A Double Life (1947 film)

Last updated
A Double Life
A Double Life poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Ruth Gordon
Garson Kanin
Produced by Michael Kanin
Starring Ronald Colman
Signe Hasso
Edmond O'Brien
Cinematography Milton R. Krasner
Edited by Robert Parrish
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Production
company
Kanin Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • December 25, 1947 (1947-12-25)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.7 million (US rentals) [1]

A Double Life is a 1947 American film noir which tells the story of an actor whose mind becomes affected by the character he portrays. It stars Ronald Colman and Signe Hasso. It is directed by George Cukor, with screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. [2] Ronald Colman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in this film.

Contents

Plot

Celebrated stage actor Anthony "Tony" John, riding high on the success of his current comedy "A Gentleman's Gentleman", is offered the lead in a new production of Shakespeare's Othello by theatrical producer Max Lasker. Lasker also wants Tony's ex-wife, Brita, to co-star as Desdemona.

Tony initially declines the offer, to the relief of director Victor Donlan, who knows that Tony becomes overly involved in his roles. Brita agrees with Donlan and warns press agent Bill Friend that although Tony's mood is delightful when appearing in a comedy, he is terrifying when performing in a drama. She warns Friend that Tony becomes so immersed in roles, that they can take over his reality.

Tony changes his mind after becoming obsessed with the idea of portraying Othello. Whilst contemplating the role, Tony meets waitress Pat Kroll at an Italian restaurant, and the two soon begin a casual affair. Brita reluctantly accepts the role of Desdemona and rehearsals begin. The production opens to rave reviews, but Tony gradually becomes absorbed in his role and begins to lose a grip on where the play ends and his real life begins. Tony sees jealousy as the key to his character.

Just before the 300th performance of the play, Brita shows him a locket Bill gave her for her birthday and this sparks jealous rages within him. That night, during Othello's "kiss of death" scene with Desdemona, Tony becomes overcome with the role and nearly chokes Brita to death. When the play begins its second year, Tony asks Brita to remarry him, but she refuses. Tony suspects Brita is in love with Bill. Enraged, confused and delirious, Tony goes to Pat's apartment. The play and reality become conflated in his mind and he eventually kills Pat with Othello's "kiss of death." Tony returns to Brita's and falls asleep on her couch.

The next day, reporter Al Cooley offers Bill front page publicity for Tony's play by pointing out the similarities between Pat's murder and Othello's "kiss of death." Tony is enraged when he sees the story, and physically attacks Bill. Bill suspects Tony is Pat's killer and goes to the police, only to find that Pat's drunken neighbor has been arrested for her murder. Tony demands Bill's dismissal, and Bill plans a short vacation. Bill tells Brita he loves her, but Brita does not return his feelings. However, Brita reveals to Bill that Tony left her home on the night of Pat's murder.

Bill hires an actress to dress up like Pat, including wearing Pat's distinctive earrings, and plants her as a waitress in the restaurant where Pat had worked. Bill invites Tony to the restaurant, and with police captain Pete Bonner watching. Tony becomes distraught upon seeing Pat's "double" and rushes out of the restaurant. Suspicious now, Bill and the police follow Tony to the theater. Standing in the wings, they watch the performance and are seen there by Tony. At the climax of the performance of Othello that evening, a guilt-ridden Tony stabs himself to death with a real dagger - at the point Othello does within the play. Backstage, bleeding from his self-inflicted wound, he confesses all and dies.

Cast

Production

The leading role had originally been slated for Laurence Olivier. Colman was initially anxious about doing Shakespeare on screen. To reassure him, Cukor told the actor that the film had been designed to get him a long-overdue Oscar (which he later won); Colman had been nominated three times before. [3]

Miklós Rózsa's music, for which he won his second Academy Award, mixes his own modern idiom with passages in the Venetian style of the sixteenth century. The composer later adopted the title Double Life for his 1982 memoir to signify the division in his career between absolute music and Hollywood film scores.

Reception

When the film premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther wrote, "We have it on the very good authority of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, who should know—they being not only actors and playwrights but wife and spouse—that what seems a fairly safe profession, acting, is as dangerous as they come and love between people of the theatre is an adventure fraught with infinite perils. Especially is it risky when an actor takes his work seriously and goes in for playing "Othello." Then handkerchiefs and daggers rule his mind. At least, that is what is demonstrated in a rich, exciting, melodramatic way in the Kanins' own plushy production...George Cukor, in his direction, amply proves that he knows the theatre, its sights and sounds and brittle people." [4]

Critic Jerry Renshaw wrote in 1999, "A Double Life is an unusually intelligent, literate noir that is a classy departure from the pulpy "B" atmospherics often associated with the genre. Keep an eye out for Paddy Chayefsky and John Derek in minuscule bit parts." [5]

Accolades

AwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
Academy Awards Best Director George Cukor Nominated [6]
Best Actor Ronald Colman Won
Best Original Screenplay Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin Nominated
Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Miklós Rózsa Won
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role Ronald ColmanWon [7]
Venice International Film Festival Grand International Prize of Venice George CukorNominated

Others

The film was nominated by the American Film Institute for its 2005 compilation AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Cukor</span> American film director and producer

George Dewey Cukor was an American film director and producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Our Betters (1933), and Little Women (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed Dinner at Eight (1933) and David Copperfield (1935) for Selznick, and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Camille (1936) for Irving Thalberg.

<i>Othello</i> Play of about 1603 by William Shakespeare

Othello is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603. The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Gordon</span> American actress and writer (1896–1985)

Ruth Gordon Jones was an American actress, screenwriter, and playwright. She began her career performing on Broadway at age 19. Known for her nasal voice and distinctive personality, Gordon gained international recognition and critical acclaim for film roles that continued into her 70s and 80s. Her later work included performances in Rosemary's Baby (1968), What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), Where's Poppa? (1970), Harold and Maude (1971), Every Which Way But Loose (1978), Any Which Way You Can (1980), and My Bodyguard (1980).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharine Hepburn</span> American actress (1907–2003)

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work was in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.

<i>Adams Rib</i> 1949 film by George Cukor

Adam's Rib is a 1949 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor from a screenplay written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. It stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as married lawyers who come to oppose each other in court. Judy Holliday co-stars as the third lead in her second credited movie role. Also featured are Tom Ewell, David Wayne, and Jean Hagen. The music was composed by Miklós Rózsa, and the song "Farewell, Amanda" was written by Cole Porter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judy Holliday</span> American actress, singer (1921–1965)

Judy Holliday was an American actress, comedian and singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iago</span> Fictional character in Shakespeares Othello

Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello. Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago hates Othello and devises a plan to destroy him by making him believe that Desdemona is having an affair with his lieutenant, Michael Cassio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desdemona</span> Character in Othello

Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello. Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian military prodigy. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the Republic of Venice, Desdemona accompanies him. There, her husband is manipulated by his ensign Iago into believing she is an adulteress, and, in the last act, she is murdered by her estranged spouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garson Kanin</span> American film and theatre director, playwright, screenwriter

Garson Kanin was an American writer and director of plays and films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signe Hasso</span> Swedish actress

Signe Eleonora Cecilia Hasso was a Swedish actress, writer, and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Gunton</span> American film, television, and theatre actor

Robert Patrick Gunton Jr. is an American character actor of stage and screen. He is known for playing strict authoritarian characters, including Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison drama The Shawshank Redemption, Chief George Earle in 1993's Demolition Man, Dr. Walcott, the domineering dean of Virginia Medical School in Patch Adams, and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in Argo. He also played Leland Owlsley in the Daredevil television series, Secretary of Defense Ethan Kanin in 24, and Noah Taylor in Desperate Housewives.

<i>Born Yesterday</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by George Cukor

Born Yesterday is a 1950 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor, based on the 1946 stage play of the same name by Garson Kanin. The screenplay was credited to Albert Mannheimer. According to Kanin's autobiography, Cukor did not like Mannheimer's work, believing it lacked much of the play's value, so he approached Kanin about adapting a screenplay from his own play. Because of legal entanglements, Kanin did not receive screen credit.

<i>Pat and Mike</i> 1953 film by George Cukor

Pat and Mike is a 1952 American romantic comedy film starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The movie was written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, and directed by George Cukor. Cukor directed The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Hepburn, and Cukor, Gordon and Kanin teamed with Hepburn and Tracy again for Adam's Rib (1949). Gordon and Kanin were nominated for the 1952 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. for their work on Pat and Mike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolande Donlan</span> American-British actress (1920–2014)

Yolande Donlan was an American-born British-based actress who worked extensively in the United Kingdom.

<i>Othello</i> (1995 film) 1995 British film

Othello is a 1995 drama film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Oliver Parker and stars Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago. This is the first cinematic reproduction of the play released by a major studio that casts an African American actor to play the role of Othello, although low-budget independent films of the play starring Ted Lange and Yaphet Kotto predated it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Othello (character)</span> Character in "Othello"

Othello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello. The character's origin is traced to the tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roderigo</span> Character in Othello

Roderigo is a fictional character in Shakespeare's 1604 play Othello. Roderigo, a wealthy Venetian, is manipulated into funding the antagonist Iago's machinations in the belief that Iago will aid him in courting Othello's wife Desdemona. In the later stages of the play, Iago recruits Roderigo in hopes of assassinating Othello's former lieutenant Michael Cassio, though when he fails and is injured in this attempt, he is murdered by Iago in retaliation.

<i>Kaliyattam</i> 1997 Indian film

Kaliyattam is a 1997 Indian Malayalam-language tragedy film directed by Jayaraj. It stars Suresh Gopi, Lal, Manju Warrier, and Biju Menon. The film is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Othello, set against the backdrop of the Theyyam performance of Kerala. The film's screenplay is written by Balram Mattannur. Suresh Gopi plays Kannan Perumalayan, the equivalent to Othello. Lal plays Paniyan, the equivalent to Iago. Manju Warrier plays Thamara, the Desdemona version. And Biju Menon plays Kanthan, Cassio's role. Suresh Gopi's role as Kannan Perumalayan was critically acclaimed and it was considered one of his finest acting performances in his career.

<i>The Scarlett OHara War</i> 1980 television film by John Erman

The Scarlett O'Hara War is a 1980 American made-for-television drama film directed by John Erman. It is based on the 1979 novel Moviola by Garson Kanin. Set in late 1930s Hollywood, it is about the search for the actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in the much anticipated film adaptation of Gone with the Wind (1939). This film premiered as the finale of a three-night TV miniseries on NBC called Moviola: A Hollywood Saga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural references to Othello</span>

In addition to its appearance in the theatre, the character of Othello from the tragic play by William Shakespeare has appeared in many examples in art and culture since being authored by Shakespeare in the early 16th century.

References

  1. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1948", Variety 5 January 1949 p 46
  2. ↑ A Double Life at IMDb.
  3. ↑ "New York State Writers Institute File Notes" . Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  4. ↑ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times , film review, February 20, 1948. Last accessed: March 29, 2008.
  5. ↑ Renshaw, John Archived 2006-05-06 at the Wayback Machine . Austin Chronicle , film review, February 23, 1999. Last accessed: March 29, 2008.
  6. ↑ "The 20th Academy Awards (1948) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
  7. ↑ "A Double Life – Golden Globes". HFPA . Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  8. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.