Mirror , like so many of its ilk, suffers from its author's lack of ingenuity to resolve his puzzle in a satisfying manner." - Review in the New York Times , October 19, 1946, accessed on March 20, 2013.