“Dead Ringer” is actually a remake of "La Otra," a 1946 Mexican film starring Dolores Del Rio as the good sister gone bad due to bloody revenge. The revised script marked the third time Bette Davis would play twins onscreen, and reunite the famous actress with director Paul Henreid (the dashing Austrian stud who elegantly lit Davis' cigarette in "Now, Voyager").

A lot of Hollywood history can be extrapolated from any major and supporting character involved in this extremely entertaining production (and that includes the massive mansion used as a partial location for the rich sister's abode), so Warner Bros has paired actor/writer Charles Busch (also a co-commentator on "The Bad Seed" DVD) with author Boze Hadleigh. The latter's series of interviews with Davis resulted in the book "Bette Davis Speaks," which means fans are treated to some delightful factoids and first-person anecdotes about meeting the impressionable chain-smoking star during the 1970s. (And boy, does she burn tobacco in every scene!)

Recorded together, the commentary track is a fun, largely consistent tour of a modest production that was catered to Davis' talents while pleasing Jack L. Warner's stringent bean-counting, and some broader facts are additionally delivered in Hadleigh's solo featurette, "Double Take." Also of note is a vintage production featurette that used filming at the massive house - once the biggest mansion in Hollywood - as a springboard to reveal brief behind-the-scenes moments with cast and crew on the last day of shooting at the Doheny property.

Cast portraits, Davis' rivalry with Joan Crawford, and fun apocrypha should keep listeners entertained, and Warner Bros' print source is quite good. Of particular note is Andre Previn's superbly baroque score, which booms and bristles nicely in the film's original mono mix.

A sublime, engaging little shocker.

© 2004 Mark R. Hasan