Ripping melodramas!

Hello, eoe!
And welcome toA2K ... I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself here.

I don't have a clear recollection to the film you refer to, but do vaguely recall Bette playing twins. If you have a minute could you tell us a little about the plot. Was there a Good Bette & a Bad Bette? Oh I just love it when she plays evil, dubious characters. She does it so well!

I know that Bette did a couple of twin movies. I've only seen this one. Oh, and it's a good one. Late 50's, early 60's. Kinda pre-Baby Jane-like with the harpsicord music. Maggie steals and marries her twin sister Edie's lover and for twenty years, lives in the lap of luxury. He dies. Edie, never married, the owner of a dank little niteclub, miserable, three months behind in rent, discovers not only that Maggie had never loved him but that her pregnancy twenty years ago was a lie. She had tricked him into marrying her. So Edie, figuring she had it coming, kills Maggie and switches places with her. And then things get interesting.
It's in black and white, somewhat creepy, a good story and interesting cast. Check it out.

It sounds superb.I will definitely look around for it eoe.

That's "Dead Ringer" and it is a hoot to watch Davis interact with...Bette Davis! Karl Malden as the police detective who falls in love with Edie, turns in another great performance. The film is definitely one of my favorite ripping melodramas.

Hi:
Eoe: The other Bette Davis twin movie was A Stolen Life, made in 1946. The twins both fall in love with Glenn Ford. When the good twin realizes that Ford prefers the vivacious twin,(who, of course, is selfish and greedy) the good twin steps aside and resumes her painting career. After Ford marries the bad twin, the twins take a ride on a boat which capsizes. The bad twin (who, by the way, has been cheating on Ford) drowns, and the good twin pretends she is his wife. Are you confused? Glenn Ford and I were, too.
By the time Ford realizes the good twin isn't the one he married, he has already fallen in love with her, and, of course, he finds out his wife was cheating on him. So, it all ends happily ever after.

I had completely forgotten about that film, Raggedy. It appears that "Dead Ringer" was a kind of remake of that "A Slolen Life."
Sorry, eoe -- the e mail updates were out of order -- you had already given the title of the film.

Not a remake, Lightwizard. In A Stolen Life, the bad twin dies accidentally and the good twin assumes her identity with all good intentions, i.e. making Ford happy. In Dead Ringer, Davis murders her sister. (The man that both sisters had loved is dead at the beginning of the picture.) Dead Ringer involves murder, blackmail, a frustrated detective (Karl Malden) who had been in love with the good twin, a killer Great Dane, all those ingredients essential for a thriller. And a very nasty Bette Davis. A Stolen Life is about unselfish self-sacrificing love. -- A soap opera to the 'nth' degree.

I sure stumbled over that sentence. I did remember "A Stolen Life" after you mentioned it and realize there are superficial comparisons but you can't help thinking they were using the twin concept again for want of another idea.

Lightwizard: I just read that A Stolen Life was a remake of a 1939 Elisabeth Bergner film produced in Europe and released in the U.S. by Paramount.

Ah, well, all good drama plots go back to the early Greek plays after all!

Absolutely, welcome EOE!

Thanks LW. Glad to be here.

Hey, I've gotta see both of these movies! They sound outrageously splendid!
Thanks, eoe, LW, & raggedyaggie for filling us in the details.
Don't you just LOVE it when the evil character gets their come uppance? Though, a bit dubious, becoming Glenn Ford's stand in wife. Just as well he gets to love her for herself! Imagine having to pretend to be someone else for the rest of her life!

In "Dead Ringer," you wonder who is really the evil sister and I won't give away the ending even though you'll likely catch on as it is sort of inevitable.

Sounds intriguing, LW.
Thanks for not giving away the ending ... Hate it when people do that! Particularly film reviewers. Now I just have to see it!
And maybe a few Jane Wyman soapies, too? My mother just ADORED her!

Oh, Msolga: My sincere apology for giving away the ending of A Stolen Life. As usual, I wasn't thinking.

Lightwizard has already mentioned two of Jane Wyman's great soapers: Johnny Belinda and Magnificent Obsession. And , if you haven't seen Wyman in The Glass Menagerie and Miracle in the Rain, be sure to add them to your list ,and buy two boxes of Kleenex.

And be sure to rent Waterloo Bridge with Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. It's a classic.

Oh, and All this and Heaven, Too, with Bette Davis and Charles Boyer.

All the Douglas Sirk ripping melodramas had to be subliminal about such things as homosexuality -- Rock Hudson (!) in "Written on the Wind" had a clever subtext of his personal sexuality. Now the new film "Far From Heaven" brings it out into the open. Curiously, this film is getting good critical response but its not among the hills announced as vying for best film by AFI (American Film Federation).

I'm not sure "Waterloo Bridge" is a ripping melodrama as much as it is poignant and thoughtful without the exagerations of most of the other films mentioned here.

Johnnie Belinda was one of my mother's favorites too, msolga. When Jane Wyman signed The Lord's Prayer, my mother would fall apart every single time. That scene just touched her soul. Two more of her favorites, and mine too when I was a kid, is "A Summer Place" and "Peyton Place." Of course when I got older, the bad acting turned both of these films into hootfests for me but Moms loved them both and would even let me stay home from school so we could watch them together on the 9am or 3:30pm movie.
How about "The Bad Seed" and "The Children's Hour?" Two more of her faves. Moms was a big movie fan. She'd watch "The Late Show" every nite, regardless of what movie was showing.

Raggedyaggie

No need for apologies .... & thanks for the new suggestions. I don't know what's come over me (escapism from creepy world developments, maybe?) but I have a burning desire to watch heaps of these old movies again. As soon as I'm fully settled in my new house & catch my breath, I'm going to get into it! In a big way!