The Other

The Other
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Mulligan
Produced by	Tom Tryon Robert Mulligan
Written by	Tom Tryon (also novel)
Starring	Uta Hagen Diana Muldaur Chris Udvarnoky Martin Udvarnoky
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Robert L. Surtees
Edited by	Folmar Blangsted O. Nicholas Brown
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	May 26, 1972
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,250,000
Box office	$3.5 million (US/ Canada)

The Other is a 1972 psychological thriller film directed by Robert Mulligan, adapted for film by Tom Tryon from his novel of the same name. It stars Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, and Chris and Martin Udvarnoky.

It's a seemingly idyllic summer in 1935, and identical twins Niles and Holland Perry play on the bucolic family farm. Holland is an amoral mischief maker while Niles is more sympathetic. Niles carries a tobacco tin with him containing several secret trinkets, including the Perry family ring, which had been handed down to Holland, the older twin. Their obnoxious cousin Russell finds them in the apple cellar below the barn—a place they are not supposed to play—and sees the contents of the tobacco tin. Russell states that the ring was supposed to be buried, and promises to "tell on" Niles to his father, Niles' Uncle George. Uncle George padlocks the door to the cellar, but there is another stairway inside the barn, giving them access.

The twins' mother is a frail recluse, physically weak and emotionally damaged. Grandmother Ada, a Russian emigrant, dotes on Niles, and has taught him a psychic ability to project himself outside of his body, for example in a bird; this ability she calls "the great game."

Several tragedies befall the family and neighborhood, to people who have caused trouble for the boys, and it appears Holland may be responsible. Russell is killed before he can reveal that Niles has the heirloom ring. Neighbor Mrs. Rowe, who had complained because Holland broke a jar of her preserves, has a fatal heart attack. The twins' mother finds Niles' tobacco tin, containing a severed finger. That night, she demands that Niles tell her how he has possession of the ring and he says Holland gave it to him. She is shocked; a struggle ensues and she falls down the stairs and is rendered partially paralyzed.

Ada discovers Mrs. Rowe's dead body, and finds Holland's harmonica at the scene. She seeks out Niles and locates him in church, where he is transfixed by the image of "The Angel of a Better Day," which Ada had described to Niles as a comforting conveyor of the soul to heaven. Ada confronts Niles, and he identifies Holland as the culprit. Ada demands that he face the truth: Holland has been dead since their birthday in March, when he fell down the well trying to drown a cat. He was thought to have been buried with his father's ring. Niles relives the memory of how he acquired the ring: he opened Holland's coffin and Holland spoke to him, insisting that he cut his finger off and take the ring. Niles kept both the ring and the severed finger.