A Stolen Life

Bette Davis' first film as producer for Warners, a remake of a 1938 British vehicle for Elisabeth Bergner, also offered her the first chance to play the double role of identical twins she was to repeat in 1964 in Paul Henreid's Dead Ringer. Here her split-screen performance lasts only until good sister Kate falls victim to bad sister Pat's murderous jealousy over Glenn Ford, but Bernhardt encourages her to glorious melodramatic excess as she subsequently plays wolf in sheep's clothing, stealing Kate's identity. The cod psychology of doubling and splitting had by now infiltrated the Hollywood public domain with a vengeance: Bernhardt's next film saw him directing Joan Crawford as a schizophrenic in Possessed.