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Dead Ringer

89 statements
16 feature instances
2 referencing feature instances

Dead Ringer	type	TVTItem
Dead Ringer	label	Dead Ringer
Dead Ringer	page	DeadRinger
Dead Ringer	comment	Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_3'); })Dead Ringer is a 1964 film directed by Paul Henreid—yep, that Paul Henreid, the guy who played Victor Laszlo in Casablanca.Edith Phillips (Bette Davis, Henreid's co-star in Now, Voyager and Deception) goes to the funeral of one Frank DeLorca. The man's widow, cloaked in mourning clothes, spots Edith and invites her to visit. It turns out that the widow is Edith's twin sister Margaret (Bette Davis, Acting for Two). Edith and Margaret haven't spoken since Margaret stole Frank away from Edith some 20 years ago. While Margaret has spent the last twenty years in the lap of luxury after landing super-rich Frank as a husband, Edith is barely getting by as the proprietor of a cocktail lounge. Really the only light in Edith's rather dreary existence is the presence of an adoring boyfriend, Jim (Karl Malden).Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_2'); })It soon becomes clear that while Margaret pretended she wanted to catch up with her long-estranged sister, what she really wanted was to rub Edith's face in Margaret's wealth. Edith is already in a bad mood when she finds out from a remark by one of the servants that Margaret lied about being pregnant 20 years ago. This news sends her into a boiling rage. After she gets back home she finds out that she is about to have her cocktail lounge foreclosed on for being three months late on the rent—and that might leave her homeless since she lives in an apartment above the bar.A bitter, angry Edith takes drastic action. She invites Margaret to her apartment and, after Margaret shows up, shoots her in the head. She switches their clothes and assumes the identity of Margaret, stepping into Margaret's chauffered limo and riding back to Margaret's mansion. Naturally, things do not go smoothly.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_1'); })This film is often said to be a remake of 1946 Bette Davis movie A Stolen Life, which featured a similar story about a Sibling Triangle and Impersonating the Evil Twin, but this movie was adapted from a short story called "La Otra". No connection to David Cronenberg film Dead Ringers.
Dead Ringer	fetched	2019-11-29T19:12:49Z
Dead Ringer	parsed	2020-06-24T02:26:04Z
Dead Ringer	processingComment	Dropped link to Blackmail: Not a Feature - ITEM
Dead Ringer	isPartOf	DBTropes
Dead Ringer / int_44989f6f	type	"Could Have Avoided This!" Plot
Dead Ringer / int_44989f6f	comment	"Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Edith finds out far too late that after 20 years Frank still remembered her, and left her $50,000 in his will, which would have bailed Edith out of her financial jam.
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Dead Ringer / int_6d7cd3e	type	Dead Person Impersonation
Dead Ringer / int_6d7cd3e	comment	Dead Person Impersonation: Edith impersonates Margaret after murdering her. Ironically, except for Tony and Henry the butler, no one believes her when she confesses, and she's given the death penalty as Margaret.
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Dead Ringer / int_819b6384	type	Sympathetic Murderer
Dead Ringer / int_819b6384	comment	Sympathetic Murderer: Downtrodden, lovelorn Edith is pretty sympathetic when she murders her Rich Bitch of a sister, and she becomes even more so when we find out that Margaret and Tony conspired to murder Frank.
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Dead Ringer / int_8c80a69f	type	YourCheatingHeart
Dead Ringer / int_8c80a69f	comment	Your Cheating Heart: It turns out that Margaret had a lover, the much younger Tony.
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Dead Ringer / int_8f00b02a	type	Always Identical Twins
Dead Ringer / int_8f00b02a	comment	Always Identical Twins: The plot wouldn't work with fraternal twins, of course.
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Dead Ringer / int_934937b2	type	Bluff the Impostor
Dead Ringer / int_934937b2	comment	Bluff the Impostor: Tony muses about how much fun he and "Margaret" had in various vacation spots. When Edith absentmindedly agrees, he nails her as an impostor. He was already suspicious and tested "Margaret" by mentioning vacation spots they'd never been to.
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Dead Ringer / int_9d12bbc1	type	Foreshadowing
Dead Ringer / int_9d12bbc1	comment	Foreshadowing: Among the plot points set up in the early going are that Edith smokes but Margaret doesn't, Duke the dog dislikes Margaret, and that Jim the boyfriend is a police detective. All of that pays off later on.
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Dead Ringer / int_9e1548b4	type	Old Retainer
Dead Ringer / int_9e1548b4	comment	Old Retainer: Henry the elderly butler. Eventually it's revealed that he figured out Edith's scam early on, but was willing to support her all the way to the end.
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Dead Ringer / int_a09f3a65	type	Sibling Triangle
Dead Ringer / int_a09f3a65	comment	Sibling Triangle: In the backstory. It seems that back During the War Edith and Frank fell in love in London. On a trip to Los Angeles Frank looked up Edith's sister, and Margaret ensnared him.
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Dead Ringer / int_cfbd1467	type	Never Suicide
Dead Ringer / int_cfbd1467	comment	Never Suicide: Edith shoots Margaret and makes it look like she, Edith, killed herself. Unlike how this trope usually plays out, the cops accept "Edith's" death as a suicide.
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Dead Ringer / int_d0c13631	type	Mrs. Robinson
Dead Ringer / int_d0c13631	comment	Mrs. Robinson: Edith is unpleasantly surprised that Margaret had a lover much younger than she was, Tony the golf pro.
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Dead Ringer / int_e2cd1428	type	Widow's Weeds
Dead Ringer / int_e2cd1428	comment	Widow's Weeds: Margaret wears a hat with a thick veil, which probably made the blocking easier in some of the Edith/Margaret scenes. Edith tells Margaret to take it off because she hates "fake mourning".
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Dead Ringer / int_ebb6aa3c	type	Impersonating the Evil Twin
Dead Ringer / int_ebb6aa3c	comment	Impersonating the Evil Twin: Edith murders her evil twin Margaret and assumes her identity, with disastrous consequences.
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Dead Ringer / int_f2dadf81	type	Evil Twin
Dead Ringer / int_f2dadf81	comment	Evil Twin: Originally Margaret seems to be a low-grade bitchy version of this, as she stole Frank from Edith in the backstory and taunts Edith with her wealth after the funeral. Eventually it's revealed that Margaret really was an Evil Twin who murdered her husband.
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Dead Ringer / int_ff6ae1f6	type	Evil-Detecting Dog
Dead Ringer / int_ff6ae1f6	comment	Evil-Detecting Dog: Inverted as Duke the dog, who hated Margaret, takes a shine to Edith. Possibly also played straight if one assumes that Duke was detecting evil Margaret murdering Frank.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

	Dead Ringer	hasFeature	Double Vision / int_4e2a035b
	Dead Ringer	hasFeature	Psychological Thriller / int_4e2a035b

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