Welcome to my contribution to The 1947 Blogathon, hosted by Shadows & Satin and Speakeasy.
As a Noir blog, 1947 is a fantastic year. Dark Passage, Kiss of Death, Lady in the Lake, Railroaded!, Crossfire, Born to Kill–and a dozen more noir flicks came out this year, as America still rebounded into a post-war era of optimism and cynicism combined.
Born to Kill was my first thought/choice for the Blogathon, but I’ve already written about it in What’s so HOT about Born to Kill? for MovieMovieBlogBlog‘s Sex! Blogathon and also when we screened the film for #BNoirDetour.
Instead, I chose a less often discussed film of 1947 and a curious choice for the noir label: A Double Life.
[SPOILER] A Double Life is the story of Broadway actor Anthony John (Ronald Colman), a lonely professional who still loves his ex-wife Brita (Signe Hasso). After two years of playing Othello together, Anthony begins to mesh his own identity with that of the murdering Moor. In his strange mindset, he spends the night with working-class waitress Pat Kroll (Shelley Winters). Then he returns to Brita, hoping to win her back, but finds her involved with their mutual friend, Bill Friend (Edmond O’Brien). Jealousy drives him back to Pat, where he strangles her, just as Othello wrongly murdered the innocent Desemona. When he is discovered by the police with the help of Bill, Anthony is on stage, bringing to life Othello’s stabbing suicide.

There are dozens of fascinating facets of this film, both complimentary and eyebrow raising. I’ll cover those that interest me most. (I also recommend the article “Figuring Jewishness in George Cukor’s A Double Life” for its insights into gender, race, and ethnicity in the film’s production.)
The choice of George Cukor as a director for A Double Life is both obvious and odd. Cukor began his career in theater in New York, and his investment in performance shows in many of his films. There is his attention to individual actors (especially Katharine Hepburn), his many adaptations of successful Broadway plays (e.g. The Philadelphia Story, Born Yesterday), his films that feature characters who are invested in acting, on the stage and off (e.g. Sylvia Scarlet, The Actress), and tales of actors’ lives (e.g. A Star is Born, Heller in Pink Tights). It makes perfect sense, then, that Cukor would be chosen to direct a film about a troubled Shakespearean actor.

Less evident is the choice of Cukor for a noir-style film, focused on murder, madness, and deceit. True, Cukor had already directed the suspense film Gaslight (1944), often wrongly attributed to Hitchcock. But he did so with great attention to actors, to the characters and their motivation, leaving mood and setting to others, such as his chosen cinematographer and the film’s composer. This does not lessen his skill or the effect of Gaslight, but it points to the difficult facet of motivation in A Double Life, where, frankly, there seems no real reason for successful and stable if lonely actor Anthony John to go completely mad. We are left with only jealousy, validating what I see as racist interpretations of Othello that highlight his irrationality and “primitive” drives (over his insecurity as a black man in white society). With a cynical edge, we might ponder: Does putting on blackface lead to becoming the stereotypes and myths suggested by it?

Certainly, the concept of a “double life” adds to the noir element of the film, arguably implying a knowing alter ego rather than an accidental one. John has always been a psychopath, with divorce and the performance of Othello allowing it to come to the surface.
In many ways, the film is a rewrite of The Brighton Strangler (1945), in which an actor suffers a head injury during the Blitz and believes himself to be the titular murderer, whom he was playing onstage. Here the protagonist has a reason for his madness that makes the former film’s dark premise more credible than that of A Double Life, but more drama than noir.
If crime and deceit are central to noir, so is the presence of a femme fatale. Here, again, we have a complex presentation. In one of her first credited roles, Shelley Winters plays the dull-named Pat Kroll, a waitress whose “crime” is ostensibly taking money for sex with John, but there is an implication that her open sexuality is what damns her.

Despite this suggestion of a femme fatale type, I see Kroll as an entirely innocent victim. Cukor described Pat Kroll as a character whose imminent death was clear the moment she entered the film. And Winters herself decried the lack of pretty costumes or coiffed (in the terms of the era) hair. She had to remove her bra and girdle for the audition, and Cukor made her repeat her scenes many many times to produce the worn effect he sought. (See the “Figuring Jewishness” article linked above for discussion and citations.) This is hardly a calculating, dangerous femme fatale. Nor is Anthony John an homme fatale, though Cukor directed Colman to be a ladies’ man with Kroll, making clear he was in control of their “relationship.”
Finally, I must address Colman’s Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Cukor originally wanted Laurence Olivier not Colman for the part, but Olivier had other work. Cukor respected Colman but worried he was too tame for the role, too gentlemanly. Nonetheless, Cukor and the Kanins who wrote the screenplay knew they had an Oscar-worthy leading role, and Colman proved them right. When I watch the film, I see scenery-chewing and blackface rather than skilled artistry, but what do I know?

In the end, A Double Life also took home the Best Score Oscar, and was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay. It’s well worth a screening, if not awards.
Click the banner below to see all the posts for The 1947 Blogathon:
July 12, 2015 at 8:19 PM
Great piece!
It’s well worth a screening, if not awards.
Yep. That’s more or less my evaluation too.
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July 12, 2015 at 8:31 PM
Thanks for reading. Glad you enjoyed it!
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July 12, 2015 at 9:12 PM
Interesting piece! I never knew there was a Shakespeare-based noir film, although giving the Bard’s obsessions with murder and double-crossings, it shouldn’t have surprised me. Well done!
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July 12, 2015 at 9:30 PM
There are several Shakespeare-based noir/neonoir/noirish movies. Among them:
All Night Long (1962), based on Othello
Hamlet Liikemaailmassa (1987; vt Hamlet Goes Business), Finland, based on Hamlet
Joe MacBeth (1955)
Men of Respect (1990), another Macbeth riff
My Kingdom (2001), based on Lear
Warui Yatsu Hodo Yoku Nemuru (1960; vt The Bad Sleep Well), a Kurosawa movie that owes a lot to Hamlet; there was a 2010 TVM remake, also from Japan
Those are the ones I know about. I’m sure there must be more.
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July 13, 2015 at 1:56 AM
Ooh, I didn’t know about All Night Long. Thanks for helping me add to my list of Othello-themed films.
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July 13, 2015 at 1:55 AM
Glad you enjoyed the post, and happy to introduce you to A Double Life.
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July 13, 2015 at 2:41 PM
I greatly enjoyed your write-up, and I’m so glad you picked A Double Life; it doesn’t get enough attention, in my opinion. You know, I always forget that Cukor directed this — you’re right about him being both an obvious and an odd choice. I will have to check out the film again (it’s been YEARS) to take a closer look at Colman’s performance. Do you know who he beat out for the Oscar? Thanks for participating in the blogathon, and for your great insights!
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July 13, 2015 at 3:16 PM
Thanks so much. Glad you enjoyed the post.
The other 1948 nominees were Gregory Peck (Gentleman’s Agreement), John Garfield (Body and Soul), William Powell (Life with Father), and Michael Redgrave (Mourning Becomes Electra).
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July 14, 2015 at 9:59 PM
Good one to choose, I like Colman’s performance but would have been very interesting to imagine Olivier! Thanks for including that background here and thanks for joining us!
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July 14, 2015 at 10:15 PM
Olivier didn’t get to play Anthony John, though he did a big screen Othello in 1965. I find it hard to watch, as he does a very animalistic, panther-like Moor, barefoot and in blackface.
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July 15, 2015 at 12:00 AM
I actually haven’t seen this one, but it sounds intriguing and I’ll give it a look for my upcoming 1947 list project. In fact, I got a lot of ideas from this Blogathon. Sounds like a different type of noir, which was par for the course this year. Nice review!
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July 15, 2015 at 12:07 AM
I agree: lots of good films covered in this Blogathon. Let me know what you think of A Double Life. I find it more interesting as a Cukor film than a noir, but it’s worth seeing.
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July 15, 2015 at 10:12 AM
An excellent film with a load of subtext. You’re completely right on Winters role. You can tell she is doomed right from the start. Excellent take.
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July 15, 2015 at 4:24 PM
Many thanks for reading and for your praise.
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July 15, 2015 at 10:26 AM
So many great films from 1947 – and so many I’m yet to see, including this one. I’m a big fan of Cukor, interested to see him trying his hand at noir. Kroll sounds like an interesting twist on the femme fatale, not quite the glamour we associate with the role.
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July 15, 2015 at 4:24 PM
Thanks for reading! I like Gaslight better than A Double Life for noir, but you’ll see Cukor’s usual emphasis on the psychology of characters and issues of performance in ADL.
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July 15, 2015 at 5:39 PM
Wow, this film brings up a lot of questions! I’d like to see it because I’m a big fan of Shelley Winters, but I may need to familiarize myself with Othello first.
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July 15, 2015 at 8:48 PM
Just read the Wiki on Othello; it goes far deeper than the film on the character and play. I love Shelley Winters, too, and it’s fun to see her so young and sexy.
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July 15, 2015 at 8:20 PM
Until now I hadn’t seen A Double Life as a film noir, but it surely can be, considering its themes and even the presence of noir habitué Edmond O’Brien. I also had not thought of the racism, the blackfac issue and the primitive Moor motive for going crazy. I always thought this was a brilliant performance by Ronald Colman, he deserved his Oscar, and in the end we don’t always need a reason to go crazy.
Don’t forget to read my contribution to the blogathon! 🙂
Cheers!
Le
http://www.criticaretro.blogspot.com.br/2015/07/a-caminho-do-rio-road-to-rio-1947.html
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July 15, 2015 at 8:49 PM
I hope I helped you to see a few new issues worth exploring, even as you already enjoy the film and Colman’s performance. Thanks for reading!
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July 15, 2015 at 8:55 PM
Also, I had to post my comment as “Sensei” because I am on WordPress, but I did read and comment on your Hope-Crosby post.
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July 18, 2015 at 7:35 AM
Fascinating article, raising interesting issues such as the use of racial stereotyping. I haven’t seen this although I like Colman and am also trying to see as many Cukor films as possible – it isn’t available in the UK, but I will try to seek it out.
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July 18, 2015 at 3:17 PM
Thanks so much for your kind words. I’ve had to search out many of Cukor’s films and buy them on DVD. I can imagine it might be even harder in England. Do you have favorites? I love Sylvia Scarlet and Holiday from his early films. And The Women is a fascinating mess. I’ve recently also seen a few more obscure ones, including Wild is the Wind, Susan and God, and Love in the Ruins.
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July 18, 2015 at 7:36 PM
I’m a pre-Code fan and like What Price Hollywood and Dinner at Eight a lot – I also share your love of Holiday, along with Camille and The Philadelphia Story…. and Adam’s Rib. There are so many. I’m never sure if I like The Women or not, but I do find it riveting to watch – I think a ‘fascinating mess’ is probably a fair description.
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