Kate (Bette Davis) travels to stay with her twin sister Pat (Bette Davis) and meets Bill (Glenn Ford) en route. Kate and Bill spend their time together on evening dates and at his lighthouse home - yes, he is one of those freaks who live in a lighthouse. However, once Bill meets twin sister Pat, he falls in love with her and the two of them get married. Kate is devastated. A boating accident allows Kate another chance into Bill's life.....The storyline is just a heap of unconvincing nonsense and is quite slow. It drags on numerous occasions. Bette Davis does well in her two roles and is a class above the rest of the cast. Watch her reaction as both evil sister Pat and good sister Kate when Pat tries to throw her bouquet in Kate's direction. Top quality. Glenn Ford is OK, although he does resemble a gormless monkey on occasions. A mention for the character of the struggling artist "Karnock" as portrayed by Dane Clark - he is terrible - what an unrealistic performance. It defies belief but provides unintentional humour. The ending is a great example of pure Hollywood cheese. It's sappy and totally stupid but what we are all expecting to happen.The film is OK in that it passes the time. A better film containing the twins theme that was released in the same year is "The Dark Mirror", in which Olivia de Havilland plays good and evil twin sisters. A better film starring Bette Davis from the same year is "Deception".

**** Spoilers!!! Don't read if you'd rather just watch the movie!**** This movie is about twins played by Bette Davis, who was wonderful in this duel role. Katie is the nice twin and Pat was the evil twin. Pat was very underhanded and stole Glenn Ford's character Bill away from Katie pretty much for the fun of it and married him. Years later Katie and Pat were out sailing when the accident occurred. They stayed out too long in bad weather and the boat hit a reef when they tried to get to a lighthouse. Pat drowned after being thrown from the boat. Katie tried to save her but couldn't hold her. Pat's wedding ring slipped off her finger into Katie's hand as she was pulled away by the undertow and Katie was knocked out. So, everyone just assumed Katie was Pat. It wasn't a planned thing by Katie.I like the movie very much. I saw it for the first time earlier this year during Oscar month on TCM. I just watched it on TCM again today during the Glenn Ford tribute. He was fantastic in his role as well! I think the performances were great all around. Extra kudos to the performances by Dane Clark as a starving artist & Charles Ruggles as the twins cousin and guardian. They were smaller parts, but very crucial to the storyline. You'll have to watch the movie to see what happens. Sorry, I never give out endings.

Whether or not she actually produced is questionable and more of a footnote in her career before the cameras, and after all, that is what really drew in the public. A STOLEN LIFE, a remake of an earlier movie starring Elisabeth Bergner (herself the subject a story that would bring life to Mary Orr's now classic story "The Wisdom of Eve", which would be made into what is known today as ALL ABOUT EVE) is a not-very plausible melodrama about twin sisters Pat and Kate Bosworth who engage in some interesting identity-swapping once one of them drowns in an unfortunate boat accident. Davis co-stars with herself and looks like two different people. Trick editing and a matting effect that would later be used to great effect in David Croneberg's male answer to this film -- his classic (and perverse) DEAD RINGERS -- is the real star of this movie; because of it, the interactions with the two sisters is a sight to watch instead of being hokey to a point where you would be able to see the split in the middle of the screen. It would probably have benefited more if at the time, dramas would be given the green light to explore the possibilities of twins as Kristoff Kieszliwski did in THE DOUBLE LIVE OF VERONIQUE instead of having the surviving sister be drawn into a more conventional plot of deception. But this wasn't the case and the result is a movie that has an implied lot to say about women who are loose in morals and the fate that befalls them. Equally implicit is the notion that the surviving sister cannot find happiness until she has to become the "bad" one and fool the bland man who was taken away from her by her "bad" sister. It's been the stuff of Spanish soap operas left and right, particularly Mexican soaps which have told this story over and over again with little variations on the title "The Usurper" ("La Usurpadora") and even "Vida Robada", virtually a literal translation of "Stolen Life". But then again, no one could do soaps better than Bette, and in this one, she's her only competition.

This is a very unintentionally silly Bette Davis movie. The plot involves two identical twins--one evil and selfish, the other sweet and somewhat bland. The sweet one falls for a MUCH younger man played by Glenn Ford. Well, the evil twin being evil, she steals Ford and marries him herself--just to hurt her sister! Later, the evil one is swimming in the ocean and drowns. The younger one is the first to the scene and decides to take the place of the evil twin and be married to Ford! What happens next, you'll need to see for yourself.Okay, I KNOW that the identical twin thing is a MAJOR Hollywood cliché and the plot is silly. But, somehow it works and is worth watching. Of course it's not one of Davis' best films, but considering her amazing talent she was able to breath life into this moribund script.