The 2 May 1963 LAT announced that Dead Ringer, a Warner Bros. Pictures production, would be the next starring vehicle for Bette Davis, following her newfound popularity in 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (see entry). Karl Malden would co-star in the new film, directed by Paul Henreid. Henreid had previously directed for television, and appeared as Davis’s onscreen lover over twenty years earlier in Now, Voyager (1942, see entry).
       According to the 24 May 1963 LAT, Davis would first appear in The Empty Canvas in Italy (1963), before starting work on Dead Ringer in late Jun 1963. However, Davis delayed work on the former picture until Sep 1963, following completion of Dead Ringer, as indicated in the 4 Sep 1963 DV. The Empty Canvas was ultimately released theatrically before Dead Ringer. The 11 Jun 1963 DV stated that Bette Davis had also pulled out of her commitment to appear in 4 for Texas (1963, see entry), directed by Baby Jane director, Robert Aldrich, due to scheduling conflicts with Dead Ringer.
       The 31 May 1963 LAT reported CA locations planned for the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles. The 27 Jun 1963 DV added the City Hall headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Civic Center to the list of locales, and announced a 1 Jul 1963 start date. However, principal photography began one day later on 2 Jul 1963, according to a 2 Aug 1963 DV production chart.
       The 8 Jul 1963 DV reported that filming would occur for one week at the Lincoln Heights Jail. The 24 Jul 1963 DV announced that six days of location photgraphy had completed the day before at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, CA, and that Henreid and crew would return to the estate from the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, CA, on 1 Aug 1963 for an additional ten days of shooting. As indicted in the 26 Jul 1963 DV, Davis filmed her split screen sequences at Warner Bros. using a stand-in to help portray the dual roles of twin sisters “Margaret de Lorca” and “Edith Philips.”
       On 11 Aug 1963, NYT noted Los Angeles’s Rosedale Cemetery and an unnamed downtown bar on the corner of Temple and Figueroa Streets as additional locations, with Paul Henreid claiming that he preferred to use “real locales” to inject “as much reality into the scenes as I can.”
       The 9 Jul 1963 DV stated that Henreid’s daughter, Monika Henreid, was making her feature film debut in Dead Ringer. Drummer Kenny Dennis, organist Perry Lee [Perry Blackwell], and actor Greg Benedict were added to the cast in the 1 Aug 1963 and 22 Aug 1963 DV.
       Another item in the 22 Aug 1963 DV reported that production was three days ahead of schedule, and the crew had returned to Warner Bros. yet again, where they were completing interiors on Stage 18.
       Principal photography ended on 30 Aug 1963, according to the 4 Sep 1963 DV.
       Dead Ringer opened on 29 Jan 1964 at several theaters and drive-ins in the Los Angeles area, as noted in the 26 Jan 1964 LAT. The picture opened in New York City at the Palace and other theaters on 19 Feb 1964, as reported in that day’s NYT.
       Reviews were mixed. Both the 23 Jan 1964 DV and the 31 Jan 1964 LAT complained about the “hokum,” “old-fashioned” story, but praised Davis’s performance and Andre Previn’s “macabre” score. The 20 Feb 1964 NYT stated that Dead Ringer was an “uncommonly silly little film, but it is great fun to watch,” and deemed Bette Davis’s “arresting” performance as “sheer cinematic personality on the rampage.”