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The headlines in the morning: HAM ACTOR KILLS GIRL, SHAKESPEARE. Seriously, the great weakness with George Cukor’s otherwise fine film of a strong Ruth Gordon-Garson Kanin script is in the sequences purporting to show the brilliant performances by Tony John (Ronald Colman) and ex-wife Brita (Signe Hasso) in Othello. They’re woefully bad. Colman lurches about like a ingénue in a high school play and moans stiltedly, irresistibly calling to mind the two immortal actors in Blackadder The Third.
The headlines in the morning: HAM ACTOR KILLS GIRL, SHAKESPEARE. Seriously, the great weakness with George Cukor’s otherwise fine film of a strong Ruth Gordon-Garson Kanin script is in the sequences purporting to show the brilliant performances by Tony John (Ronald Colman) and ex-wife Brita (Signe Hasso) in Othello. They’re woefully bad. Colman lurches about like a ingénue in a high school play and moans stiltedly, irresistibly calling to mind the two immortal actors in Blackadder The Third.
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In general, however, though dated, A Double Life is still strong, distinguished by Cukor’s subtly superb direction. The premier spit-polish artisan of the High Studio Era of a decade before, seems to relish breaking out into the real world for some deft location shooting, and energises him for some intriguing sequences: Cukor does an excellent job of communicating Tony’s schizoid breakdown, as he tries to block out the pestering voices that pursue him through parties…
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…and the streets, and drive him to murder waitress Pat (Shelley Winters).
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The murder, and the on-stage climax, are striking in their use of lighting and settings, reflecting the dissolving barriers between life and art in Tony’s brain with the alternating shadows in Pat’s apartment and the looming faces of justice staring at him through the stage scenery, actors in the play and the policemen come to arrest him indistinguishable, evoking a disintegrating personality and perspective.
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I’ve mentioned in the past my intense disinterest in the life-imitating-art idea of the crazed actor, and the plot of A Double Life at no point bears up to scrutiny, but the dialogue is cutting and the characters rich enough to make it more than just another tinny melodrama. The sense of both street life and theatrical life is pungent. Colman, who got an Oscar for his work, is affecting when not being Othello, wearing his crumpled nobility like a five o’clock shadow.
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