Strange Impersonation (1946)

Moody attempt at femme-noir falls far short of any benchmarks the filmmakers could have been aiming for and instead looks like cinema's very first Lifetime movie. It doesn't help that the film wrecks its ace-in-the-hole plot twist/escape clause within the first thirty seconds (I seem to remember having similar problems with the story structure of The Woman in the Window), and the retrograde politics of the ending (Women! Forget being smart and get married!) make the whole thing slide down like a razorblade martini. Was this really made by the same Anthony Mann who did all those great Westerns? I think not.

Grade: C