Popular Culture Review Vol. 21, No. 1, Winter 2010 | Page 16

12 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