Dead Ringer is a camp 60s outrage from the Grand Guignol genre that was so popular. Helming the cast is the indominatable Bette Davis. She plays dual roles of Margaret DeLorca and Edith Phillips. The rich Margaret had stolen Edith's lover years earlier and lived in luxury - this is shown by her hat and fluffy dressing gowns. Edith looked rough as dogs and ran a basement jazz bar. She has a cop lover played by Karl Malden and Peter Lawford played the rich Margaret's lover. Estelle Winwood and Jean Hagen play supporting parts.
So Edith is pissed off and quite rightly, the script is crazy so she decides to kill Margaret and take on her life. She does so by shooting her in the head and pulling off Margaret's tights of all things and assuming her identity.
This then starts off a series of events of Edith as Margaret and almost getting caught out at every turn. A nice twist is that Edith's boyfriend, Karl Malden suspects Edith/Margaret of murder. It's Grand Guignol at it's grandest as the semi-truth comes out with a supposedly shocking twist. Now Dead Ringer had been in development for years at Warner Bros and was called Dead Pidgeon. Eventually, after the success of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, Bette Davis jumped on to this vehicle and got the all star treatment. Warners was her home again, she had cast and script approval and hired her old friend, Paul Henreid to direct her. Paul had played her lover in the classic Now, Voyager some 20 years earlier.
Bette holds her own in this film and elevates with some serious eyepopping and smoking. She cackles and wears her bangs haircut with pride. Camp isn't the word, it's compulsory. Andre Previn wrote the score so there are harpsichords ahoy, it sounds like a bad episode of the Addams Family at one point.
Peter Lawford is a bit of a mess as the playboy lover of Margaret who ends up getting mauled by one of the brutal looking dogs that she owns. Only Bette Davis could get away with scenery chewing like this. And this is why Dead Ringer makes it to the top 10 camp films of all time.
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