The Kiss Before The Mirror — The Kiss Before The Mirror(Blu Ray)

Two years after his foundational Frankenstein adaptation, James Whale’s 1933 film The Kiss Before The Mirror presents its viewers with a tale of dangerous adultery. When Walter Bernsdorf (Paul Lukas) murders his wife in a crime of passion, its up to his friend and attorney Paul Herd (Frank Morgan) to defend him in court. But Paul is disturbed by Walter’s recount of events, so much to the point that he begins to suspect his own wife Maria (Nancy Carroll) of seeing another man. He’s proven right but can he be stopped before he also finds himself on the wrong side of the law.

I suppose a good place to start here is with addressing if this film’s premise holds up for modern viewing, because the narrative of the film often strays into some ideas that I’m sure would have been perfectly acceptable for the world of 1933 but ninety years later they can be seen as problematic. There is this notion that women have no agency when it comes to how they control their femininity and sexuality. The woman’s body is this thing to be manipulated by the husband, its beauty only persists to please the husband as opposed to allow the woman to seek out a lover in a way that gives them power over their own romantic life. Whale shows us the two core consequences of this agency; firstly you wind up dead from a jealous but faithful husband, and secondly, you have the character of Hilda (Jean Dixon) who has this very queer characterisation leading to this modern reading of her as a lesbian. On top of this she is a lesbian who is working a typically male job as a lawyer. Given the growing fear of lesbianism, that was brewing in the 30s because of this idea that a working woman was taking a job away from a man with a family to support, Hilda becomes a hauntingly trapped character who appears to putting on an act during the whole film.

There is a different interesting historical significance to this film however, that fact this film was made before the implantation of the restrictive Hays Code of film censorship. So we end up with a film which is surprisingly violent and brutal, especially with the opening murder scene which becomes tense just through allusion alone. There’s also a great, albeit short, scene of Paul having a friendly conversation with another prisoner through a grate in the ground. It’s quite funny seeing a pretty positive depiction of a criminal in a film as old as this. He’s just very friendly and has a quick joke with Paul. It’s hinted at that this is a longstanding engagement and honestly, I think I could have watched a whole movie just about seeing these two characters having comedic conversations.

Honestly, the performances are quite good. As much as I have derived the depiction of Hilda, Jean Dixon plays her with excellent comedic timing and sarcasm that makes her character really fun to watch in her brief scenes as along as we ignore the possible subtext. Paul Lukas does an excellent job at selling this sense of mania and anger in his portrayal of Walter, his performance in that first meeting with Paul is really strong. Frank Morgan I didn’t think was quite as strong, Paul Herd is just a bit boring as a character and that is reflected in Morgan’s performance as he’s sort of flat and ends up giving this very boring posh American performance. Nancy Carroll rounds off the main cast as Maria, Paul’s wife. There’s an interesting complexity to Maria as she has this grand range of emotions to play in very quick succession. Her performance during the scene where Paul returns home after meeting Walter for the first time is amazing, I really wish she wasn’t this victim of misogynistic 30s writing.

As for special features we have a bit of a mixed bag. Firstly, there is an image gallery of publicity materials, including some of the really nice posters for the film. However, your milage with this gallery is going to vary depending on how much you like looking at very high-quality stills from the film you have just watched. Secondly, there is a video essay comparing this film with Whale’s 1938 remake; Wives Under Suspicion. Despite not having seen Whale’s remake, which is fascinatingly a post-code film, I still found watching these scene-by-scene comparisons really interesting. Seeing what ended up getting cut and changed to keep in line with the Hays Code. Film historian Nora Fiore provides an audio commentary for the film, I would like to note a particularly interesting section about the unorthodox promotional tactics used to sell the film. Finally, we have a short film from Whale, a 1942 army recruitment video entitled Classification of Enlisted Men. It’s hard to review in any artistic way because it’s a propaganda film designed to show how transferable skills will make it easy to find a career in the army. It is what it is, and I’m sure it will appeal to those who are interested in Whale’s deeper filmography as well as film’s role within the military.

This new Blu-ray also includes; an exclusive 40-page booklet with a new essay on the film by Philip Kemp, a contemporary profile of director James Whale, an interview with filmmaker Curtis Harrington on Whale, an overview of contemporary critical responses, new writing on Classification of Enlisted Men, and full film credits.

The Kiss Before The Mirror is an interesting part of Whale’s filmography. It lacks the staying power and artistic vision of something like Frankenstein but there is still worth here. The film is more interesting when looked at as a piece of history, considering the contexts it is made in and made for. As such, the special features reflect this way of viewing the film as they are best suited to those interested in film history and pre-code filmmaking and film theory. If you aren’t really interested in any of those things, I don’t think this is a release for you.