Chained for Life (1951)

Director:

Harry L. Fraser

Writers:

Ross Frisco (idea) and
Nat Tanchuck (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

29 October 1954 (Finland)

Genre:

Crime

Tagline:

Frank! daring! bold! Like nothing you've ever seen!

Plot:

A Siamese twin kills the husband who left her. The courts have to decide if she is convicted of murder, how can they punish her sister, who had nothing to do with the crime?

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Siamese Twins | Exploitation

Cast

Violet Hilton	...	Vivian Hamilton
Daisy Hilton	...	Dorothy Hamilton
Mario Laval	...	Andre Pariseau
Allen Jenkins	...	Hinkley
Patricia Wright	...	Renée
Alan Keys	...	Defense Attorney
Norval Mitchell	...	Judge Mitchell (as Norvel Mitchell)
Edna Holland	...	Mabel
Brian O'Hara
Herbert Lytton	...	District Attorney
Jack Mulhall	...	Dr. Thompson
Jim Hope
Roy Regnier
Zena Barry
Tony Lavello	...	Tony Lavello (singer)

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | UK:(Banned)

Company:

Spera Productions Inc.

Trivia:

Much of the plot was derived from real events in the lives of Siamese twins Daisy Hilton and Violet Hilton: the sham-marriage for publicity; the difficulty getting a marriage license due to morals concerns; the vaudeville singing career.

Movie Connections:

Edited into "Muchachada nui: (#2.4)" (2008)

I didn't look for a courtroom epic, so I wasn't disappointed.

If you want a story about gripping law drama, this isn't the place to go, but then I suspected that before I obtained the film. Chained for Life isn't Judging Amy, the Practice, Ally McBeal or Law & Order (thank goodness, if you ask me). It's pure grade B, with dead performances from Daisy and Violet Hilton, yet seems better than what I expected; filmed better and with interesting dialogue at times (the blind doctor the twins went to see about a separation). They sang better than I do and I was a single birth. Today's vaudeville is a webcam on the internet. And the music organ being played with a gun then stopping on one note was pure Hitchcock ( a master, yes, but at times, he stretched it too). The dream essentially summed up the movie: seeing how these conjoined twins lived and loved and contemplated being separated. They had a similar offering in Freaks, where one is engaged, yet the other one is always present. Both the dream and the doctor pretty well cover any curiosity about how they may have lived with their situation in real life.

If not for the completely and utterly disappointing ending which took place in less than five minutes and did not involve the sisters, the film might have held up better. Don't go looking for tense courtroom drama. It's not here. Want to see how someone copes with a physical challenge? This would be one to think about.