Search - A Double Life on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Not For Children Movie Release: 1947 DVD Release: 07/22/2003 Format: DVD - Black and White - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 43 mins Studio: Republic Pictures Members Wishing: 3 Genres: Drama, Mystery, Melodrama, Film Noir

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. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Whit Bissell - Dr. Stauffer
Ronald Colman - Anthony John
Betsy Blair - Girl in Wig Shop
Signe Hasso - Brita
David Bond - ["othello" Sequence]
Edmond O'Brien - Bill Friend
Harlan Briggs - Oscar Bemard
Shelley Winters - Pat Kroll
Georgia Caine - [A Gentleman's Gentleman Sequence]
Ray Collins - Victor Donlan

George Cukor's A Double Life became a part of the Republic Pictures library fairly late, and, for all of its renown and the high quality of its credits, it never made it onto laserdisc. This release makes up for that oversight -- and a lot more. Indeed, this is the best looking DVD yet to come out of the Republic Pictures orbit, surpassing even the company's upgraded releases of High Noon and Rio Grande. Transferred in full-frame (1.33:1), the detail and the richness of the black-and-white tones in the interior shots offer boundless diversions for the eye, while the exteriors are totally realistic in a completely different manner. The sound is mastered a little low (although within a passable level) and is so clean that it can be turned way up without distortion, which helps greatly when Miklos Rozsa's music is present on the soundtrack. Originally shot at Universal (but produced independently), the movie was restored at U.C.L.A. and is comparable in clarity and crispness to the Criterion edition of Robert Siodmak's The Killers (shot a little bit earlier on the same lot). The 24 chapters break down the 103-minute movie generously, and are easily accessible through a two-choice menu (with the "play" selection in the default position). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide