Movie Review: Chained for Life (1952) directed by Harry L. Fraser
Vivian and Dorothy Hamilton (Violet and Daisy Hilton) are conjoined twins (called “Siamese twins” in the movie as that was the slang of the time) who work as a singing duet in vaudeville. Variety show attendance is down overall so the Bijou’s owner Mr. MacKenzie (Brian O’Hara) is reluctant to sign their expensive headliner act. The twins’ agent Hinkley (Allen Jenkins) comes up with a publicity stunt. One of the sisters will announce her engagement to trick shooter Andre Pariseau (Mario Laval), and their “love story” will get newspaper inches and thus ticket sales. Vivian isn’t interested, but Dorothy’s willing.
It all ends in tears.
Andre is charming, and Dorothy genuinely falls in love with him. But Andre is actually involved with his lovely assistant Renee (Patricia Wright) and initially is only pretending as part of the publicity stunt so he can stay employed. About the time Dorothy indicates that she is genuinely in love with Andre, he learns that she and Vivian have separate bank accounts and becomes interested in the marriage to have access to her money.
Meanwhile, Dorothy and Vivian quarrel, as Vivian does not like Andre at all and suspects his wooing to be phony. Dorothy has a dream in which she is able to move around by herself (trick photography ahoy!) and decides she wants to try medical separation again. The doctors are unable to state that the twins would even have a chance of survival, at least with their current medical techniques, but point out that Dorothy has nothing preventing her from biologically being a wife and mother.
The marriage planning moves ahead, but hits a snag when none of the nearby states will issue a marriage license on the grounds that it would be de facto bigamy. (This part was taken from the Hilton sisters’ real life.) However, the couple is put in touch with blind minister Reverend Dr. Burnham (Roy Regnier) who understands that love is love in the understanding of God and denying people the right to marry because they have unusual bodies is bigotry. He helps them get a marriage license. (He’s the best character in the movie, and it’s a shame the message is undercut by the story.)
There’s an onstage marriage (much to the annoyance of the sisters, who weren’t consulted on the ceremony.) And then comes the wedding night, as the groom goes into the bride…fade to black.
We don’t see it, but apparently Andre was unable to bring himself to consummate even with the incentive of his new wife’s money, and deserted her. An annulment is being arranged, but Andre is still on the same playbill with the sisters, because even bad publicity sells tickets.
Vivian happens to spot Andre backstage making out with Renee, so she is confirmed in her belief that he never actually loved her sister. When she manages to get hold of one of his trick-shooting pistols (with real bullets), Vivian shoots the cad dead.
Which brings us to the murder trial that is the framing sequence of the movie. The judge (Norval Mitchell) puts it to the viewer. If Vivian is found guilty of murder or even manslaughter, the law requires that she be punished. But no sentence, whether death or imprisonment, can avoid punishing the innocent Dorothy as well. What would YOU decide?
The main draw of this movie is the stunt casting of having the conjoined twins played by actual conjoined twins. The Hilton sisters had had bit appearances in previous movies The Unholy Three and Freaks but those had been a couple of decades before and this was their only lead role. They’re okay singers, with several musical numbers, but marginal actors at best. The staging notably avoids having them move around much, only walking short distances in straight lines, and otherwise staying put to avoid the possible questions of how they maneuver. (And absolutely no details of how they manage all the issues that you’re thinking about.)
To pad out the running time, there’s several other vaudeville acts, from juggling to trick shooting. The best of these is the accordion player. Andre’s act manages to make trick shooting look dull. Vaudeville was mostly dead by the time this movie came out, and there’s a reason for that.
Content note: murder, Andre deliberately leads Dorothy on, offscreen sex is briefly implied but almost immediately revealed not to have happened.
Note that the 2018 movie with the same title has no relation to this movie other than being about differently-shaped humans.
This is by no means a good movie, but there are moments that could have been great in a better movie. This is one for watching with a friend and some popcorn on a slow afternoon.
