Strange Impersonation

Anthony Mann: Strange Impersonation (US 1946) with Brenda Marshall (Nora Goodrich) and Hillary Brooke (Arline Cole).

Anthony Mann

    États-Unis / 1946 / 68 min / 35 mm / VOSTF / Copie restaurée

d'après une histoire de Anne Wigton, Lewis Herman

    Avec Brenda Marshall, William Gargan, Hillary Brooke.

    Copie restaurée 35 mm prêtée par UCLA Film & Television Archive.

    Rétrospective Anthony Mann

    Viewed at La Cinémathèque française, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française : " Une histoire de chantage au féminin, qui voit une éminente scientifique prendre le visage de sa ravisseuse à la suite d'une série d'accidents. Réalisé avec une importante économie de moyens pour Republic Pictures, un film à l'atmosphère et au twist final des plus réjouissants. "

AA: A murder mystery, a switched identity story, a story of a double life, a dream play.

A revelation in this retrospective has been that Anthony Mann, whom I knew as a man's director (pun intended), since the beginning consistently pursued female agency, in films including Strangers in the Night (the doctor) and Devil's Doorway (the lawyer). Now in Strange Impersonation, the brilliant scientist-innovator protagonist is Nora Goodrich (Brenda Marshall) and the almost equally brilliant villain-schemer-liar antagonist is her assistant Arline Cole (Hillary Brooke).

In the dream inside story, Nora's face is disfigured in a fire, and after plastic surgery, she starts a new life with a new identity. The subject has an affinity with Mann's undercover police stories (T-Men and Border Incident), his anti-Nazi resistance story The Heroes of Telemark and his Cold War espionage story A Dandy in Aspic. In her private pursuit of the truth, Nora becomes an "undercover agent" of her own life exposing the extreme betrayal of her best friend Arline. It is fascinating, but the treatment remains on a light entertainment level, and the impact is watered down by the "it was all hallucination" ending.

It was a pleasure to view the "Copie restaurée 35 mm prêtée par UCLA Film & Television Archive" with great visual quality. Partly the print has been reconstructed from sources of variable quality, seemingly including 16 mm. It was a rewarding viewing experience.