Customer Reviews

Strange Impersonation

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

god bless dvd, at last we can enjoy great Athony Mann's masterpieces. Westerns like "the man from Laramie", and films noir such as "T-men" and "raw deal". "Strange impersonnation" is a strong thing, almost fantastic. Enjoy especially the photography of cinematographer John Alton which uses constrasts of black and white, amazing shadows and lightnings. It's action, beauty of violence and feelings.

Don't miss.

Please warn readers about potential spoilers at the beginning of your reviews. The ending is revealed in one of the previous critiques. Thanks and happy viewing!

Skin deep is not deep enough.

Jealousy, murder, plastic surgery and revenge in a Hitchcockian tour de force from Director Anthony Mann ("El Cid," "Desperate," "Bamboo Blond," "God's Little Acre").

Mann was widely praised for his meticulous eye for detail and his instinctive sense of mise en scene which he prominently shows in "Strange Impersonation."

The radiant and beautiful Brenda Marshall is a scientist who spurns marriage for her pioneering breakthroughs in the science of anesthetics. That's right, anesthetics. But YOU won't fall asleep watching this very surreal, sly, primitive, artful but low budget tale with a stunning, surprise ending. (Full Screen, B&W, 68 minutes, Not Rated)...

This Republic B-pic is a cult noir film with a deserved following. It stars Brenda Marshall as a committed career woman in research chemistry who experiments on herself after hours to avoid the red tape at work. The experiment goes horribly wrong, leaving her face badly scarred. Her pretty lab assistant (Hillary Brooke) schemes to get her boss out of the way and marry the man that Marshall was putting off at the start of the film. The film follows Marshall's plastic surgeries and return to the same firm, where she figures out how the assistant managed to marry her former fiance. A subplot involves a woman she accidentally meets, whose identity she takes over in order to effect the deception. The whole thing is served up with a wicked twist at the end that I thought worked completely. The film proves you can do wonders on a low budget if you've got the script, right actors & director, and a lot of guts.

This cool movie has the production values of a Three Stooges short (Shemp-era), but the writing and acting more than make up for it. The story recalls the best stories by Cornell Woolrich (The Bride Wore Black) and David Goodis (Dark Passage). It's gratifying to see a noir film from the 40's that has so many strong female characters in it. This is an undiscovered gem. Kudos to Kino.

Eerie identity loss, transference--the other self. Surreal effect heightened by B budget and inappropriate music. Subtle and thought-provoking use of image echos, mirrors, and shadows. Right up there with noir's other great doppelganger movies, The Scar (Hollow Triumph) and Desert Fury.

When the DVD cover reads: "Hell hath no fury as a woman scalded by acid". You know you are in for ... um ... something different. And it is a tribute to director Anthony Mann, that he is able to take such outlandish material from Republic Pictures, and still make a watchable B-movie. Here is the plot:

Two medical scientists, William Gargan (Dr. Stephen Lindstrom) and Brenda Marshall (Nora Goodrich), are in love. But Hillary Brooke (Arline Cole), Nora's jealous lab partner, loves Lindstrom too. During an experiment using Nora's developmental anaesthetic (Nora is out cold), Arline sabotages the test and sends acid over Nora's face, disfiguring her. While Nora is in hospital, Arline sets events in motion to convince Lindstrom and Nora that the one doesn't love the other anymore.

Ruth Ford plays a drunken woman, named Jane Kuraski, who Nora had knocked down with her car on the way to the experiment (Kuraski was at fault). Kuraski is persuaded by a bystander that Marshall owes her $25,000 in damages ... [even though Kuraski has no injuries, and it was her fault.] Tired of waiting for the money, Kuraski gets a gun and attempts to rob Nora in her apartment. In a struggle, Kuraski falls to her death. Because Kuraski has Nora's identification on her, and because the woman lands on her head, everyone thinks it is Nora who has died.

Nora flees the scene with Kuraski's identification, and begins life anew as Jane Kuraski. During her plastic surgery, that removes the acid burn from her face (and apparently makes her look different, but she looks exactly the same). Nora reads that Arline has married Lindstrom. It is then that she figures out that she and Lindstrom have been duped. She dyes her hair and changes her hairstyle. Armed with this impregnable disguise, she re-enters the lives of Lindstrom and Arline, ironically, as Jane Kuraski, a "friend" of Nora Goodrich. Eventually, Nora confronts Arline with her real identity, and fights to regain Lindstrom.

This is an interesting film for Mann fans; you can see him developing some of the ideas he later uses to better effect. I would only recommend it to those who don't mind suspending their disbelief, as Nora's plastic surgery leaves her looking just like her old self, and she is apparently unrecognizable to everyone. In my opinion, it is a worthwhile effort, as the Robert Pittack cinematography is nicely done, and everyone turns in a good performance.

The Kino DVD print has been restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Those looking for more value can find this film, for less than half the price, in the "Film Noir: Five Classics from the Studio Vaults" Collection, along with: Scarlet Street, Contraband, They Made Me a Fugitive, and The Hitch-Hiker.

This film was fairly interesting in parts, but the plot didn't make any sense. Brenda Marshall plays an interesting person- a woman scientist- which was rare in the 1940's. However, the film loses credibility when she has an accident and is disfigured. She has plastic surgery and changes identities. However, she looks the same as she did before, but no one seems to recognize her. That particular item spoiled the movie for me.

Ruth Ford plays a tough blackmailer and Hillary Brooke portrays a really bad lady. William Gargan is very ineffective as Brenda Marshall's love interest. His usual vibrant personality is really subdued here.

Anthony Mann is the director and he does a credible job, but the writing is amateurish and the whole production looks very shoddy.
The print itself is pretty good and there is a certain film noir feeling to it.

I liked the fact that Brenda Marshall played an intelligent scientist and that the women had very strong roles, but the overall impression that I went away with was disappointment

2 femme fatales competing in one movie - great movie. Excellent and professional service from vendor.

I really wanted to like this movie, if only for it's strangeness, but was too disappointed with the writing and lowly production values -and the gigantic holes in the plot.