The Dark Mirror

The psychological thriller The Dark Mirror, along with Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) and Possessed (1947) starring Joan Crawford, is evidence of Hollywood’s heightened interest in mental illness and psychoanalytic therapeutic methods. In the film, based on a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, who returned to a similar theme a decade later with The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Olivia de Havilland plays twins with different personalities who are suspected of a brutal murder. It is clear that only one of them committed the crime, but the sisters cover for each other and it is not easy to break the bond between them. At the time, de Havilland had a very competitive relationship with her younger sister, actress Joan Fontaine, who won an Oscar for Suspicion (1941). The Dark Mirror was an extraordinary opportunity for her to achieve the same honor, but it only received a nomination for Best Original Story. De Havilland ultimately won anyway, as the Academy honored her that same year for her performance in To Each His Own. (mh)