A Double Life

An Oscar went to Ronald Colman for his portrayal of a brilliant but disturbed actor whose role of “Othello” begins to dominate his life. Signe Hasso, Edmond O’Brien, Shelley Winters. Donlan: Ray Collins. Max: Philip Loeb. Al: Millard Mitchell. Superb direction by George Cukor. Excellent script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Miklos Rozsa’s score also won an Oscar., Ronald Colman won an Academy Award for his portrayal of an off-the-beam actor in A Double Life. A beloved stage star, Anthony John (Colman), has problems with his private life due to his unpredictable outbursts of temper. This trait has already cost him his wife, Brita (Signe Hasso), and threatens to sabotage his career. Nonetheless, Anthony makes his peace with Brita, and the two actors star in a new Broadway staging of +Othello. The play is a hit, running over 300 performances, but the pressures of portraying a man moved to murder by jealousy takes its toll on Anthony. In a fit of delirium, he strangles his casual mistress, Pat (Shelley Winters), but retains no memory of the awful crime. Press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O’Brien), unaware that Anthony is the killer, uses Pat’s murder as publicity for +Othello. Anthony becomes enraged at this cheap ploy, and attacks Friend. At this point, Anthony realizes that he has been living “a double life” and is in fact Pat’s murderer. A Double Life was written for the screen by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, who occasionally digress from the melodramatic plotline to include a few backstage inside jokes., Powerful drama in which a renowned stage actor becomes increasingly unable to differentiate between his stage roles and real life. Usually charming and well-mannered, he begins to fly into murderous rages at the slightest provocation – an affliction that leads to tragedy when he is cast as Othello in a Broadway show. Ronald Colman won an Oscar for his portrayal of this Jekyll-and-Hyde character.