Sarah Michelle Gellar returns to TV in the CW's prime-time drama Ringer, where she portrays an ex-stripper and drug addict who takes over her twin sister's seemingly perfect life. Ringer is a sudsy melodrama that tries hard to be a noir, but plays more like a B-movie-themed episode of Days of our Lives. It's definitely guilty, but it's too early to tell if it's a pleasure. Gellar is worth tuning in to find out.
It's hard enough portraying two distinctly different characters, but then having to play each pretending to be the other is quite a challenge. Gellar plays the troubled Bridget with a warmth and sincerity that draws compassion from the audience despite her obvious bad choices. She's been broken, but the pieces are still strong. As Siobhan, Gellar almost becomes wooden playing the icy socialite with a hidden agenda. Almost.
Then, there's Bridget pretending to be Siobhan, a role Gellar jokingly dubbed as "Shivette" to The Los Angeles Times.
Gellar isn't the only actress, though, to try the twin-switch theme: Bette Davis works the formula two times, first in the melodramatic A Stolen Life, then nearly two decades later in the campy Dead Ringer; Hayley Mills proves her talent as twins in The Parent Trap; Margot Kidder protects her psychotic twin in the most disturbing twin-swap, Sisters.
Bette Davis in A Stolen Life (1946)
In A Stolen Life, the first and only film produced by Davis, she plays twin sisters who fall in love with the same man (Glenn Ford), but only one lives long enough to keep him.
Katie is an aspiring artist who doesn't expect a lot out of life, probably because her twin sister, Pat, has taken so much out of it - including Katie's new boyfriend, Bill.
When Pat has a chance encounter with Bill on the way to a lunch date, she pretends to be her sister long enough to hook him. Despite having a deeper connection with Katie, Bill can't resist Pat's charm. The dope compares the two women to cakes: Katie is plain, while Pat has frosting. Lots of it.
So does their wedding cake.
Katie resigns herself to forgetting about Bill and moves on with her life...until her sister's life becomes available. When Pat accidentally drowns during a rough sail, Katie slips on her sister's wedding band and into her life.
Davis is convincing in her dual roles as two very different twins. She's light-hearted and sensitive as Katie, calculating and coldly nonchalant as Pat. Unlike Gellar's Bridget and Siobhan, these twins were never estranged, so Katie is able to become Pat more smoothly. However, there are surprises about Pat's life that threaten Katie's plans to live happily-ever-after with Bill.
Director Curtis Bernhardt's A Stolen Life is a fun bit of melodrama for Davis fans, but it's over-all predictability and slap-dash ending keep it from being more worthwhile.
Bette Davis in Dead Ringer (1964)
Add a healthy dose of camp to A Stolen Life and you have Davis' next twin-switch drama Dead Ringer, complete with a promo image of her face hovering next to a skull. Paul Heinreid, Davis' memorable leading man from Now, Voyager (1942), directs.
This time around, twins Edith and Margaret are estranged for years after man-eater Margaret marries her sister's beau. Years later, the sisters are reunited after the man who stood between them dies. It's too late to get him back, but it's not too late for revenge.
Like Gellar's Bridget, Edith is at a low point in her life. She has a loving boyfriend (Karl Malden), but she's weary after living with her head just above water for so many years. With the threat of an impending financial collapse, she decides the only way for a better life is through the murder of her wealthy sister. Her plight is the same as Bridget's: how long can she keep up the charade of playing a stranger?
Dead Ringer came at the height of Bette Davis' camp era between the fantastically over-the-top Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and its high-strung cousin Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Nothing spells out crazy quite like Baby Jane, but Dead Ringer is still a satisfying bit of unhinged fun.
Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap (1961)
Twin girls, a California tomboy and prissy Bostonian, meet at summer camp and scheme to reunite their divorced parents by switching places before they return home. Hayley Mills plays dual roles as Sharon and Susan in director David Swift's classic Disney movie from 1961.
Playing opposite seasoned Hollywood veterans like Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith and Charles Ruggles (who also appears in A Stolen Life) would be a daunting task for any young actor. Add top billing above all three, then you have to prove yourself. Hayley Mills did.
Mills was a natural at bringing Sharon and Susan to life. She had to be convincing as two characters who start out hating, then loving each other. Essentially, she had to have chemistry with herself and, somehow, she did!
The Parent Trap also boasts excellent performances by O'Hara and Keith, as the parents resisting the trap, and Ruggles as the wily grandfather.
Of course, The Parent Trap is built on an unbelievable plot, but its still a good one, especially since its performances are so genuine. After all, Disney is not the forum for gritty realism. Enjoy it for what it is - a fun classic.
If Gellar wants to play twins who are not only believable as different people, but are convincing together, she should take notes from Mills.
Margot Kidder in Sisters (1973)
For melodrama, there's A Stolen Life. For guilty pleasure, there's Dead Ringer. For laughs, there's The Parent Trap.
For nightmares? Sisters.
In her first major film role, Margot Kidder plays once-conjoined twins Danielle and Dominique. When one commits a murder, it's up to a persistent reporter (Jennifer Salt) to solve the crime.
Sisters is a bizarre psychological thriller with notable Hitchcockian elements (some accuse director Brian De Palma of blatantly copying the Master of Suspense) and offers a different twist on the twin-switch theme. It's up to the audience to figure out who's Danielle, who's Dominique - and who's guilty.
The movie opens on the set of a sleazy hidden-camera game show called "Peeping Toms." Hired as a model, Danielle pretends to be a blind girl who wanders into a locker room and begins to undress in front unsuspecting Phil. His reward for not sticking around to peep is a dinner for two, while Danielle gets a set of steak knives. But which is more dangerous: Danielle or the steak knives? Phil is about to find out.
Later, a reporter named Grace looks through her window into Danielle's apartment and witnesses Phil being brutally murdered. When the police dismiss her story, Grace enlists the help of a private detective (Charles Durning) to uncover the truth.
Once you adjust to Margot Kidder's French accent, you begin to appreciate her shades of innocence followed by downright creepiness. Too bad the twins of Ringer aren't this twisted. Surely, a former "Vampire Slayer" could pull it off.
Sources:
- Dead Ringer. 1964. Dir. Paul Heinreid. Perf. Bette Davis, Peter Lawford, Karl Malden. Warner Bros. Pictures. Running Time: 115 min.
- Press, Joy. (2011, Sept. 11) "Sarah Michelle Gellar: Mother of One, Actress of Two." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com
- The Parent Trap. 1961. Dir. David Swift. Perf. Brian Keith, Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara. Walt Disney Productions. Running Time: 129 min.
- "PIlot." Ringer. The CW. WPCW, Pittsburgh. 13 Sept. 2011. Television.
- Sisters. 1973. Dir. Brian De Palma. Perf: Charles Durning, Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt. American International Pictures. Running Time: 93 min.
- A Stolen Life. 1946. Dir. Curtis Bernhardt. Perf: Dane Clark, Bette Davis, Glenn Ford. Warner Bros. Pictures. Running Time: 109 min.
Amanda Flinner - Amanda is a freelance writer who earned her Bachelor's degree in Writing from Geneva College in 2006. Although a variety of interests ...
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