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A Double Life Movie Review

A Double Life is a 1947 noir film directed by George Cukor and starring Ronald Colman. It is a film that has a strong premise, but flawed execution.

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“Everybody wants to be a detective –

I think it’s all these radio serials“

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A celebrated actor struggles to distinguish his own life from that of his most recent stage role, Othello. This was an unusual move for George Cukor, a director who is better known for his lighter fare. He directed the movie quite well, though, and the cinematography is also fantastic. So are the score, editing and production design. It’s a technically polished feature.

But my issue lies in the script department. While the premise is absolutely phenomenal, the execution is not so great. It was a great idea to emphasize the dangers of method acting, and in that area the movie is even more timely today than back when it was released, but a more dramatic and intense approach would have done wonders for this story. The film did it too safe. It should have been much darker.

Ronald Colman won an Oscar for this very atypical, complicated role. The movie was obviously made with the intention to lead to his Oscar win, which is exactly what happened, but I would hardly say that it was a deserved win. Yes, Colman is quite good and the role was very difficult, so him even tackling it was admirable, but he was nonetheless a bit too hammy and silly in certain moments, which rendered his performance rather dated.

But the character was very well developed and intriguing, which is not something that you can say for the supporting players, all of whom were straddled with rather weak and thankless roles. Signe Hasso and Shelley Winters in particular did not get much to do here, but Edmund O’Brien was somewhat memorable himself.

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A Double Life is noirish for sure, but even more should have been done in that department. The atmosphere is there, but the film was too light in the first act and the tonal shift toward the end was not executed properly. Again, a darker and more thrilling approach was sorely missing here.