Joann Dolan Movies
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
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Whit Bissell, (more)
A Guest in the House is an involving psychological melodrama, well directed and acted, concerning a young woman's obsessive love. Evelyn (Anne Baxter), an emotionally vulnerable and unstable woman, stays at the home of her doctor Dan Proctor (Scott McKay). There she meets and falls in love with his brother, Douglas (Ralph Bellamy), who is happily married to Ann (Ruth Warrick). Evelyn then sets forth to break up the happy marriage and win the love of Douglas -- with tragic results. A Guest in the House directed by John Brahm, aided by Andre De Toth and Lewis Milestone, who are uncredited, is a sensitive, well-acted melodrama. Baxter gives a fine performance as the unstable young woman, who cannot overcome her obsessions. The fine musical score, composed by Werner Janssen, was nominated for an Academy Award. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, (more)
- 1944
Maxwell Anderson's Broadway play Eve of St. Mark is here brought to the screen by 20th Century-Fox. William Eythe and Anne Baxter are young lovers whose plans for the future are interrupted by the pre-war military draft. Eythe is shipped to the Philippines, where he is trapped on a small and desolate island after reinforcements are called away by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Down but not out, Eythe and his buddies undergo numerous grueling and uplifting experiences. The boy is sustained by Anne's letters from home, which give the courage to persevere. The film ends with the boy's ultimate fate still unresolved, a reflection of the fact that the war was far from over in 1944. Eve of St. Mark features Vincent Price in the uncharacteristic role of a poetic Georgia private. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Baxter, William Eythe, (more)
