A Double Life **** (1947, Ronald Colman, Shelley Winters, Signe Hasso, Edmond O’Brien, Millard Mitchell, Ray Collins) – Classic Movie Review 5359

The 1947 film noir crime thriller A Double Life stars Ronald Colman, who is on Best Actor Oscar-winning form as a tortured actor obsessed with his latest role as Othello and his murderous jealousy.

Director George Cukor’s 1947 double Oscar-winning film noir crime thriller film A Double Life stars Ronald Colman, who is on sensitive, Oscar-winning and Golden Globe-winning Best Actor form as a tortured actor called Anthony ‘Tony’ John, who is increasingly tormented and obsessed with his latest role as Shakespeare’s Othello and his murderous jealousy.

It is a classic case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-style tortured double personality. The dark joke here is that when Anthony John is playing comedy, he is sweet but, when he is playing drama, he’s a killer.

It also stars Signe Hasso as his ex-wife Brita, Edmond O’Brien as Bill Friend, Shelley Winters as Pat Kroll, Ray Collins as Victor Donlan, Philip Loeb as Max Lasker, and Millard Mitchell as Al Cooley.

The ancient premise is freshened up with a lively, witty original screenplay by sophisticated comedy specialists Garson Kanin and his actress wife Ruth Gordon, who concentrate on developing the spicy background detail of Broadway theatrical life. They were Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay and so was Cukor as Best Director.

Miklos Rozsa won an Oscar too for his music, Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, one of his three Oscars that also include his work on the scores for Spellbound and Ben-Hur (1959). He used the title Double Life for his 1982 memoir.

Perhaps it could have been slightly brighter and smarter, but it is certainly more than enjoyable enough, and Colman’s brio performance turns it into a success, with Hasso and the young Winters strong assets too.

Also in the cast are Philip Loeb, Joe Sawyer, Whit Bissell, Elizabeth Dunne, Harlan Briggs, Charles LaTorre, John Drew Colt, Peter Thompson, Alan Edmiston, Art Smith, Wilton Graff, Betsy Blair, Curt Conway, Paddy Chayefsky and John Derek in a small role under his temporary stage name of Dare Harris. Humphrey Bogart saw this film and cast Derek as killer Nick (Pretty Boy) Romano in his feature Knock on Any Door (1949) and renamed him John Derek.

It is Colman’s only Oscar win, but he was nominated for Random Harvest (1942) and twice in the same year, for Bulldog Drummond (1929) and Condemned! (1929).

After the Oscar-winning writer Paddy Chayefsky went to Hollywood in 1947 to try work as a screenwriter, his friends Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon found him a job in Universal Pictures’ accounting office and Kanin got him a bit part in A Double Life, while he studied acting at the Actor’s Lab.

The cast are Ronald Colman as Anthony ‘Tony’ John, Signe Hasso as Brita, Edmond O’Brien as Bill Friend, Shelley Winters as Pat Kroll, Ray Collins as Victor Donlan, Philip Loeb as Max Lasker, Millard Mitchell as Al Cooley, Joe Sawyer as Pete Bonner, Charles La Torre as Stellini, Whit Bissell as Dr Stauffer, Elizabeth Dunne, Harlan Briggs, John Drew Colt, Peter Thompson, Alan Edmiston, Art Smith, Wilton Graff, Betsy Blair, Curt Conway, Paddy Chayefsky and John Derek.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 5359

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