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Popular Culture Review
appearance of the Uncontrollable-Othello narrative is George Cukor’s 1947 film
noir thriller A Double Life.
In A Double Life, Ronald Coleman plays Anthony John, an actor known for
losing himself in his roles, who begrudgingly agrees to play Othello opposite his
ex-wife. Due to John’s convincing performance, the play enjoys a long run, but
the longer the play goes, the more John loses himself in the role. He becomes
obsessed with a blonde waitress named Pat Kroll and becomes convinced that
his ex-wife/co-star is having a relationship with the play’s publicist, Will. He
eventually murders Pat in the same way he murders Desdemona onstage. Will
becomes suspicious and leads the police to him. In the film’s final scene, the
police close in on John during a performance, so he takes a real knife to kill
himself onstage during Othello’s suicide.
While the film clearly tries to anchor John’s transformation in psychology,
particularly some combination of pop Freudianism and Method acting, the racial
elements are also made clear. John is first seen rehearsing Othello’s soliloquy
from Act III, Scene ii while looking at sketches for Othello’s makeup: sketches
that make it clear that he will be performing in blackface. As he gets to the line
“Haply, for I am black,” he stares directly at the camera, framed in a classic film
noir lighting with half his face lit and half his face in darkness, clearly
illuminating the white/black and sanity/madness binaries. Interest