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Monday, June 15, 2009
Multiplicity
Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills in the original "The Parent Trap."

Fun list from New York Magazine's Vulture: Best multiple-role performances. Agree about Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets, Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger, Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers and Nic Cage in Adaptation. But the Vulture forgot the "Eve" movies: Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve and Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve. And failed to mention Olivia de Havilland  and Bette Davis in the ultimate "there's two of them!" twin films, A Stolen Life and The Dark Mirror. And neglected Hayley Mills and Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap movies.

I love seeing an actor compete against him or herself, don't you? In the twinfilms, it's fun to watch the actor playing the bad twin pretending to be the good twin. Which films have we missed?

Posted by Carrie Rickey @ 5:01 PM  Permalink | 10 comments
Comments   
Posted 05:14 PM, 06/15/2009
Adam B.
Neither Eve film counts, insofar as I understand the rules of the list. Both films have one character exhibiting multiple personalities; the ones NYMag lists all involve actors playing multiple, separate individuals in the same film. And Coming to America is better than Bowfinger.
Posted 05:19 PM, 06/15/2009
garyk
As a twin, I like films where twins co-star (e.g., ZED AND TWO NAUGHTS, BROTHERS OF THE HEAD; THE KRAYS), but if we're talking about actors playing twins, you missed James Spader's turn in JACK'S BACK (1988). Though I'm not surprised, it was completely forgettable. Margot Kidder played against herslef in SISTERS by Brian DePalma. Irene Jacob played Veronique twice in THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE. And does Paul Dano's turn in THERE WILL BE BLOOD count?
Posted 05:27 PM, 06/15/2009
edwardcopeland
Though I really only thought she was good as one of the three, there was Meg Ryan in Joe Vs. the Volcano. One of the very best though, which earned a Tony on stage and deserved an Oscar nomination, was John Glover in Love! Valour! Compassion!
Comment removed.
Posted 05:46 PM, 06/15/2009
Bob Ross
i think Face/Off definitely counts. Jean-Claude Van Damme pulled one off in Double Impact. And how many times have we seen The Prince and the Pauper remade?
Posted 06:02 PM, 06/15/2009
wwolfe
Ronald Colman in "Prisoner of Zenda." Very entertaining movie. Then there's Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin playing two sets of identical twins in "Big Business." And, from TV, Patty Duke playing identical cousins on "The Patty Duke Show." (I'm now having to physicall restrain myself from typing the lyrics to the theme song.)
Posted 06:55 PM, 06/15/2009
ChristopherL
Cate Blanchett in "Coffee and Cigarettes"! For sheer perversity, I also vote for Divine in "Female Trouble," playing the lead role of Dawn Davenport and then, out of drag, as Earl... who has sex with Dawn. They have a child making Divine both the father and mother. I don't think Alec Guiness ever did that.
Posted 07:42 PM, 06/15/2009
JDM
Michael Keaton in "Multiplicity." It's a gem. Also "Turn The Key Deftly", in which Julie Harris plays a good twin/evil twin in a circus. The good twin's lover, Maximillian Schell, himself a superb mimic, is enraged by the evil twin and strangles her. Afterward, he goes mad when he learns that the two twins are actually one woman, forever retreating into his toy soldier stage character: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0713105/
Posted 03:27 PM, 06/16/2009
chazzbo
Kim Novak in Vertigo?
Posted 04:08 PM, 06/16/2009
Tom G
Bette Davis in Dead Ringer
10 comments
About Carrie Rickey

Carrie Rickey has been The Philadelphia Inquirer’s film critic for 21 years. She has reviewed films as diverse as Water and The Waterboy, profiled celebrities from Lillian Gish to Will Smith, and reported on technological breakthroughs from the video revolution to the rise of movies on demand. Her reviews are syndicated nationwide and she is a regular contributor to Entertainment Weekly. Rickey’s essays appear in numerous anthologies, including The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, The American Century, and the Library of America’s American Movie Critics.

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All blog items posted before May 23, 2008, can be accessed at http://blogs.phillynews.com/inquirer/flickgrrl/.

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