A Double Life

In this fascinating lesser known George Cukor picture (his first with husband and wife screenwriting team Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin) matinee idol Roland Colman plays a quintessentially English classical theatre actor, Tony John, whose dedication to playing Othello on Broadway leads to jealous fits off-stage, not least because Desdomona is played by his ex-wife (Signe Hasse). The film grinds gears somewhat between jocular backstage drama and tragic noir, with lots of intricately staged Shakespeare in-between.

While it’s intriguing to imagine the movie with Laurence Olivier in the lead, as Cukor initially hoped, Colman picked up the Academy Award for Best Actor for his troubles. The film is also notable for a pivotal supporting role from the young Shelley Winters, who reportedly based her character on her roomie of the time, Marilyn Monroe.

Miss Gordon and Mr. Kanin, in collaboration with William Shakespeare, have whipped up a modern drama which thoroughly employs the screen to demonstrate the strange excitement and the deathless romance of the theatre.

Bosley Crowther, New York Times (1947)

It captures the pulse of the New York theater to an extraordinary degree, inherently as well as because some of it was shot there; it is adult, outspoken and subtle, and it has shaken Mr. Colman free of most of the repressions imposed upon him by years of effete grand seigniory in Hollywood.

Philip K Scheuer, Los Angeles Times (1947)