Synopsis
The Supreme SPY Adventure!
The second of the three film versions of the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage thriller set largely in an old dark house where a tremulous wife wonders if her husband is really his double, a dastardly German spy.
The Great Impersonation
1935 Directed by Alan Crosland
Cast
Edmund Lowe Valerie Hobson Wera Engels Murray Kinnell Henry Mollison Esther Dale Brandon Hurst Ivan F. Simpson Spring Byington Lumsden Hare Charles Waldron Leonard Mudie Claude King Frank Reicher Harry Allen Nan Grey Willy Castello Priscilla Lawson Virginia Hammond Thomas R. Mills Tom Ricketts Frank Terry Robert Bolder Lowden Adams Dwight Frye David Dunbar Frank Benson Leonid Snegoff Harry Worth Show All…
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Original Writer
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Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USANR
Releases by Country
USA
08 Dec 1935
- TheatricalNR
Popular reviews
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Universal Horror Movies #32
The semi-obscure The Great Impersonation is a weird and entertaining blend of adventure movie, spy thriller, political drama, Gothic horror, and romance, landing on multiple genres without ever staying in one place for long. Though not a neglected classic, it's hardly a dud and should be better known.
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Edmund Lowe is a man's man that's grown strong on me over these past few years. Mainly known as a B-movie leading man without much following today, he was a very capable actor who made a large amount of entertaining pictures considering he rarely got the biggest of budgets to work with. Always a tough man, blend it with a spooky atmosphere and double-Lowe, and you have The Great Impersonation (1935). Pretty cool film, but also uneven considering it's strengths. Still an example of Lowe as a class act.
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A lot better than Life Returns for the Universal Horror-adjacent movies. This is basically a spy thriller with horror elements, although it could be played as horror if the script was written around the women’s perspectives.
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OK, now I watched the one that I meant to watch! The other movie from the 40s with the same name starts out the same...with some of the same dialogue even! Then, though the movies retain the same basic plot, they are VERY different! This one was definitely better and had a couple strange horror movie elements in it.
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An overplotted and largely insignificant but fun spy romp with some pronounced gothic/ horror elements. Very reflective of angsty global politics of the time and even prescient in some ways.