Movies that are perhaps, mirror images of each other?

[Phillyrich]

Thinking of Kim Novak, I have often mulled her two films with Frank Sinatra, that are quite similar, yet polar opposites of each other: "The Man With The Golden Arm," and "Pal Joey."

Both films describe the life of a jazz club wannabee. But in "Joey," one is a playboy singer---in "Man" the reverse, a desperate, drug addicted drummer. One is cocky, confident, filled with humor, the other has no self esteem, and never laughs.

Both films show a lonely woman of the night-- but one is a witty, sexy dancer in nice clubs-- the other, humorless, works in a tacky strip club.

Both films show the back world of nightclubs, but one is in wide-screen and in rich color, the other filmed in cramped interiors, and shot in flat black and white.

Both films star Kim Novak and Frank Sinatra, and were made about two years apart.

What other films are like this, with the same actors and similar subject matter, yet opposite sides of the coin?

[Brooksie]

Billy Wilder's last film `Fedora', is said by some to be a sort of response to `Sunset Blvd'. They're both about reclusive former actresses, but whether they have much else in common is in the eye of the beholder.

[bobfells]

Stay with me on this one - with a few minor adjustments, KEY LARGO (1948) could be the sequel to CASABLANCA (1942). How? Bogart continues his role as Rick Blaine. Lauren Bacall is Ilsa and, better yet, is played by Ingrid Bergman. As in the film, she is a widow but because Victor Lazlo died in the war. Bogart again is dropping out of the world - and then Rocco and his thugs show up at Lionel Barrymore's hotel.

[Penfold]

Quite consciously, the Powell and Pressburger film One of Our Aircraft is Missing is the reverse of their earlier 49th Parallel, released in the US as The Invaders.
Both deal with a stranded crew escaping through hostile territory to safety, and to continue their war. On their travels, both crews (A British bomber crew and a German sub. crew respectively) meet locals who give them the benefit of their view of the conflict; the British find assistance, the Germans resistance. How they react helps depict the individuals in each team, and the nations they are passing through.
That this was recognised at the time is revealed on the US poster for One of Our Aircraft...... the tagline is "This time WE are The Invaders"

[Frederica]

Billy Wilder's last film `Fedora', is said by some to be a sort of response to `Sunset Blvd'. They're both about reclusive former actresses, but whether they have much else in common is in the eye of the beholder.

Memory is hazy, wasn't that based on a Thomas Tryon novel? I may have seen it and I think I read the book, but it's been a long time. The dinosaurs were mostly all dead, it's been so long. So I wonder if Tryon based his novel on the Wilder film, and then Wilder based the newer film on the Tryon novel? How incestuous.

[Phillyrich]

But are there mirror image films of opposites, that use...the same actors?

I'd be tempted to say it was deliberate--but the makers of the cream-puff interpretation of "Pal Joey" (1957), surely had no interest in relating back to the grim and controversial "The Man with the Golden Arm" (1955).

All in all, a bizarre coincidence.

[bobfells]

Once the new Production Code came in, Cagney and Eddie Robinson became G-Men to capture the gangsters they used to play. Karloff went from playing Frankenstein's Monster to play the mad doctor who revives the monster (HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN). Maybe this isn't the mirror-image idea you had in mind but there are probably a lot more individuals than there are films where this concept applies. Warner Oland as Fu Manchu, then as Charlie Chan......

[Kevin2]

In Frankenstein 1970, Karloff actually creates the monster. And when the face is revealed at the end (spoiler), it's a younger looking Karloff.