Double roles

[phil noir]

I wasn't really sure where to post this, but I've been thinking today about films where an actor plays a double (or even multiple) role. I've put it here, because the examples that come most readily to mind are dramas. I was inspired by watching Kind Hearts and Coronets (a comedy, I know) last week in which Alec Guiness plays eight members of the doomed d'Ascoyne family; and also by a discussion on the Silent/Pre-Code thread about Mary Pickford playing contrasting roles in Stella Maris. I think I'm really interested in films where the actor interacts with themselves playing the other part, rather than a story in which somebody appears as their own mother or father in a flashback sequence.

Examples I've come up with off the top of my head are:

Bette Davis in A Stolen Life (1946) where she plays good and bad twins, both in love with Glenn Ford. When the bad twin drowns, the good twin pretends to be her so as to continue her sibling's love affair with Ford.

Olivia de Havilland in The Dark Mirror (1946), again playing twins. As I recall, the bad twin tries to send the good one mad by framing her for a murder.

Mary Pickford in Stella Maris (1918) as a downtrodden servant and a pampered invalid; and again in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) where she is both Cedric, the 'Little Lord', and Dearest, his own mother. (In one unforgettable scene of camera trickery they actually embrace.)

Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (1926), where he is the title character as well as that character's father, aged up from the original The Sheik (1921).

Can anyone think of any other examples, as obscure as you like?

(I'm aware, by the way, that this genre, if it does actually qualify as a genre, can sometimes have a certain campy quality to it - I think this may have something to do with foregrounding the artifice of acting, and also maybe the kinds of stars who embraced it. And also, bravura scenes in which the same performer hugs or converses with themselves require even more of a suspension of disbelief than usual in a romance or melodrama.)

[Ollie]

The PRISONER OF ZENDA films, of course. GREAT DICTATOR. I was thinking that a lot of comedies were based on this, as well, but I'm not certain which way the numeric balance tips. This would be an interesting research subject, too! ha ha

[klondike]

[youtube][/youtube]

[moira finnie]

The Corsican Brothers (1941) is a classic adventure about vendettas, thieves and revenge with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as separated siamese twins who feel each other's pain (literally). It is scheduled to be on TCM this Thur., Apr. 2nd at 8:00 PM.

Murder, He Says! (1945) features Peter Whitney playing a ghastly (and dumb) pair of murderous, hick twins, Mert and Bert Fleagle. The only way to tell them apart is that one of them has a "crick" in his back that renders him harmless and unconscious when tampered with. Good thing for Fred MacMurray & Helen Walker that these guys are pretty slow. Between the two of them, the pair have an IQ barely bordering on 100, though they do consult with one another regularly during the farce. This is a film that needs to be revived, (along with The Dark Mirror) since only bootleg copies are presently available.

Before The Prisoner of Zenda, The Masquerader (1933) asked us to believe that the world could have two Ronald Colmans, one a highly placed if dissipated member of Parliament and another a conscientious journalist from Canada. They interact quite a few times, and Ronnie gets several chances to be a decadent as well as a high-minded fellow. This is fine fun, if occasionally ludicrous. TCM broadcast it last Fall which was a treat, but it doesn't seem to be on the schedule right now.

Libel (1959) offers us a double dose of Dirk Bogarde as POWs during WWII with dark secrets--not least of which is how anyone talked Olivia de Havilland into her thankless wifey role. It's an entertaining courtroom melodrama on TCM occasionally.

The Scapegoat (1959) has Alec Guinness as distant cousins unknown to one another--one a timid teacher on vacation in France, the other a roué who is frittering away his family's glassblowing heritage. Guinness vs. Guinness has its moments, though it is a bit listless, except when Bette Davis pops up as a dragon lady, but she seems to be in a movie running in her own mind throughout, with her odd performance out of sync with the polite air that everyone else in the cast maintains. I like this one, which shows up on TCM once in awhile.

[Ollie]

Klon, I was going to bring up the PATTY DUKE/PARENT TRAP types. In 2005, Patty did a nice little film called BIGGER THAN THE SKY, a small story about a community theater and a fellow who decides to start acting past his 30th birthday. Sean Astin plays the theater's ogre of a boss, and Patty plays the stage-mom. Towards the end of the film, at the climatic moment, she locks Sean in a backstage closet so 'the show must go on!'

Then, the OTHER Patty walks past.

This is SO hilarious. Just the briefest of moments, and if fans aren't aware of her TV history, it was a brief flash, never explained, never questioned - but just hiliarious.

Nice little film, surprisingly good, made even better by this donated trinket of history.

[Ollie]

Moira, this is getting to be a nice little collection here. Thanks, and a great topic. Or a really sick-o one, I can't tell - it's JUST what I need - another "collection". Yeah. Right. "Psst, kid, c'mere - ya wanna try this white powder - you'll love it..." Just what I need! ha ha

[charliechaplinfan]

Laurel and Hardy played double roles a couple of times. Once when they portrayed the wives too and another time they portrayed the children. Brats it's my chilren's favorite L&H.

[phil noir]

Great replies, everyone. Thanks for all the info. Klondike, I'm not really familiar with Patty Duke, although I've heard the name. I wonder whether her show was ever shown in the U.K.? Great clip, though. Having an actor playing double roles in a weekly sitcom must have made the logistics of it much more difficult.

I'd forgotten about The Prisoner of Zenda - I have seen the Ronald Colman version, but it was years and years ago. I'd also forgotten about The Parent Trap (Hayley Mills, and Lindsay Lohan in the remake). Brats was one of my favourite Laurel and Hardy films when I was a child - I remember them in knickerbockers scrambling over giant chairs so that they would look smaller.

A film I also remember enjoying as a child was Elvis Presley in Kissin' Cousins, where if I recall he was blond Elvis and dark Elvis too.

Then there's Conrad Veidt in Nazi Agent (1942), where I think his double is a German spy and good Conrad has to impersonate him to help win the war.

Nowadays, I think, it's much more likely that an actor will play double or multiple roles in a comedy - like Eddie Murphy or Mike Myers in the Austin Powers films. Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin always made me laugh in their double roles in Big Business (1988).

The last serious example of an actor doubling up I can remember is Jeremy Irons in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers (1988), where he played twins again. I wonder whether anyone has done it since?

[ChiO]

SISTERS (Brian DePalma, 1973) -- Margot Kidder as conjoined sisters.

[Dewey1960]

HOLLOW TRIUMPH (aka THE SCAR) with Paul Henreid and Paul Henreid.

[MissGoddess]

A movie about a doppleganger, in which Roger Moore is The Man Who Haunted Himself.

(This is based on the story by Anthony Armstrong, The Case of Mr. Pelham, which was made into
one of Alfred Hitchcock's most interesting episodes of his television series---starring Tommy Ewell
in the role of Mr. P)

[youtube][/youtube]

[moira finnie]

Miss G.,
In Roger Moore's recent autobiography, My Word Is My Bond, he cited The Man Who Haunted Himself as his favorite role and one that enabled him to act rather than pose, for once. (The amusing book is chockful of self-deprecating remarks and naughty stories, though the most interesting parts are about his early family life). You can see the entire Alfred Hitchcock show with Tom Ewell in an almost identical role here for free.

We are forgetting one of the more famous double roles:
The Prince and the Pauper (1937) with Billy and Bobby Mauch as the beggar lad and Prince Edward in Mark Twain's excursion into British history. Errol Flynn and Claude Rains are delightful as the good and bad adults on display.

Not so famous, but interesting:
The Forbidden Street aka Britannia Mews (1949) directed by Jean Negulesco, with Maureen O'Hara as a Victorian maiden who falls in love with her drawing master (Dana Andrews), marries him and lives to regret it. After he abandons her, she finds herself living in a slum in London, but soon her fortunes take a turn for the better when a double for her hubby, (Dana again) turns up, drunk on her doorstep. From a novel by the delightful Margery Sharp and a script by Ring Lardner, Jr., the movie delves into puppetry, the theater, and all this is overshadowed by Sybil Thorndike as a malevolent slum dweller.

[klondike]

Going back to Dumas more recently, there's Leonardo DiCaprio turning in a surprisingly strong & intuitive performance as nice King Louis/naughty King Louis in the 1998 cover of The Man in the Iron Mask; doubtless, Leo the Lion Cub was inspired to that level of competence in no small part by his supporting cast, including Gabriel Byrne, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich & Gerard Depardieu as the retired musketeers.

[phil noir]

Not so famous, but interesting:
The Forbidden Street aka Britannia Mews (1949) directed by Jean Negulesco, with Maureen O'Hara as a Victorian maiden who falls in love with her drawing master (Dana Andrews), marries him and lives to regret it. After he abandons her, she finds herself living in a slum in London, but soon her fortunes take a turn for the better when a double for her hubby, (Dana again) turns up, drunk on her doorstep. From a novel by the delightful Margery Sharp and a script by Ring Lardner, Jr., the movie delves into puppetry, the theater, and all this is overshadowed by Sybil Thorndike as a malevolent slum dweller.

I'd heard vaguely of this film, but hadn't realized Dana Andrews played a double role. I'm a big fan of his. I think he's underrated to say the least. Your synopsis makes it sound really interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for it (and perhaps in the meantime track down the novel.) I knew I knew Margery Sharp's name from somewhere - she wrote the book on which Cluny Brown was based - which I thought was a completely charming film.

I remembered today Don Ameche in That Night in Rio (1941), where he plays a South American aristocrat and his North American double, giving him the chance to romance both Alice Faye and (less convincingly) Carmen Miranda. Twentieth Century Fox had previously filmed this story in 1935, I think, with Maurice Chevalier (Folies Bergeres) and did it again in 1951 with Danny Kaye as On the Riviera. If I remember rightly, Danny Kaye had another double role in On the Double (what else?) in 1961.

[Professional Tourist]

I'm not really familiar with Patty Duke, although I've heard the name. I wonder whether her show was ever shown in the U.K.? Great clip, though. Having an actor playing double roles in a weekly sitcom must have made the logistics of it much more difficult.

This has been done quite a bit on U.S. television, particularly in the 1960s and '70s, mostly on sitcoms although not necessarily on a weekly basis. A couple of well-known examples are on I Dream of Jeannie where Barbara Eden also played on occasion her own mother and sister; and on Bewitched where Elizabeth Montgomery occasionally played Samantha's look-alike cousin Serena. Continuing with "Bewitched," there were isolated episodes where Darrin was split into two 'halves,' first time played by Dick York, second time by Dick Sargent, and Endora even split herself in two briefly in one episode, for the sake of a chess game. And there were episodes where Endora doubled as Samantha and vice versa, so we had a situation where a character looked like one person but spoke and behaved as another person. So much for the 'fantasy' shows. On The Brady Bunch middle-son Peter had a look-alike in one episode, an unrelated fellow named "Arthur" that he met at school, who was able to help him out of a jam when he had made two dates for the same night. Florence Henderson and Robert Reed played their own look-alike grandparents, and Ann B. Davis once played Alice's look-alike cousin, who was a retired army sergeant. On the dramatic side, back when Julianne Moore was working on the soap-opera As the World Turns she played a long-term character who was a look-alike British half-sister of her character Frannie Hughes. Hmmm, that's all that comes to mind right now.