A Double Life

 

 

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I first saw Ronald Colman in the 1937 film "Lost Horizon" and I was immediately impressed with his acting ability, primarily his use of subtlety and gesture. His type of acting is extremely rare by todays standards, where the stories are more likely to contain rapid, complex camera shots and special effects to propel the plot. But back in the Silver Screen era it was all about a tight script and excellent acting. That is what we have here, with a particularly potent performance given by the star Ronald Colman. His performance garnered the 1947 Oscar for Best Actor, and many said it was a long time coming. The story is about a stage actor content to play comic leads when he is offered the lead role in Shakespear's "Othello." He is reluctant to play the part due to a subconcious realization that his roles eventually seep into his real life, becoming an actual part of his character. When considering the lead in "Othello" this cannot be a good thing. Tragedy is an eventuality. The highlights in the film, for me, were the scenes from the play on stage. Ronald Colman loses hiself in the character completely both on and off the stage and is ultimately very believable and creepy. There are the occasional conventional plot devices common to the era used to wrap things up neatly, but overall this is a forgotten gem of a film from acclaimed director George Cukor. Once the begining credits unfolded and that director's name was shown I knew this was going to be at the very least, acceptable; at best, exceptional. This film falls nicely between those two possibilities, with a terrific lead performance from Ronald Colman. Thank you.

Universal Pictures presents "A DOUBLE LIFE" (1948) (104 min/B&W) -- Starring: Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso, Edmond O'Brien & Shelley Winters

Directed by George Cukor

Anthony John (Ronald Colman) is an actor whose life is strongly influenced by the characters he plays. When he's playing comedy, he's the most enjoyable person in the world, but when he's playing drama, it's terrible to be around him. That's the reason why his wife Brita (Signe Hasso) divorced him; although she still loves him and works with him, she couldn't stand living with him anymore. So when Anthony accepts to play Othello, he devotes himself entirely to the part, but it soon overwhelms him and with each day his mind gets filled more and more with Othello's murderous jealousy.

Won Oscars for Best Actor (Ronald Colman) and for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Miklós Rózsa)

Nominated Oscar for Best Director (George Cukor) and Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin)

Not to be overlooked is Milton Krasner's atmospheric cinematography.

Special footnotes: -- In the film, Ronald Colman plays a fictional actor who stars in the longest-running "Othello" in history. In real life, actor Paul Robeson, who had just become the first black actor to star in an otherwise white production of "Othello" on Broadway, had just completed the longest run of the play.

The role of Anthony John was originally written for Laurence Olivier. Olivier was unavailable when the film finally went into production.

BIOS:
1. Frank Lloyd (Director)
Date of Birth: 2 February 1886 - Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Date of Death: 10 August 1960 - Santa Monica, California

2. Ronald Colman [aka: Ronald Charles Colman]
Date of Birth: 9 February 1891 - Richmond, Surrey, England, UK
Date of Death: 19 May 1958 - Santa Barbara, California

3. Signe Hasso [aka: Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson]
Date of Birth: 15 August 1910 - Stockholm, Sweden
Date of Death: 7 June 2002 - Los Angeles, California

4. Edmond O'Brien [aka: Redmond O'Brien]
Date of Birth: 10 September 1915 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 9 May 1985 - Inglewood, California

5. Shelley Winters [aka: Shirley Schrift]
Date of Birth: 18 August 1920 - St. Louis, Missouri
Date of Death: 14 January 2006 - Beverly Hills, California

6. Miklós Rózsa
Date of Birth: 18 April 1907 - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)
Date of Death: 27 July 1995 - Los Angeles, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 104 min on DVD ~ Universal Pictures ~ (July 22, 2003)

First off, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the "print" for this DVD.

If you are familiar with most of the popular Ronald Colman movies -- "Lost Horizon" and "Random Harvest", for example -- be prepared for a shock. In this film, Colman plays a dark role of an actor who declines into insanity and murder. It's such a role reversal, no wonder he got the Academy Award for it! Colman was getting older here -- 57 -- but the golden voice is unmistakeable. I worried this film might never make it to DVD...thank goodness it did.

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