☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
A Double Life (1947) – G. Cukor
I’ve had this DVD for a couple of decades and it is a
comfortably familiar watch, reminding me of my time in the theatre (high school
and some of college). Ronald Colman (who won the Best Actor Oscar for this part)
plays Tony John, a Broadway leading man, currently starring in a smash hit
comedy but being enticed to consider Othello as his next big role. Screenwriters
Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin use their knowledge of the theatre to good effect
to bring authentic backstage drama to the screen. Director George Cukor allows
Colman the latitude to develop his character, an actor who allows his parts to
intrude too much into his personal and daily life (cue expressionistic sound
and visions). So, when it comes to
Othello, we see Tony John gradually start to seethe with jealousy – which is
easy because he is still in love with his ex-wife Brita (Signe Hasso), playing
Desdemona, and suspects she is falling for press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O’Brien).
Earlier in the film, when mulling over
the part of the Moor from Venice, Tony stumbles into an Italian restaurant and
he ends up going back to the cheap apartment of the waitress (Shelly Winters) for
a one-night stand (she does not recognize him). Three hundred performances
later, out of his mind with jealousy, he returns to her apartment, confused and
tormented – and the film turns noir. Although
Colman’s take on Shakespeare is hammy, the use of the Bard’s scenes to
subjugate his inner psychological conflicts, unconsciously, is pretty genius. Although I never acted in Othello, I fondly
recall my time doing Shakespeare during the Advanced Studies Program for NH
kids at St Paul’s School (summer of 1984). Tis
truth, his lines have entered our culture, even if we’ve long forgotten their
derivation: Othello (and Tony John by implication) “loved not wisely but too
well.”
