History Film / Sisters1973

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] with the 2015 comedy from Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler.

* CarryingACake: Grace, finding the birthday cake during the investigation of Danielle's apartment, proudly bears it out to the detectives as proof of the existence of Danielle's twin, only trips and drops the cake onto the unimpressed detective's shoes.

A 2006 remake with Creator/LouDoillon as the twins, Creator/ChloeSevigny as Grace, and Creator/StephenRea as the doctor was poorly received and ended up going DirectToVideo. [[SimilarlyNamedWorks Shares a name]] with a 2015 comedy from Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler.

A 2006 remake with French singer-actress Creator/LouDoillon as the twins, Creator/ChloeSevigny as Grace, and Creator/StephenRea as the doctor was poorly received and ended up going DirectToVideo. [[SimilarlyNamedWorks Shares a name]] with a 2015 comedy from Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler.

A 2006 remake with French singer-actress Lou Doillon (daughter of Creator/JaneBirkin) as the twins, Creator/ChloeSevigny as Grace, and Creator/StephenRea as the doctor was poorly received and ended up going DirectToVideo. [[SimilarlyNamedWorks Shares a name]] with a 2015 comedy from Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler.

* SuperOCD: Arlene at the mental ward, who's so TerrifiedOfGerms she thinks they travel through telephone lines and cleans the phone with Lysol.
-->'''Arlene''' (''regarding Grace with suspicion''): You're not supposed to be in here...I think you have a cold...

* DuckSeasonRabbitSeason: When Grace confronts an assistant at the psychiatric home about Danielle, Dr. Breton shows up and acts like Grace is a new patient named Margaret, who ''thinks'' she's a newspaper reporter named Grace. The assistant is taken in by the ruse and follows Breton's instructions to ease her into treatment by calling her Grace, which agitates her and makes her slip-up.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Emil_3564.png]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: Dr. Breton is at first just a face in the audience of the opening sequence game show (though he stands out by reading a book rather than applauding).

* PlayingGertrude: Dr. Breton is supposed to be a good deal older than Danielle, but William Finley was actually just 8 years older than Margot Kidder.

A 2006 remake with French singer-actress Lou Doillon as the twins, Creator/ChloeSevigny as Grace, and Creator/StephenRea as the doctor was poorly received and ended up going DirectToVideo. [[SimilarlyNamedWorks Shares a name]] with a 2015 comedy from Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler.

A 2006 remake with French singer-actress Lou Doillon as the twins, Creator/ChloeSevigny as Grace, and Stephen Rea as the doctor was a critical and financial failure. [[SimilarlyNamedWorks Shares a name]] with a 2015 comedy from Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler.

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler: Ultimately, Dr. Breton fails to make Danielle remember the murder and he's murdered by Dominique. Danielle is arrested and she's still unaware about her split personality. Grace remembers nothing of the murder she was investigating, courtesy of Dr. Breton's hypnosis. However, the private detective is now zeroing in on the body in the couch which leaves us with a pint of hope that the case will be solved eventually.

* RedHerring: Dr. Emil Breton looks ObviouslyEvil when he's first introduced, but as the film goes on we see that he's more of a JerkassWoobie than anything else.

* CarryingACake: Grace, finding the birthday cake during the investigation of Danielle's apartment, proudly bears it out to the detectives as proof of the existence of Danielle's twin, only trips and drops the cake onto the unimpressed detective's shoes.

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler: Ultimately, Dr. Breton fails to make Danielle remember the murder and he's murdered by Dominique. Danielle is arrested and she's still unaware about her split personality. Grace remembers nothing of the murder she was investigating, courtesy of Dr. Breton's hypnosis. However, the private detective is now zeroing in on the body in the couch which leaves us with a pint of hope that the case will be solved eventually.

* GreenEyedMonster: The reason the Blanchion twins were separated. [[spoiler: Dominique found she was sterile and tried to kill a pregnant Danielle out of spite.]]

* MoodWhiplash: In the first few minutes, the film goes from seeming to be a comedy about a wacky game show, to seeming like a romance, then turning into a PsychologicalThriller, then it depicts a [[spoiler:horrific, bloody stabbing death]].

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The original trailers give away the first major plot twist, [[spoiler:Danielle and Dominique being separated ConjoinedTwins]], in the ''opening lines'' of the voiceover.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Ultimately, Dr. Breton fails to make Danielle remember the murder and he's murdered by Dominique. Danielle is arrested and she's still unaware about her split personality. Grace remembers nothing of the murder she was investigating, courtesy of Dr. Breton's hypnosis...and the private detective is left watching the couch holding the body, somehow ''still'' [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint thinking it'll lead to something big]].]]

* ChekhovsGunman: Dr. Breton is at first just a face in the audience of the opening sequence game show (though he stands out by reading a book rather than applauding).

* ChekhovsGun:
** When Danielle and Phillip make out, we see [[spoiler:a nasty scar on her thigh. That's where she was conjoined with Dominique before their separation]].
** The psychiatric ward is mentioned by Grace's mother in the first half of the film. It doesn't make an appearance until toward the end of the film.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Grace (a small-time newspaper reporter who sees herself as a crusading, cutting-edge journalist), Detective Kelly (a patronizing cop who's more concerned with holding petty grudges than solving crimes) and Joseph Larch (an undistinguished private eye who brags of his expertise, while choosing the most complicated investigation methods) all suffer from this.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: "There was no body, because there was no murder." Wouldn't it go without saying that there wasn't a body if there wasn't a murder? But that line is FridgeBrilliance on Dr. Breton's part, because Grace saying it repeatedly will just emphasize how ridiculous it sounds to the police.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler:Danielle, as "Dominique", murders Philip and then Dr. Breton to keep them away from Danielle.]]

* MySisterIsOffLimits: Rare ([[spoiler:and deadly]]) female version - Dominique is jealous and protective towards Danielle.

* ALessonLearnedTooWell: Dr. Breton's hypnosis is so effective, [[spoiler:when police re-open the investigation on Phillip's death after Dr. Breton is killed, Grace adamantly insists that "there was no murder"]].

* CanadaEh: Danielle and Dr. Breton are both from Quebec. Anglo-Canadian Creator/MargotKidder does a very convincing French Canadian accent. William Finley, a [[FakeNationality New Yorker]], goes with a standard evil foreign accent.

* PosterGalleryBedroom: At the end of the film, Grace is back in her girlhood bedroom at her mother's house, with a wall full of pictures and posters, including ones of [[Series/TheAdventuresOfOzzieAndHarriet Rick Nelson]], Creator/RobertMitchum and Music/TheBeatles.

* TheCassandra: The police dismiss Grace's claim that Danielle stabbed a man to death in her apartment. She really did, but it was under the influence of her dead twin Dominique.

Young model Danielle Breton (Kidder) goes on a date with Phillip Woode (Lisle Wilson), but they have an awkward encounter with Dr. Emil Breton (Finley), who Danielle says is her ex-husband. Phillip sleeps over at her apartment, then the next morning awakes to the sound of Danielle and her twin sister Dominique arguing in French. Meanwhile, newspaper reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt), who lives in an adjacent building to Danielle, is certain she's seen a murder in Danielle's apartment, and calls the police. As the story unfolds, it becomes frighteningly clear that the relationship between Danielle, Dominique and Dr. Breton is much more complex and disturbing than it first appeared to be.