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A Double Life Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 9 Reviews)

Truly Incredible Acting By Ron Coleman!!
One can only wonder at the phenomenal work here by Coleman, and the other performances are all first rate too! With some wonderful Broadway scenes, indoor and out, this movie seems harmless and amusing enough at the beginning, until finally our handsome, debonair actor (Coleman) decides to play the super-tragic anti-hero Othello. From there, this movies turns into a virtual Jekyll & Hyde character study, as he gets into his Othello role so much, it is practically inescapable. His ex-wife as Desdomona appears to be having her own affair with the theatre manager, and even though Othello and Desdomona are remar kably friendly (at least on the surface) depite their divorce, Coleman begins to get really overwrought by the situation, and we get a feeling his recent friendship with a aspring model/ waitress, played by Winters, will somehow come to no good. Playing 2 roles, one can only and think of Coleman's role: "Now this is truly an actor's art". And the whole movie is just about as perfect!

In search of a personage!
Anthony John (Ronald Colman) is a hard obsessed actor with his stage roles being incapable to leave them in the theater. His wife Brita (Signe Hasso) will play Desdemona. Suddenly appears a pathetically lonely actress Pat (Shelley Winters)who eventually seduces him. By opening night Anthony begins to feel the same jealous madness when he is suspicious about a love affair among Brita and the play' s a gent press Bill Friend (Edmond O'Brien). After a jealous scene, he goes in search of Pat and personifies Othello lines and the madness will occur, struggling in the real life to Pat until die.
These are the dramatic premises in which Double life unfolds. This picture works out as tale of opposing forces, mirror images and deadly doubles.
Illusion versus reality.
This was the only excursion of Georges Cukor in this genre.


Psychological Melodrama & Murder among the Footlights.
Ronald Colman won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1948 for his leading role in "A Double Life". Colman plays Anthony John, a talented and popular theater actor who has a reputation for being difficult and moody when he does intense dramatic roles. When his producer proposes that he take the title role in a production of Shakespeare's "Othello", a trepidatious Anthony replies, "I've got a feeling it isn't the sort of thing I ought to do, great or no." But he succumbs to Othello's lure, and plays the Moorish king opposite his ex-wife and frequent co-star Brita (Signe Hasso) as Desdemona. Anthony has a affair with a waitress, Pat Krall (Shelley Winters), who propositioned him as she served him. Gradually, the character of Othello seeps so deeply into Anthony's psyche that he cannot separate Othello's jealousy and rage from his own and he becomes convinced that Pat is having an affair with his press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O'Brien).

"A Double Life" is psychological melodrama. Anthony John's passions are larger than life. His manner is studied and refined. And this all seems appropriate to the milieu: the theater. Anthony John's obsession -or possession- might have been an excuse to make a movie about theater. The film is immersed in the theatrical world. Great attention to detail were paid to the appearance and workings of the theater and its staff. We learn about Anthony's life and character through a monologue. Later, a soliloquy takes us through the actor's preparation for his role. Writers Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin create the drama by giving the process through which an actor transforms himself a sinister twist. Anthony describes his method: "The part begins to seep into your life. The battle begins. Imagination against reality. Each in its place. That's the job, if you can do it." He couldn't this time. "A Double Life" will be too melodramatic for some viewers and too stilted for others. But it's an interesting tribute to theater and a reasonably entertaining crime film. The Republic DVD (2003) has no bonus features, but the print and sound quality are good.

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