Strange Impersonation

Starring:Brenda Marshall, William Gargan, Hillary Brooke, George Chandler, Ruth Ford, H.B. Warner, Lyle Talbot, Mary Treen, Cay Forrester, Dick Scott, Frank O'Connor, Forrest Taylor
Director: Anthony Mann
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Sunset On The Desert
Starring: Roy Rogers; George "Gabby" Hayes; Lynne Garver; Frank M. Thomas; Bob Nolan; Beryl Wallace; Glenn Strange
Director: Joseph Kane
Manufacturer: Reel Enterprises
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000KJTCC8
Release Date: 2006-11-13

Description

Roy's strong resemblance to a notorious crook gives him a chance to infiltrate the gang, but the usual complications arise when the look-alike desperado returns. It's fun to watch Roy Rogers play the tough guy.

Average customer rating:

A Poverty Row Trash Classic
Strange Movie
"You cannot escape the person you are."
A NOTE TO CUSTOMER REVIEWERS...
STRANGE "MOVIE".....

Strange Impersonation
Starring: Brenda Marshall , William Gargan , Hillary Brooke , George Chandler , and Ruth Ford
Director: Anthony Mann
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

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Film Noir | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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Railroaded
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ASIN: 6305950660
Release Date: 2000-07-18

Customer Reviews:

A Poverty Row Trash Classic .......2006-04-06

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.

Strange Movie.......2006-02-21

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

"You cannot escape the person you are.".......2004-02-24

In the film, "Strange Impersonation" chemist Nora Goodrich (Brenda Marshall) is close to perfecting a new form of anesthesia, and she's also fending off fiance and fellow chemist, Dr Lindstrom. Lindstrom is pushing for a wedding date, but Nora's ambition dictates the conclusion of her experiments before moving on to personal business. Nora decides to accelerate product testing by experimenting with the anesthetic at home. She enlists the help of lab assistant Arline Cole. The experiment, however, goes horribly wrong, and Nora's face is scarred beyond recognition.

Following a bizarre encounter with female blackmailer Jane Karaski, Nora seizes the opportunity to assume Jane's identity. Nora--as Jane--goes into hiding and then undergoes over a year's worth of intense plastic surgery to restore her face.

Director Anthony Mann is considered one of the great film noir directors. So for those interested in the genre, "Strange Impersonation" is a must-see. However, that said, viewers should be aware that the film is seeped in 1940s technology and science (Nora's lab--Nora's experiments, etc), and so much of the film seems extremely dated. There are literally beakers full of smoking concoctions. Also, the film has a very high camp quality. The fights between females, a hideously scarred face hidden by veils, and the nonsensical inability to identify a body because the face is damaged beyond recognition, all add up to a good laugh. While the performances of the main actors are up-to-standard, some of the minor characters are definitely bad actors.

"Strange Impersonation" is absolutely not in the same league as "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Double Indemnity" or "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers." It's just too campy for that. However, I was extremely interested in Mann's portrayal of females in this film. Nora is a brilliant scientist, Arline is the wicked schemer, and Jane Karaski is a female thug. This is a film about strong women (not necessarily nice) who take fate into their own hands. The characters of the females are fascinating--whereas the males play only dull minor roles on the periphery of the film. "Strange Impersonation" is relatively short--68 minutes long, and if you want to see a "B" cult classic from the 40s, then this film--with all its flaws--is worth your while. This is a restored version of the film, and both the picture and sound were excellent quality--displacedhuman.

A NOTE TO CUSTOMER REVIEWERS..........2004-01-01

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!

STRANGE "MOVIE"............2002-11-09

A chemist (Brenda Marshall) working on a new anesthetic takes the product home and tries it out. Her assistant (Hilary Brooke), who may be after Marshalls' husband, arranges an "accident" that reults in Marshalls' face being disfigured. Marshall then murders a woman trying to blackmail her over a previous car accident and has to go on the lam with the dead womans' identity. She plots to take revenge and everything snowballs into a nightmare worse than before. The finale sees it all as just a weird hallucination she experienced from the drug. Huh? All this mumbo jumbo is played out in a very short running time. I wouldn't call this a "movie" so much as a cheap experimental student project. There are no production values at all. The sets are cardboard and the acting is dull and at times amateurish. I know that Anthony Mann has a reputation as a low budget film noirist but this is the cheapest attempt at telling a story I've seen in a while. Ulmer's "Detour" is pretty cheap but at least it's interesting. This was interesting at first but the ending just left me flat. Low budget is one thing but out and out cheap is another. I will not fault this films' defenders. To each his or her own. But it's just too cheap for me to see more than once. So it's recommended for Manns' fans and others with their curiosity meter turned WAY up.

Average customer rating:

"Buster Crabbe B-Western Series ... The Kid Rides Again (1943) ... VCI Home Video"

The Kid Rides Again
Starring: Buster Crabbe , Al St. John , Iris Meredith , Glenn Strange , and Charles King (II)
Director: Sam Newfield
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0006IUE7U
Release Date: 2004-12-21

Customer Reviews:

"Buster Crabbe B-Western Series ... The Kid Rides Again (1943) ... VCI Home Video".......2006-10-23

VCI Entertainment and Producers Releasing Corporation present "THE KID RIDES AGAIN" (1943) (55 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- relive those thrilling days when Buster Crabbe took us down the dusty trails with hard riding and straight shooting hitting the bull's eye with excitement every time... the Buster Crabbe series of B-Westerns were a staple of Saturday matinees in the 1930s and 1940s ... don't miss any of the Buster Crabbe features loaded with action that will leave you wanting more of his B-Western adventures.

Under Sam Newfield (Director) (as Sherman Scott), Sigmund Neufeld (Producer), Fred Myton (story and screenplay), Leo Erdody (Musical Director), Jack Greenhalgh (Cinematographer), Holbrook N. Todd (Editor) ----- the cast includes Buster Crabbe (Billy the Kid), Al St. John (Fuzzy Jones), Iris Meredith (Joan Ainsley), Glenn Strange (Henchman Tom Slade), Charles King (Vic Landeau, Henchman), I. Stanford Jolley (Mort Slade), Edward Peil Sr. (John Ainsley), Ted Adams (Sundown Sheriff), Slim Whitaker (Texas Sheriff) . . . . . our story has some of my favorite B-Western character actors Ted Adams, I. Stanford Jolley, Charles King, Glenn Strange and Slim Whitaker playing various roles, but none of them are enough to hold off Buster Crabbe from a jailbreak, on the trail of train robbers and just no good owlhoots ... who are these baddies pretending to be righteous ranchers, what possible reason can they have trying to give Fuzzy St. John a rough time on is ranch ... all this and more is in store on the Poverty Row Picture lot, with every member of the cast taking advantage of our heroes Buster and Fuzzy ----- B-Western footnote, actor Al St. John, silent film comic who appeared in dozens of Mack Sennett's early Keystone comedies and would eventually create and star in his own vehicles for other studios. With the advent of sound, he became a character actor in westerns and later the bewhiskered sidekick, also known as Fuzzy Q. Jones in some popular series Fred Scott (Spectrum Pictures/1937-38), Bob Steele/Billy the Kid (PRC Pictures/1940-41), Don "Red" Barry (Republic Pictures/1940-42), Lone Rider wth George Houston (PRC Pictures/1941-42), Lone Rider with Robert Livingston (PRC Pictures/1942-43), Buster Crabbe/Billy the Kid (PRC Pictures/1941-43), Buster Crabbe/Billy Carson (PRC Pictures/1943-46), Lash LaRue (PRC Pictures/1947-52) --- St. John retired from film making in the early '50s, passed away in 1963 from a heart attack while working with the Tommy Scott Wild West show --- check out this and more in a new book "Those Great Cowboy Sidekicks" by David Rothel, available from Amazon and Empire Publishing --- pick up your copy today ----- second B-Western footnote, actor Charles King was among the top five "Best of the Badmen" (according to a new book by Boyd Magers, Bob Nareau and Bobby Copeland) --- King was a big man, but as agile as a cat during his fight scenes with Johnny Mack Brown, Buster Crabbe, Tex Ritter, The Rough Riders and Bob Steele...King appeared in 400 films and 350 were in sound including many cliffhangers --- King was the heavy we loved to hate --- check out this and more in a new book "Best of the Badmen" by Boyd Magers, Bob Nareau and Bobby Copeland, available from Amazon and Empire Publishing --- pick up your copy today --- another great B-Western for Buster Crabbe under the PRC Picture banner, proves to be one of his most exciting performances.

Special footnote, actor Buster Crabbe graduated from the University of Southern California and won the 400 meter freestyle in which he medaled in the 1932 Olympics, went to work for Paramount in "King of the Jungle" (1933), next role was "Tarzan the Fearless (1933), Crabbe returned to Paramount Pictures was featured in Zane Grey Westerns which were well received, then came the roles that made him a household word "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers" at Universal Picture Serials (1936-1940), meanwhile PRC Studios was looking for a leading hero "Billy the Kid" and "Billy Carson" in the 1940's B-Western series and ran its course for six years, later made several televison appearances and appeared in a series "Captain Gallant and the Foreign Legion" (1955-1957).....

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Buster Crabbe (aka: Clarence Linden Crabbe II)
Birth Date: 2/17/1907 - Oakland California
Died: 4/23/1983 - Scottsdale, Arizona
2. Al "Fuzzy" St. John (aka: Alfred St. John)
Birth Date: 9/10/1893 - Santa Ana, CA
Died: 1/21/1963 - Lyons, Georgia
3. Charles King
Birth Date: 2/21/1895 - Hillsboro, Texas
Died: 5/07/1957 - Hollywood, California (cirrhosis of liver)
4. Glenn Strange (aka: George Glenn Strange)
Date of birth: 16 August 1899 - Weed, New Mexico
Date of death: 20 September 1973 - Los Angeles, California
5. I. Stanford Jolley (aka: Isaac Stanford Jolley)
Date of birth: 24 October 1900 - New Jersey
Date of death: 7 December 1978 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
6. Sam Newfield (Director)
Date of birth: 6 December 1899 - New York, New York
Date of death: 10 November 1964 - Los Angeles, California

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure check out other western double features with Buster Crabbe:

BUSTER CRABBE WESTERN DOUBLE FEATURES:
1. Vol. 1 - Western Cyclone/Sheriff of Sage Valley (1942-43) (VCI #7213) (DVD)
2. Vol. 2 - Fugitive of the Plains/Fuzzy Settles Down (1943-44) (VCI #7299) (DVD)

Ask Amazon.Com to carry the above Buster Crabbe titles
if they are not available as of yet...you can order
and pick up your copy now from VCI Entertainment.

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "The Kid Rides Again" (1943), the
digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more
high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and
B-Westerns...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there
are plenty of copies available on DVD and VHS, stay tuned once again for top
notch action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just
the way we like 'em

Total Time: 55 min on DVD/VHS ~ VCI Home Video ~ (5/04/1994)

Average customer rating:

Gunsmoke Trail
Starring: Ted Adams , Al Bridge , Kit Guard , Jack Ingram , and John Merton
Director: Sam Newfield
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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