STRANGE IMPERSONATION is an odd and unsatisfying little slice of film noir that plays havoc with established genre elements. The main characters in this film are all women who take the moniker 'femme fatale' to the extreme: they're far more violent than the men, and willing to take part in schemes often dangerous and deadly.The story bears more than a passing resemblance to the British crime film RETURN OF A STRANGER in the tale of a leading scientist who ends up being horrifically scarred in a laboratory accident. A hefty dollop of plastic surgery follows, at which point the woman decides to wreak revenge on the various characters who have ruined her life - with deadly results.While this film can be quite watchable at times, overall it's a disappointment. The acting is a bit too shrill for my tastes, and Brenda Marshall is hardly the type of heroine who it's easy to identify with. But the worst thing about it by far is the twist ending, which is a real kick in the teeth to anybody who's bothered to waste their time watching this.

Anthony Mann directs this movie with the most convoluted and unbelievable plot...but it's still quite entertaining. The secret to watching it is to just ignore the impossibility of everything you see...just enjoy! The film starts with Brenda Marshall as an obsessed research scientist. Her character is very one-dimensional and all she thinks about is her work. Oddly, despite this, her boyfriend adores her (William Gargan) and constantly is pressing her to marry him. Out of the blue, Marshall's female assistant tries to kill her while Marshall is unconscious. She tries to burn Marshall alive but at least succeeds in sending her to the hospital with a disfigured face from the fire. Then, the assistant does everything she can to destroy the relationship between her boss and her fiancé--and she is truly a snake! After getting out of the hospital, Marshall has (thanks to the manipulative 'friend') lost her boyfriend and is alone. Out of the blue, a nasty lady from early in the film returns and tries to rob the Doctor at gunpoint. In an ensuing struggle, the robber is knocked off the apartment balcony to her death MANY stories below. Considering she's wearing the Doctor's ring she just stole and her face was crushed in the fall, people assume it was Marshall. Marshall takes this opportunity to assume the dead woman's life. Then, after getting plastic surgery to look EXACTLY like the dead woman (????), she returns to exact revenge against the assist and the ex-boyfriend she assumed was faithless towards her.The film is so full of impossible and ridiculous story elements. Attempted murders and a convenient robbery are just the tip of the iceberg of impossibilities. Having Marshall become this other woman due to plastic surgery is silly--especially with 1940s technology. And, in fact, she did NOT look like this other woman--just Marshall with a new hair color and style--yet the people from her past did NOT recognize her!!! None of it makes any sense at all....yet the film is still pretty entertaining and juicy throughout. Unfortunately, the ending is terrible....and pretty much undoes most of the film!! Too bad....this could have been a lot better! By the way, isn't Marshall's nurse the most detestable lady?! I wanted to throttle her as she CONSTANTLY spoke in the third person!

This film's chief recommendation is a superb performance by Hilary Brooke, who plays a mini-Iago, a woman so unremittingly wicked, scheming and grasping that Brooke's intense portrayal of her should really have been lifted from this B picture and inserted into an A picture. The film's main weakness is this: primarily, the entire plot depends on two women (Brenda Marshall and Hilary Brooke) being so infatuated with the leading man that they will stop at nothing to 'have him', but the casting for that part is William Gargan, who is wholly ludicrous. No one would 'have to have' Gargan, who is goofy-looking, weak, altogether lacking in any semblance of romantic charm, and frankly just a joke in the part. Two women fighting to the death over that blob of vaseline is ridiculous. The other fatal weakness to this film is an appalling plot development towards the end, which I shall refrain from revealing, but it is terminal to taking this film seriously. How could Anthony Mann have directed such an inferior work when only two years later he would produce the masterpiece 'Raw Deal' (1948)? It all goes to show that with a weak script and a hopeless leading man, everything can readily collapse into a heap of rubble. This film could have been something, but for reasons which we will never know, it was gutted from within. After all, the basic plot is strong and powerful if it had been allowed to happen without interference, and with the right leading man to make it believable. What a missed opportunity this was!

Hey, gals, don't shoot me for that statement...that isn't my idea, but let's face it, this is the underlying statement of this rather soap operish film.After all, the war was over and women did a great job working in all fields while the men were fighting a war, but look what happens to this gal when she decides to put her career ahead of getting married, popping out kids, and being a nice dutiful wife.Instead, she continues her job as a chemical research scientist, gets tangled up with a blackmailing woman who's aided by an ambulance-chasing shyster lawyer, is disfigured thanks to her jealous assistant, and just generally is in a mess that takes her the length of the movie to get out of.Ah, Anthony Mann sure won't get the woman's vote for this effort, but he redeemed himself later with films with strong and able female leads.Seriously, this is strictly a B concoction made to be a space filler on a double feature bill, just what was to be expected by the old Republic Studios which churned out hundreds of those great B films and cliffhanger serials.However, it is fun.