A DOUBLE LIFE: Blu-ray (Universal International 1947) Olive Films
Often seen as
a high concept departure from the pulpy B-grade film noir, George Cukor’s A Double Life (1947) takes the plateau
of high art as exemplified by New York’s chichi Broadway theatre, and
furthermore by no less a playwright than William Shakespeare, and turns the loftiness
of the exercise asunder. During Hollywood’s golden age, live theatre frequently
looked down at the movies as being a lesser entertainment by direct comparison.
Those toiling in their dramatics on the stage firmly believed that the movies
had watered down not only the raw human intensity of storytelling but also
shattered the spontaneity in performance. Three years after A Double Life, screenwriter Joseph L.
Mankiewicz would launch his own creative rebuttal to this perception,
challenging such snootiness with, arguably, the most scathingly on point
critique of theatre folk ever made: All
About Eve (1950).
A Double Life doesn’t have such lofty ambitions. It’s theater folk are
good people, however insincerely average, into whose midst a nightmarish
descend into madness begins for its central character, celebrated thespian
Anthony John (Ronald Colman). The film intelligently realigns what might
otherwise be considered a traditional melodrama with its dark and moody, strangely
oppressive elements of an urban film noir. It is important to note that ‘film
noir’ was neither a genre nor a deliberate style at the time films like A Double Life were being made. No one,
as example, said ‘let’s go make some film
noir!’ Rather, during and after the war, arguably as a direct response to
it, a darker view of the world around us began to be popularized on celluloid.
But A Double Life does more than simply
comply with the retrofitted esthetics of ‘film noir’. It delivers an engrossing
cocktail, elevated by its backstage premise of an aging celebrity whose
emotional psyche is disintegrating before our very eyes; a story as tragic as
Othello – the Shakespearean masterwork the actors perform within the film. A Double Life also straddles the chasm
between high concept melodrama and B-grade noir, though not always successfully.
Despite some truly exceptional location
work – a rarity in Hollywood then, the film is ever so slightly hampered by the
central casting of Ronald Colman as the disreputable lady’s man who masks his
cynicism and inward implosion of social contempt beneath a very fragile ego and
even more disturbingly frail grasp on reality.
Colman, who
made a career out of playing elegant gentlemen throughout the 1930s and early
40s is working against type in A Double
Life. The departure was so startling and so compelling that it won Colman
his one and only Best Actor Oscar. In retrospect, the honor is justly deserved.
Personal preference of course, but I still favor Colman as the untarnished
heroic and utterly charismatic solid citizen he plays in films like A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda
and Lost Horizon. In A
Double Life Colman is an ignoble charmer, as insincere about his many
fleeting romantic dalliances as he is disgracefully aloof about his own weakening
into madness.
The screenplay
by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin begins with Anthony’s (Colman) arrival to the
theatre in preparation for his last performances in ‘A Gentlemen’s Gentleman’; a frothy nothing of a comedy costarring
his estranged wife, Brita (Signe Hasso). Despite having put her through his various
bouts of melancholy during their marriage, and probably more than a few
indiscretions along the way, Brita and ‘Tony’ have remained the very best of
friends. In fact, they’re estrangement is suggested as more solid than their
marriage ever was. Tony’s manager, Victor Donlan (Ray Collins) is hot for him
to star in a new production of Shakespeare’s Othello. But Tony has reservations
perhaps because, being a consummate professional, he instinctually understands
how much the part will take out of him.
But Tony is
unprepared for what the part might give back, namely an ever-increasing
psychosis that slowly erodes his sanity. To ease his mind, and to distance
himself from the recherché set currently being entertained by Brita at a house
party to mark the closing of their play, Tony goes slumming in New York’s
Little Italy and winds up at a modest bistro where he is certain he can go
unrecognized and unnoticed. Regrettably,
waitress Pat Kroll (Shelley Winters in her first movie) finds Tony attractive
and invites him up to her small apartment. Tony goes, but in the meantime he
has also begun to entertain the idea of remarrying Brita. Conflicted, Tony
leaves Pat’s apartment without a seduction taking place. But Brita is
understandably reluctant to remarry Tony, even though she cannot help but adore
and admire him for the talent that he is.
Tony dives
headstrong into Othello. The play garners him rave reviews. But as the run of
the show nears its 300th performance the part begins to take its
toll. During one of the performances Brita, who is playing Desdemona, suddenly
realizes that Tony has so immersed himself in his character that he actually
believes he is Othello. As the insanely jealous Othello, Tony attempts to
strangle Brita’s Desdemona for real in front of a live audience. He is stirred
back to reality by Brita’s frantic pleas – the audience unaware that anything
out of the ordinary has occurred.
Brita confides
in Bill Friend (Edmund O’Brien); their long suffering stage manager who
actually has loved Brita from afar for many years. The line between Tony and
Othello’s jealousy becomes blurred, with Tony erroneously coming to believe
that Bill has been seducing his ex-wife – possibly even during the years of
their marriage. Tony confronts Brita, who denies his accusations but realizes
that her words alone are unable to convince Tony of her undying love for him.
Brita barricades herself in her bedroom and Tony, unable to satisfy his
bloodlust, takes off into the night, arriving at Pat’s apartment well after
midnight while still hearing voices in his head from the play.
In a fitful
moment of insanity Tony strangles Pat to death, her body discovered, splayed
across the bed, the next morning by the landlady (Fernanda Eliscu). As police
investigate the crime scene, Al Cooley (Millard Mitchell), an overzealous reporter
corners medical examiner, Dr. Stauffer (Whit Bissell) and suggests that a
possible tie in to the Othello play would garner notoriety for the case if
Stauffer were quoted as saying the victim died from “a kiss of death”. Seeing the comparison in the newspaper, Tony is
outraged, though arguably quite unaware that he is responsible for Pat’s
murder. Enraged, Tony confronts Bill about the headline. The two men get into a
skirmish inside Bill’s apartment and Tony, transgressing back into his Othello
alter ego, attempts to strangle Bill. Instead, the much younger Bill breaks
free of Tony’s assault and tosses him out of his apartment.
But their
confrontation leaves Bill thinking. With Al Cooley’s aid, Bill hires a girl (Marjorie
Woodworth) to impersonate Pat. He invites Tony to a restaurant, presumably to
patch up their quarrel, but with Al quietly observing from a distance, as the
girl, disguised as a waitress, approaches their table to inquire what the men
will have to drink. Her striking resemblance to Pat sends Tony
into a panic and he departs the restaurant leaving Bill and Al more perplexed
than ever. Rushing to the theatre for his performance, Tony suddenly has a
moment of clarity in which he realizes he is the one who murdered Pat. Unable
to bring himself to face the music, and realizing that Bill is waiting in the
wings with the police at hand, Tony uses a real dagger for his own death scene
in Othello, thereby putting a definite period to his own mental anguish.
A Double Life is something of a narrative curiosity. George Cukor
directs with his usual panache. But the tale strangely lacks cohesion. The
opening acts play more like a romantic drama before the ground beneath these
seemingly congenial characters begins to shift to quicksand. The Kanin/Garson
screenplay remains rather aloof about the real premise of its story until
roughly 39 minutes into the film when we slowly begin to realize that Tony’s
anxieties about playing Othello are not mere apprehensions but genuine fears
well founded in his withering grasp on reality.
Having seen A Double Life several times throughout
the years, the idea of having Tony strangle Pat – a woman he barely knows and
who has not had the time in their chance meeting to betray his confidences –
has always seemed strained. It would make more sense for Tony to murder his
ex-wife, as he superficially tries to on stage. After all, Tony suspects Brita
of an affair with Bill. But Pat? No, it’s problematic storytelling at best.
Shelley
Winters gives a very good type-cast performance as a woman of easy virtue who’s
not above seducing customers at her regular place of employ. But Signe Hasso is
awkward casting; too good natured and too good to be true as the woman who so obviously
senses instability in the man she loves, but cannot bring herself to accept it
enough to get him the mental help he so obviously needs. The show, however, belongs to Ronald Colman
and he delivers a chilling performance as a man for whom art does indeed
imitate life in very tragic and ultimately self-destructive ways. A Double Life is worth a second glance,
but it somehow doesn’t live up to expectations. It isn’t a melodrama or a true
film noir, but an odd amalgam of the two while meeting the full criteria of
neither.
Olive Film’s
Blu-ray is an equally mixed blessing. While the 1080p image is a quantum leap
ahead from previously issued DVDs, the original elements are fundamentally
flawed. Without the proper restoration we get very inconsistent image
quality. When the image is sharp it
yields an impeccably nuanced gray scale with solid contrast and a striking
amount of fine detail scattered throughout. Unfortunately, a few key sequences
appear to have been sourced from less than stellar existing film stock. Here, contrast
is blown out and the image acquires a very hazy/soft look. These instances of downgrade are infrequent,
but when they occur they are quite distracting. Age related artifacts and a
hint of light ‘breathing’ in around the edges of the frame also prove mildly off-putting.
The audio is DTS, mono as originally recorded, and sounds fairly solid. The
only extra is a brief introduction by Martin Scorsese.
FILM
RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
3
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
1
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