Most of the film noir from Mexico can be cheekily classified as tele-noir-vela, and Roberto Gavaldón’s La Otra (US: The Other One), with its opening credits against a cosmic backdrop, is no exception: melodrama meets mansions and murder in this familiar story of identical twins whose rivalry leads to tragedy and deceit. Superstar Dolores Del Rio plays both twins, Magdalena and Maria Mendez, the former “mourning” the death of her millionaire husband and the latter (the “other one”) a manicurist envious of her sister’s perfect, glamorous life (“I’ll accept the dose of irony life has thrown at me”). After one is murdered, the other assumes her identity, setting in motion a friction that can only lead to self-destruction. Cinematographer Alex Phillips creates a variety of stunning sequences, most notably the final walk to the executioner with a gorgeous canvas of light and prison bars on endless walls and ceilings, but also a number of treks by women in black capes and veils up and down the dramatic mansion staircase. Most notably, the murder scene choreographed in silhouette is noir at its gorgeous pinnacle, while Raul Lavista’s score conveys out-of-place sci-fi kookiness and frenetic human drama.