Prolific writer and occasional director Walter Reisch has a good idea here, but does himself no favors calling the shots. A backstage/life-mirrors-art drama about an OTHELLO who nearly strangles his Desdemona for real, the film is less about this married theatrical couple than about Miriam Hopkins, secretary to a newspaper critic, as she changes his pan to a rave, then becomes obsessed with the actor playing Othello. Choppy going right from the start, story & editing, with Reisch letting Hopkins chew the scenery to bits. Hopkins, a fine actress with a director who held her mannerisms and competitive nature down (as William Wyler just had in THESE THREE) is completely off the leash here. But what a surprise to see stage legend/screen disappointment Gertrude Lawrence showing a bit of her elusive magic as wife & acting partner to Sebastian Shaw’s Othello.* And there’s young Rex Harrison, all legs & canted posture, as Hopkins’ reporter pal, already flying off the screen just before his breakthru perf against Vivien Leigh in STORM IN A TEACUP/37.
DOUBLE-BILL: The film anticipates A DOUBLE LIFE/’47, where Ronald Colman’s has OTHELLO’s art/life mix up; and also nips the big auditorium scream climax from Hitchcock’s THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH/’34.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Note that in the excerpts, Shaw, a rather good, if traditional Othello, plays largely without the dark makeup you’d expect for the period. And that’s really Lawrence doing her own typically wayward singing in Desdemona’s Willow Song. Did any other celebrated singer (other than Madonna, another film underachiever) fall off the note so consistently? And yet the likes of Noël Coward, George Gershwin, Cole Porter & Richard Rodgers all wrote standards for 'Gertie' to introduce on the West End & B’way.
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