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February 2002, Week 4

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From:
Donald Larsson <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Mon, 25 Feb 2002 09:25:00 -0600
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Laura Carroll requests:


> I'm looking for a film to discuss in my thesis where a single actor plays
> two different parts and the characters look alike or identical. (e.g., they
> are twins, siblings, doppelgangers, reincarnations, whatever.) It needs to
> be an important part of the story that the two characters look alike - the
> plot might turn on mistaken identity or something - but it's clear that they
> are not, in the fiction, the same person (so not VERTIGO.) To be of use to
> me the film must, must, must be adapted from a literary work (but not a
> play), and inherit the look-alikes from it. (Ideally the actor in question
> would be a star, or at least a familiar face; and the film would be
> something worth studying & thinking about.

All your restrictions make it difficult to match exactly what you want!

There are, of course, a number of films from plays (especially
Shakespeare) involving doubles: 12TH NIGHT, A COMEDY OF ERRORS, etc.

There are many film adaptations from novels that have the same actor
playing dual roles, but whether the look-alikes are "inherited" and
whether the adaptation or original text is "worth studying" is at least
a judgment call: various versions of THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, THE
PRISONER OF ZENDA, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Edna Ferber's COME AND GET IT
with Frances Farmer, A STOLEN LIFE with Bette Davis, START THE
REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME--a parody of Sabbatini's swashbucklers, etc.

The most interesting films that I can think of are, as near as I can
tell, from original scripts: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE, SLIDING
DOORS, PASSION OF MIND, DAVE, THE GREAT DICTATOR, etc.

Good luck!

Don Larsson


-----------------------------------------------------------
Donald F. Larsson, English Department, AH 230
Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN 56001

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