''The Great Impersonation'' is a 1935
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Alan Crosland
Alan Crosland (August 10, 1894 – July 16, 1936) was an American stage actor and film director. He is noted for having directed the first feature film using spoken dialogue, ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927).
Early life and career
Born in New York Ci ...
and starring
Edmund Lowe
Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film.
Biography
Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...
,
Valerie Hobson
Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the P ...
and
Wera Engels. It was adapted from the 1920 novel ''
The Great Impersonation'' by
E. Phillips Oppenheim. It was made by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
with some aesthetic similarities to the
Universal Horror films of the 1930s.
[Weaver p.148-153] Two other film versions of the story were made with the same title in
1921
Events
January
* January 2
** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil.
** The Spanish lin ...
and
1942
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...
respectively.
Plot
Before the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Sir Everard Dominey, a drunken upper-class Englishman, encounters an old acquaintance the sinister German arms dealer Baron Leopold von Ragostein in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. The two men are identical, and von Ragostein plans to kill his
doppelganger and take his place in British high society where he will be able to further his arms business and spy on Britain for the German Empire. He arranges the murder with his various associates.
When "Dominey" returns to London shortly afterwards, he encounters the German aristocrat Stephanie Elderstrom who is certain she recognises him as her former lover, von Ragostein. von Ragostein's associates attempt to buy her off but she remains convinced something untoward is going on. When he reaches Donimey Hall, Dominey's wife is equally certain that it is her genuine husband returning from Africa at long-last. Gradually, doubts begin to emerge whether it is the real Dominey who has come home.
Cast
*
Edmund Lowe
Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film.
Biography
Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...
as Sir Everard Dominey/Baron Leopold von Ragostein
*
Valerie Hobson
Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the P ...
as Eleanor Dominey
*
Wera Engels as Princess Stephanie Elderstrom
*
Murray Kinnell
Murray Kinnell (24 July 1889 – 11 August 1954) was a British-born American actor, recognized for playing smooth, gentlemanly, although rather shady characters. He appeared in 71 films in the USA between the pre-code era of 1930 and 1937.
He ...
as Seaman
*
Henry Mollison
Evelyn Henry Mollison (21 February 1905 – 19 July 1985) was a British theatre and film actor. He was the brother of the actor Clifford Mollison.
During World War II, he was held as a Prisoner of War for five years by the Nazis, after his ...
as Eddie Pelham
*
Esther Dale
Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress of the stage and screen.
Early years
Dale was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. She attended Leland and Gray Seminary in Townshend, Vermont. In Berlin, Germany, she stud ...
as Mrs. Unthank
*
Brandon Hurst as Middleton
*
Ivan F. Simpson
Ivan F. Simpson (8 February 1875 – 12 October 1951) was a Scottish film and stage actor.
Life and career
Simpson was born on 8 February 1875 in Glasgow, Scotland, and went as a young man to New York City, where he worked for four dec ...
as Doctor Harrison
*
Spring Byington
Spring Dell Byington (October 17, 1886 – September 7, 1971) was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of '' December Bride''. She was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player who appeared in ...
as Duchess Caroline
*
Lumsden Hare
Francis Lumsden Hare (17 October 1874 – 28 August 1964) was an Irish-born film and theatre actor. He was also a theatre director and theatrical producer.
Early years
Hare studied at St. Dunstan's College in London.
Career
Hare appeared ...
as Duke Henry
*
Charles Waldron
Charles Waldron (December 24, 1874 – March 4, 1946) was an American stage and film actor, sometimes credited as Charles Waldron Sr., Chas. Waldron Sr., Charles D. Waldron or Mr. Waldron.
Early life
He was born and grew up in Waterford, New ...
as Sir Ivan Brunn
*
Leonard Mudie
Leonard Mudie (born Leonard Mudie Cheetham; April 11, 1883April 14, 1965) was an English character actor whose career lasted for nearly fifty years. After a successful start as a stage actor in England, he appeared regularly in the US, and made ...
as Mangan
*
Claude King
Claude King (February 5, 1923 – March 7, 2013) was an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for his million selling 1962 hit, "Wolverton Mountain".
Biography
King was born in Keithville in southern Caddo Parish south ...
as Sir Gerald Hume
*
Frank Reicher
Frank Reicher (born Franz Reicher; December 2, 1875 – January 19, 1965) was a German-born American actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Captain Englehorn in the 1933 film ''King Kong''.
Early life
Reicher was born in Mu ...
as Doctor Trenk
*
Harry Allen as Perkins
* Lowden Adams as Waiter
* Frank Benson as English Farmer
*
Robert Bolder
Robert Bolder (20 July 1859 – 10 December 1937) was an English film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1912 and 1936. He was born in London and died in Los Angeles, California. In the early part of the 20t ...
as Villager
* Willy Castello as Duval
*
Edward Cooper as Butler
*
David Dunbar as English Farmer
*
Dwight Frye
Dwight Iliff Frye (born Fry; February 22, 1899 – November 7, 1943) was an American character actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his portrayals of neurotic, murderous villains in several classic Universal horror films, such as R ...
as Roger Unthank
*
Nan Grey
Nan Grey (born Eschal Loleet Grey Miller; July 25, 1918 – July 25, 1993) was an American film actress.
Early years
Grey was born in Houston, Texas. In 1934, at age 16, she went to Hollywood with her mother for a holiday. She was persuaded by ...
as Middleton's Daughter
*
Virginia Hammond
Virginia Hammond (August 20, 1893 – April 6, 1972) was an American film and theatre actress.
Born in Staunton, Virginia. Hammond was the daughter of a Confederate army major.
Hammond began her career in 1907, where she made her theatre debu ...
as Lady Hume
*
Henry Kolker
Joseph Henry Kolker (November 13, 1874 ome sources 1870– July 15, 1947) was an American stage and film actor and director.
Early years
Kolker was born in Quincy, Illinois.
Career
Kolker, like fellow actors Richard Bennett and Robert Wa ...
as Doctor Schmidt
*
Priscilla Lawson
Priscilla Jones Lawson (née Shortridge, March 8, 1914 – August 27, 1958), was an American actress best known for her role as Princess Aura in the original ''Flash Gordon'' serial (1936).
Early years
Born in St. Paul, Indiana, Lawson was t ...
as Maid
*
Adolph Milar
Adolph Milar (1895–1950) was a Swiss-born film actor. He appeared in character roles in around sixty American films from 1919 to 1945, playing characters of a variety of nationalities.Biskupski p.43 His name is sometimes written as Adolf Milar. ...
as German
*
Thomas R. Mills as Bartender
* Pat O'Hara as Chauffeur
* John Powers as Policeman
*
Tom Ricketts
Thomas B. Ricketts (15 January 1853 – 19 January 1939) was an English-born American stage and film actor and director who was a pioneer in the film industry. He portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in the first American film adaptation of ''A Christm ...
as Villager
* Violet Seaton as Nurse
* Leonid Snegoff as Wolff
*
Larry Steers
Lawrence Wells Steers (February 14, 1888 – February 15, 1951) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 550 films between 1917 and 1951. He was born in Indiana, and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.
Partial filmography
* ' ...
as Army Officer
* Frank Terry as Villager
*
Douglas Wood as Nobleman
* Harry Worth as Hugo
References
Bibliography
* Weaver, Tom & Brunas, Michael & Brunas, John. ''Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946''. McFarland & Company, 2007.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Impersonation
1935 films
American historical drama films
Films directed by Alan Crosland
Universal Pictures films
Films set in England
Films set in London
Films set in Africa
Films based on British novels
Films set in the 1910s
Films based on works by E. Phillips Oppenheim
1930s historical drama films
American black-and-white films
Films about identity theft
1935 drama films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films