Strange Impersonation (1946)

A research scientist conducting experiments on a new anaesthetic finds herself being blackmailed by a women she accidentally knocked down with her car; the woman wasn't hurt, but a scheming... See full summary »

Director:

Anthony Mann

Writers:

Lewis Herman (story), Mindret Lord,

Stars:

Brenda Marshall, William Gargan, Hillary Brooke

Cast

Cast overview:
Brenda Marshall	...	Nora Goodrich
William Gargan	...	Dr. Stephen Lindstrom
Hillary Brooke	...	Arline Cole
George Chandler	...	J W Rinse, plaintiffs' atty.
Ruth Ford	...	Jane Karaski #1
H.B. Warner	...	Dr. Mansfield, plastic surgeon
Lyle Talbot	...	Insp. Malloy, chief interrogator
Mary Treen	...	Talkative nurse
Cay Forester	...	Miss Roper, interrogation witness (as Cay Forrester)
Dick Scott	...	Detective

Storyline

A research scientist conducting experiments on a new anaesthetic finds herself being blackmailed by a women she accidentally knocked down with her car; the woman wasn't hurt, but a scheming attorney has convinced her she can get a lot of money for the "accident." Meanwhile, the scientist's research assistant, who is in love with her boss' boyfriend, arranges for an explosion in the laboratory that disfigures the scientist's face, in order to take the boyfriend away from her. The scientist has plastic surgery to make her look like the woman who tried to blackmail her - who while struggling with the scientist fell out of a window and was killed - and determines to get back her boyfriend and punish her scheming assistant.

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Plot Keywords:

scientist | research | experiment | laboratory accident | anesthetic

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Taglines:

Hell hath no fury as a woman scalded by acid.

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 March 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Extraña interpretación

Company Credits

Production Co:

W. Lee Wilder Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Nora Goodrich: [after being groped passionately in her laboratory] Stephen, remember - science!

User Reviews

STRANGE IMPERSONATION (Anthony Mann, 1946) ***

The third noir from director Mann – after THE GREAT FLAMARION (1945; which I haven't seen) and the minor but not unentertaining TWO O'CLOCK COURAGE (1945) – also has some very welcome horror/sci-fi trappings that should endear it to fans of those kind of movies as well. Lovely blonde, bespectacled scientist Brenda Marshall (who, in real life, was Mrs. William Holden at the time) keeps postponing her marriage to colleague William Gargan because of her all-important experiments in anaesthesia, until one night her jealous assistant Hillary Brooke contrives to overdo the mixture causing an explosion in the vicinity of Marshall (who is out cold) that leaves her facially scarred. More treachery from the two-faced Brooke manages to bar Gargan from visiting the hospitalized Marshall which leads to their breaking off the engagement. A slight traffic accident on the night of the explosion has also put a blackmailing woman and a snooping lawyer in Marshall's path but, seeing the former fall to her death from the apartment window after a tussle, gives her a new lease on life which enables her to change identities with the dead woman and perform plastic surgery (courtesy of surgeon H.B. Warner). Adopting the facial features of the blackmailer (including shedding her glasses and dying her hair black), she introduces herself to Gargan and Brooke as her own school-friend from chemistry class and is soon employed by the former as his personal aide! In the meantime, Brooke starts looking into this intruder's past and, confronting Marshall with her contradictory findings, is shocked when her new rival reveals she is the old one in disguise, after all. On the other hand, the obnoxious lawyer is still on Marshall's trail and, in fact, almost gets her convicted for her own murder when Brooke refuses to corroborate her story about who she really is! The climatic interrogation sequence is where Mann lets all the expressionistic stops out…until the unexpected (and unwarranted) end revelation that it has all been the heroine's nightmare!! That the film succeeds as much as it does in spite of the meager cast, inexistent production values and cop-out finale is a tribute to the mastery of a film-maker who is just finding a firm footing in a genre he will be making his own in the following year or two.