Rant #1,775: Bette Davis: Aye!

The Cubs and Indians are having quite a World Series, aren't they?

Whoever wins, they will make history, erase their respective curses, and suddenly, become America's hottest sports team.

Now on to the main topic of this Rant ...

This weekend was Halloween weekend, so what I usually do is find some Chiller Theater-type movies to watch, and also try to get in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" for good measure.

Nothing like a true movie classic, one of the greatest films of all time, to counter something like "Attack of the Crab Monsters."

This past weekend was pretty dull for me. My wife worked the entire two days, my son worked on Sunday, so I pretty much had the entire weekend to fotz around, which I pretty much did.

Went on the computer, digitized some Elvis singles, watched some TV, pretty much did what I had to do and then I was left to do nothing.

I was bored on Sunday afternoon--too much free time to do nothing--and I was searching around the TV for some horror movie to watch.

I came across Turner Classic Movies, or TCM, and they had an intriguing prospect to watch late Sunday afternoon, a movie I had heard about but knew very little about and had never seen: "Dead Ringers" starring Bette Davis.

Davis was a huge, huge star in the 1930s and 1940s, and into the early 1950s, with her un-glamor girl looks propelling her to a variety of different roles, everything from royalty to gutter snipe.

By the late 1950s, in the era of Marilyn Monroe, her star lessened, although she was still a very busy actress, but at the dawn of the 1960s, she made a sort of out of left field comeback as a marketable, bankable actress, usually featured in films as a crazy older person or a shrew.

Films such as "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" re-established her as a star to be reckoned with, and within this cycle of playing crazed, older damsels, she starred in the generally forgotten film "Dead Ringer," and since I had never seen the film, I thought I would give it a whirl.

Well, I spent the next nearly two hours glued to this movie, and yes, I am glad that I stayed with it.

Featuring Davis supported by a stellar cast--Karl Malden and Peter Lawford among them--"Dead Ringer" is a completely implausible film made believable by the actress and her supporting players, who do everything to make the film better than it really should be.

Davis plays two role in the film, identical twins who went different ways in life. One twin used a barrel of lies to wind her way into high society by marrying a wealthy man, the other wallowed in obscurity after losing out to winning that man to her conniving sister.

Anyway, the poorer sister, down on her luck, finally confronts her wealthy sister, and learns what a barrel of lies the wealthy sister has been spinning for decades.

Once the poorer sister finds out, she concocts a plot to get back at her sister, which is propelled to something beyond what she evened dreamed when she is faced with losing the only thing that is keeping her going, her night club/bar that is being forced out of its venue because of unpaid bills.

The poorer sister ends up killing her wealthy sister, setting the scene up as if she was the one who shot herself in a suicide. She takes on the role of that wealthy sibling. She feels she can pull it off, because they were identical twins, and to most people, she does pull it off.

But she has some personal flaws that make it obvious to others that she is not the real rich lady she is supposed to be, and no, she does not get the last laugh on her wealthy sister after all.

I won't spoil the movie by giving away too many plot details, but Davis and the rest of the cast chew the scenery to the point that they actually make this a good movie. The meticulousness that the poorer sister goes about imitating her wealthy sister really is a sight to behold, and features some of Davis' absolute best acting.

The story is completely preposterous, but it works because Davis really was the consummate actress, able to take coal and make it into diamonds.

Reportedly, the cast read the script and had a lot of misgivings about it, but decided, as a group, that they would take what they had and make it work.

And they did just that.

This 1964 film, directed by actor Paul Henreid and featuring his daughter in a small, but pivotal role as the wealthy sister's handmaiden, gets kind of lost when talking about Davis' other 1960s successes, but let me tell you, it kept me going for nearly two hours.

There are numerous twists and turns in the film, the ending is kind of one too, and when you see pros like Davis, Malden and Lawford do their thing, you have to sit up and notice.

So, Sunday wasn't such a wasted day after all, and "Dead Ringer" really made the day.

See it if you can. You won't be disappointed, whether you see it on Halloween or any other day.

And spoiler alert, when you watch it, pay strict attention to the cigarettes and the dog.

That is all I am going to say. Watch it yourself.

(Note: I have just been informed that I need to do an errand before work tomorrow, so I will not have time to write up a new Rant for Thursday. But I will be back strong on Friday, you can bet on that. Speak to again then.)