(1933)
Directed by Arthur Hopkins
Written by Clara Baranger & Arthur Hopkins, from a play by Arnold Bennett
Starring Roland Young, Lillian Gish, Lucy Beaumont
IMDB Entry
I've been blogging here since 2006, with coming up on 900 entries. And occasionally, I end up blogging about something I had already discussed. When I started watching His Double Life, I got the sinking feeling I'd seen it before. I hadn't -- but I had.
The movie is the original for the film Holy Matrimony, which I wrote about in 2020. Same story: Priam Farrell (Roland Young), a reclusive artist, is mistaken for his valet Henry Leek when Leek suddenly dies of pneumonia. No one listens to Farrell,* so he gives up. By chance, he meets Alice Chalice (Lillian Gish), who had contacted Leek through a lonely hearts magazine. Leek sent her a photo of him and Farrell, so she immediately decides that Farrell is Leek. The two of them fall in love and marry, but Farrell, who hates any publicity at all, is forced to continue to paint. That leads to complications.
Lillian Gish was arguably the greatest actress of the silent days, but when sound came along, her image didn't match what was popular at the time. Gish prefered the stage, anyway, and this film was only her second sound film. It was nine years before she decided to make another. It's an interesting role: she is the support for Farrell and clearly loves him. There's one clever scene where she meets with Leek's wife and adult children and subtly dissuades them from blackmailing Farrell.
Roland Young is best known for playing Topper in a series of films about a staid banker being haunted by mischievous ghosts** that only he can see.*** He's similar here**** -- timid, but also extremely frustrated by his fame. He would have been content to paint and not worry about it.
Director Arthur Hopkins was primarily a stage producer; this was his only sound film.
How does this compare to the remake? Well Gracie Fields is a far greater comedienne than Gish, but Young is far different than Monty Woolley, who was more annoyed by fame than afraid of it. Holy Matrimony is also funnier, but this one still has plenty of charm.
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*Assumptions of class is a big part of it.
**Including Cary Grant
***I don't know if this was the source of this trope, but it's been done to death, so much so that the TV show Ghosts subverts it by have the ghosts being explained to those who can't see them.
****Hollywood under the studio system loved to typecast actors.