The Double Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The Double Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 21, 2026

A lot of the breathless marketing campaign for 1950's D.O.A. claimed the film was "as excitingly different as its title", but one poster in particular gave a bit more of a descriptive flair with:

In all the annals of police history there has never been a story like this - of a man who had 48 hours to find his own murderer!

While in both narrative and probably especially structural senses The Double is decidedly different than the Rudolph Maté helmed feature, it does share a couple of salient tethers. First, the film is almost relentlessly "first person" oriented (the source novel was evidently narrated by the focal character in an "unreliable" format), it's comprised largely of flashbacks, and indeed the entire plot revolves around a man trying to figure out why he's been murdered, more or less anyway. In this case, the victim, a kind of smarmy gigolo type named (in the English dub) Frank (Jean Sorel), doesn't have the "luxury" of 48 hours to solve the mystery, and instead attempts to piece things together after he's been shot in an underground garage by a bearded stranger and lies bleeding to death on the concrete pad. The "whodunit" aspect is therefore overtly displayed in the shooting scene, even if the "why" and really the actual identity of the culprit are unknown.

As befits a panicked man bleeding out on a garage floor, there's a delirious quality to the editing of The Double that is in its own way arguably the cinematic equivalent of an "unreliable narrator", since the pieces of the puzzle are tossed around so seemingly randomly that it's hard to figure out what, if anything, is actually real. The foundational premise here is really a kind of unseemly ménage à trois, or at least a "wannabe" ménage à trois, between Frank, his flirtatious and much younger wife Lucia (Ewa Aulin), and (here's the unseemly part) Lucia's mother Nora (Lucia Bosé), whom Frank starts fixating on. Nora has her own romantic interests in a drifter type named Eddie (Sergio Dora), a guy who later ends up murdered himself, leading to Frank "jumping into action" to save the person he thinks is responsible.

The above gives enough of a guideline to understand the basic storytelling, but it's the manner of that storytelling that may be most viscerally interesting to viewers. While the film has probably been incorrectly lumped into the giallo genre (as some of the interesting supplements get into), the fractured editing and disjunctive timelines the film offer are worlds away from what later became hallmarks of the idiom. Instead, the film addresses a number of fascinating subtexts, including what might be called a deconstruction of "toxic masculinity", as Frank finds his little world falling apart around him. The result is both arresting from a purely structural standpoint, but also rather incisive in its portrayal of a "man on a mission" that he ironically doesn't really have the faintest clue of how to achieve.

The Double Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Double is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Radiance's insert booklet contains the following notes on the transfer:

The Double was restored in 4K from the original camera negative by Video Mercury, and supplied to Radiance Films as a high definition file. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio and with its original uncompressed mono audio track.

Probably unsurprisingly, some of the absolutely gorgeous sun drenched location photography in Morocco provides the securest palette and detail levels in the presentation, and throughout the many outdoor scenes there and even in other locations, there's appealingly consistent suffusion and detailing. A number of darker scenes can show a seriously grittier grain field, along with a just slightly mottled appearance, but even then the palette is nicely vivid (see screenshot 4 for an example). The manic editing style of the film means things move so speedily at times, in terms of quick cuts and short snippets of scenes, that actually being able to ferret out fine detail can be a bit of a challenge. A few interstitial moments like a surprisingly long "underwater ballet" by Sorel and Aulin (both naked) have understandably murkiness.

The Double Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Double features LPCM Mono tracks in either Italian or English. This is a case where there are manifest differences between the two aside from language, notably (at least for those who listen for such things) a dramatic 1/4 step or so slowdown in the scoring in the English version. The Italian version sounds more "accurate" to me in terms of the scoring in particular, but it also offers a much more "open" midrange and high end, to the point that the low end and midrange of the English language track can sound a bit muffled in comparison. One way or the other, there are no real issues to report. Those interested should listen to Stephen Thrower's comments about the use of a "romance theme" during a quasi-rape scene for some interesting insight into how the sound design or at least scoring and/or mixing choices play into the "unreliable narrator" aspect. Dialogue is rendered without any problems. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Double Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas


• Romolo Guerrieri and Ewa Aulin (HD; 14:25) is a newly editing aggregation of 2013 and 2017 interviews. Subtitled in English.


• Stephen Thrower (HD; 26:02) contributes another thoughtful analysis, including an interesting etymological dissection of the film's original Italian title.


• Stills Gallery (HD)

Radiance's insert booklet features an essay by Nathaniel Thompson. Radiance's traditional packaging is included.

The Double Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Double is deliberately confusing at times as it depicts the mental anguish of a seriously wounded individual experiencing his "life in a flashback", though deconstructed into discrete little snippets that often collide with each other. The film was probably mistakenly thought of for too long as some kind of quasi-giallo, but it may be better to approach as a character study wrapped inside a structural enigma. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very appealing. Recommended.