A Double Life (1947)

Whit Bissell, Ronald Colman, Betsy Blair, Signe Hasso, David Bond ... see more  , Edmond O'Brien , Shelley Winters , Harlan Briggs , Ray Collins , Georgia Caine , Claire Carleton , Philip Loeb , John Drew Colt , Leslie Denison , Elizabeth Dunne , Alan Edmiston , Arthur E. Gould-Porter , Wilton Graff , Boyd Irwin , Fay Kanin , Charles La Torre , Millard Mitchell , Virginia Patton , Guy Bates Post , Elliott Reid , Thayer Roberts , Joe Sawyer , Art Smith , Peter Thompson , Sid Tomack , Percival Vivian , Janet Warren , Marjorie Woodworth , Frederic Worlock , Mary Young , William Norton Bailey , Joe Bernard , Laura Brooks , Angela Clarke , Curt Conway , Russ Conway , Nick Dennis , Joann Dolan , George Douglas , Fernanda Eliscu , Beatrice Gray , Ethel May Halls , Fred Hoose , Charles Jordan , Robert Emmett Keane , Hazel Keener , Elmo Lincoln , Barry Macollum , Joyce Mathews , Walter McGrail , Carl Milletaire , Howard Mitchell , Harry Hays Morgan Jr. , Albert Pollet , Joey Ray , Buddy Roosevelt , Sarah Selby , Jamesson Shade , George Sherwood , Mike Stokey , Mary Worth , Paddy Chayefsky , Leander De Cordova , John Derek , John Chapin Morgan , Harry Bannister , Watson Downs , Diane Stewart , Reginald Billado , Kevin Alexander Clark , Maude Fealy , Nina Gilbert , Doretta Johnson , Kay Lavelle , Katherine Marlowe , Don McGill , Bruce Riley , Elektra Rozanska , Pete Sosso , Cedric Stevens , Wayne Treadway , Frank Richards

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... read more  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, Rovi