An actor has reached theatrical stardom thanks to his deeply sensitive grip on his characters. Sadly, this works both ways : his own vulnerable psyche is influenced by whatever role he's currently playing. Let him play in a nicely polished comedy and he will become witty, debonair, charming in real life ; put him in a soul-crushing drama and he will suffer from melancholia. This is not good news, especially when the actor becomes the protagonist in Shakespeare's "Othello"... An excellent noir with an emphasis on psychological tension, "A Double Life" is also a fine homage to the dark power of Shakespeare's tragedy. Nearly every aspect is outstanding : the casting, the directing, the writing, the acting (with special thanks to Ronald Colman and Signe Hasso, who are both spell-binding) and so on. The plot contains a beautifully ironic twist which doubles as a comment on the venality of a certain kind of press. ("Pay us enough and we'll write whatever you want, even if this means interfering with police business or trivialising the life and death of random citizens.") Sadly enough, this comment from the year 1947 has lost none of its real-life pertinence - on the contrary.The production values are through the roof, allowing such luxuries as lavish sets and costumes for a fictional theatrical run of "Othello". It needs to be said that the excerpts from the play are well worth a watch, too - I have seen worse "straight" performances. Have you noticed how many films and plays bear the title "A double life" or "Double life" ? As a Belgian I can tell you that there exists a recent Flemish television series called "Dubbelleven", about the fall-out left by the accidental death of a man who had both a long-time female partner and a legitimate wife. And this is but one example out of many...

Anthony John 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 divorced him; although she still loves him and works with him, she couldn't stand living with him anymore.As far as noir goes, I don't think this one is very well known. You would think that with George Cukor directing, it would have some sort of resonance, but apparently only in the right circles. Ronald Colman, somehow, never seems to have been as big of an actor as he obviously should have been. He's not one of those household names.At least the DVD comes with an intro by Martin Scorsese to give the film its proper respect, but this is one of those titles that would benefit from a deluxe edition if you were able to find a scholar to talk about it.

Actor Tony Johns (Ronald Colman) gets wrapped up in every role he has on stage, at least since Brita (Signe Hasso) came into his life. At some point in the past, she got him to take his career seriously - advice he took a little too much to heart, the two married, and then divorced. Brita's encouragement resulted in Tony immersing himself in a role, which was OK when he was playing a comedy, but the darker the role the darker Tony John's alter-ego would get, which is what caused the divorce in the first place. When Tony Johns decides to play Othello, his darkest mood yet comes over him, focusing upon the jealousy he has for the relationship between his ex-wife and a journalist (Edmond O'Brien) who is in love with her.Colman plays his role superbly as he is a complex villain with whom you can very much sympathize. Instead, woman-to-woman, it is Hasso's Brita that I would like to slap around in a room for about half an hour - she is leading an emotionally troubled man on and being a great big tease when, for her, the relationship is forever over. It's never clear why she still hangs around giving the guy hope and acting all lovey dovey when she's got to know how Tony still feels, plus she knows his trouble distinguishing reality from the plays in which he stars. If she's the accomplished actress she appears to be, she could get other roles and clear out of Tony's life, yet she just won't make a clean break of it and let the guy heal. Thus she's shocked...shocked I say!...when her "I'm just out of your reach" routine almost turns to murder one night with a confused and enraged Tony/Othello staggering off into the night saying "must..not...hurt...Brita". Who does he hurt? Watch and find out.Although this was a great role for Colman and surely worthy of a Best Actor Oscar, he had so many other roles that were superb too. From the silent era, to his adventurous early sound years when his voice boosted his fame considerably, on to more serious roles in the later 30's and 40's, it's almost like the Academy wasn't sure what Colman's last film role would be and didn't want to lose an opportunity to reward him. This is one film I don't get tired of - it's one of my personal favorites. It has great performances by the entire cast, a couple of big names just starting out, Colman winding down in a superb film career and basically going out on top, and an atmosphere that fits the film's complex mood like a glove. Highly recommended.

Ronald Colman is actor Anthony John, who finds himself leading "A Double Life" in this 1947 film directed by George Cukor and written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.There are mutterings in the beginning of the film about some problem with "Tony" (Colman) the last time he took on a serious role, such a bad problem that his wife, fellow actress Brita (Signe Hasso), could no longer stay with him. When Tony is finally convinced to do the title role in "Othello," we begin to see what the problem is. He disappears into his role and acts it out offstage as well as on -- and pretty soon, his onstage performances become pretty terrifying.The elegant Colman is terrific as Anthony, particularly the offstage Anthony, who believes he's Othello and searches for a Desdemona to murder. His actual Othello is good but slightly old-fashioned. The trend today is more naturalistic. Nevertheless, for the times, he had the speaking voice and the style.Shelley Winters has an early role as a victim - she's very young and pretty.Recommended -- see it for Colman's Oscar-winning performance.