A Double Life-1947

This film tells the story of an actor whose mind becomes affected by the character he portrays. The role of Othello is not what every actor can bring off so easily knowing he is only play-acting. Much less can, however talented put on the role of the Moor night and after night without paying the price. It is like going through the revolving doors so often and and not knowing at a given point of time if he is coming or going. Anthony John (Colman) is a successful actor who has a problem, an occupational hazard, and becomes increasingly out of touch with reality. He has so convincingly got inside his role so much so he cannot distinguish the role with the real. Originally written for Laurence Olivier, A Double Life ultimately served as the vehicle, which brought Ronald Colman his only Oscar.
The award was a well deserved one, and his voice one of his chief assets is described as "a bewitching, finely-modulated, resonant voice." The descending madness like the avenging angel tips the thespian over the edge in the very success (in movie, Anthony John stars in a Broadway production of Othello, that plays more than 300 performances and runs over a year.) and as we see his personal life is in doldrums and must cope with his sanity even as he speaks set speeches so convincingly. The shadow of madness, the frenzy, the fight for sanity are all portrayed in an electrifying manner. Colman makes this man both monstrous and appealing.
In a fit of delirium, he strangles his casual mistress, Pat (Shelley Winters), but retains no memory of the awful crime. Press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O'Brien), unaware that Anthony is the killer, uses Pat's murder as publicity for Othello. Anthony becomes enraged at this cheap ploy, and attacks Friend. At this point, Anthony realizes that he has been living "a double life" and is in fact Pat's murderer. This duality of the central character is visually impacted in the viewers mind by mirrors and reflection, somewhat remniscent of films as diverse as M or The Servant.
A Double Life was written for the screen by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.
Directed by George Cukor the film brings out creditable performance from all and especially a convincing and vulnerable performance from Shelley Winters. (Hal Erickson, Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Cast

* Whit Bissell - Dr. Stauffer
* Ronald Colman - Anthony John
* Betsy Blair - Girl in Wig Shop
* Signe Hasso - Brita
* Edmond O'Brien - Bill Friend
* David Bond - ["othello" Sequence]
* Harlan Briggs - Oscar Bemard
* Shelley Winters - Pat Kroll
* Georgia Caine - [A Gentleman's Gentleman Sequence]
* Ray Collins - Victor Donlan
Julie Kirgo wrote that A Double Life is truly a picture of opposing forces, mirror images and deadly doubles: "Anthony John is at war with Othello, the elegant world of the theater is opposed to the squalid existence of Shelley Winters' Pat Kroll, and illusion versus reality are all conveyed in opposing lights and darks of Krasner's luminous photography."
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography Milton R. Krasner
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Movies with the Same Personnel
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Other Related Movies
is related to: Othello (1952, Orson Welles)
Who Am I This Time? (1982, Jonathan Demme)
I Love a Man in Uniform (1993, David Wellington)
* Run Time: 103 minutes
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