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A Double Life Overview:

A Double Life (1947) was a Crime - Drama Film directed by George Cukor and produced by Michael Kanin.

SYNOPSIS

In what many considered (at the time of its release) the role of Coleman's career, the matinee idol gets to play both a veteran stage actor and perform great scenes from Othello. Colman falls victim to the actors' malady of mixing roles with reality, a particularly dangerous affliction when playing the jealous Moor and also when playing the opposite one's wife. This is a sharp, lovingly observed look at the acting life presented by a team that knows whereof it speaks: writers Kanin and Gordon and director Cukor.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Academy Awards 1947 --- Ceremony Number 20 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorRonald ColmanWon
Best DirectorGeorge CukorNominated
Best Music - ScoringDr. Miklos RozsaWon
Best WritingRuth Gordon, Garson KaninNominated
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A Double Life BlogHub Articles:

Day 20 of Noirvember: Pat Kroll in A Double Life (1947)

By shadowsandsatin on Nov 20, 2021 From Shadows and Satin

Today’s Noirvember post shines the spotlight on the luckless Pat Kroll in A Double Life (1947). WHAT’S A DOUBLE LIFE ABOUT? Anthony John (Ronald Colman) is a talented but extremely intense stage performer with a tendency to completely lose himself in his roles. When he’s offered the part of Ot... Read full article

Ronald Colman has trouble with reality in “A Double Life”

By Stephen Reginald on Jul 31, 2020 From Classic Movie Man

Ronald Colman has trouble with reality in “A Double Life” Ronald Colman A Double Life (1947) is a film noir directed by George Cukor, starring Ronald Colman and Signe Hasso. The husband and wife team of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin wrote the screenplay. Milton R. Krasner did ... Read full article

Behind the Scenes: Shelley Winters in A Double Life

By shadowsandsatin on Nov 11, 2013 From Shadows and Satin

To today’s audiences, Shelley Winters may be the grandmother on the Roseanne Barr comedy show, or the zaftig swimming champion who valiantly perished in The Poseidon Adventure. But back in the day, she was a gorgeous blonde whose curvaceous figure was complemented by her considerable acting chops.... Read full article

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A Double Life Quotes:

Anthony John: How's the chicken cacciatore?
Pat Kroll: It's your stomach.
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A Double Life Facts
The "Othello" scenes were filmed separately and in the exact order in which they occur in Shakespeare's play, so as to give Ronald Colman the feeling that he was actually appearing in "Othello". Colman felt uneasy about performing Shakespeare, so director George Cukor and Shakespearean actor Walter Hampden, who acted as coach and advisor for these scenes, tried to make Colman as comfortable as possible in them.
In the film, Ronald Colman plays a fictional actor who stars in the longest-running "Othello" in history. In real life, actor Paul Robeson, who had just become the first black actor to star in an otherwise white production of "Othello" on Broadway, had just completed the longest run of the play.
The role of Anthony John was originally written for Laurence Olivier. Olivier was unavailable when the film finally went into production.
Paddy Chayefsky, who later became a highly successful author and playwright ("Marty"), can be seen as an uncredited photographer at the death scene. According to Shelley Winters, Chayefsky needed the money to go to New York and get married.
In movie, Anthony John stars in a Broadway production of "Othello" that plays more than 300 performances and runs over a year. In reality, no production of a William Shakespeare play has chalked up anywhere near that many performances on Broadway; at best, most are lucky to run several months, like Richard Burton's four-month stint in a 1964 production of "Hamlet", which undoubtedly owed much of its success to his then-notorious relationship with Elizabeth Taylor.
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