The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)

The Kiss Before the Mirror is a 1933 melodrama from Universal directed by James Whale.


Mirrors are the key to this story. A murder is committed because of something a man saw in a mirror. Mirrors can reveal truths that would otherwise remain hidden. The plot also mirrors itself in an interesting way.

Professor Bernsdorf (Paul Lukas ) shoots his wife when he discovers she is having an affair. He knew she was having an affair before he found her preparing to meet her lover. He knew because he saw her face in a mirror. That told him everything he needed to know.

Bernsdorf’s friend Paul Held (Frank Morgan) will be defending him. Held has started looking in mirrors with a great deal of interest. Perhaps a mirror will him something as well. Perhaps it will tell him something about his own wife.

Held starts to understand how Bernsdorf could have been driven to murder. He knows how he will conduct the defence. He must also make a decision about his own case.

There’s pretty much it as far as plot is concerned.

I have major issues with James Whale as a director. I find his movies stagey and annoyingly mannered. The only pre-code movie I have ever truly hated is a James Whale movie (his 1931 Waterloo Bridge). I didn’t like Bride of Frankenstein and found The Old Dark House to be an ordeal to sit through.

But in The Kiss Before the Mirror Whale has a story that is overheated, overwrought, contrived, absurdly melodramatic and theatrical. In other words a story that is a perfect fit for his very artificial directorial style. Whale dials the hysteria levels up to maximum and then dials them up a bit more. This is melodrama on steroids.

The acting is artificial and mannered. I suspect that these were exactly the performances Whale wanted. Frank Morgan as Held and Nancy Carroll as his wife Maria are at least entertaining.

There are lots of things wrong with this movie but it has its compensations. It’s visually quite impressive.

And it deals with touchy subject matter in a way that is both bold and complex, and provocative. It is made very clear that the two wives in question really are betraying their husbands, and really have deceived their husbands. It’s not a case of suspicious husbands jumping to conclusions. There is also no question of the wives being driven to infidelity by unsympathetic husbands. These are loving attentive husbands who do not mistreat their wives in any way. The wives are guilty of betrayal and have no excuses. But of course that is no justification for murder.

Early on Frank Held believes that it is a justification for murder. That does not mean that the movie takes this line. And Held increasingly has doubts. He understands Bernsdorf’s actions but is longer sure that he approves. In his own life Held has to choose between retribution and forgiveness.

There is no hint of a double standard. There is no suggestion whatever that there is any moral difference between a wife’s unfaithfulness and a husband’s.

This is a story of hidden truths and lies and suspicions. As you would expect there are a lot of mirror shots in this movie.

The mirror motif is used very cleverly. The mirrors are not metaphors for female vanity. The mirrors can reveal hidden truths, truths hidden in the eyes of a woman looking at herself in a mirror not knowing that her husband can see what she is revealing. But a mirror might show only part of the truth. Mirrors can reveal truths, but these truths may lead us astray. They do not necessarily tell us what we really need to know. The theme of the movie could be said to be that we need to look into our hearts instead.

I still have issues with Whale’s approach to film directing but this is quite an interesting movie. Recommended.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray release looks fine. Kino Lorber have a knack for coming up with dreary ideologically driven audio commentaries that suck all the pleasure out of movie-watching and this is yet another another example.