Strange Impersonation

Plot

A disfigured woman scientist undergoes plastic surgery and then assumes the identity of a dead blackmailer.

Cast

Release

Republic released Strange Impersonation in March 1946, three months after it was approved by the Production Code Administration. Its West Coast performance was not as good as on the East Coast, which author Max Alvarez attributes to supporting a better feature in New York City.

Critical response

Film critic Glenn Erickson is positive about the film, writing, "Strange Impersonation is a fun oddity, a female version of The Scar (Hollow Triumph) (or perhaps The Woman in the Window) but without an organized crime angle. It's the kind of Cornell Woolrich yarn that depends on an unlikely but entertaining twist concept. ... The future director of El Cid and a half-dozen landmark James Stewart westerns shows a flair for dramatic confrontations. Strange Impersonation never looks cheap even though its limited cast works in just a few sets. Not surprisingly, the underlying message implies that if professional women want to be happy, they need to stop working and marry." Writing in The Crime Films of Anthony Mann, Alvarez says, "Irrespective of his reservations and despite its unsatisfying conclusion, the picture is an ingenious and frenzied little thriller". William Darby, who wrote Anthony Mann: The Film Career, said that the film "uneasily moves between film noir and woman's picture with the latter tendency ultimately winning out."