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The Great Impersonation (1935 film)
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Wikipedia article
'The Great Impersonation' is a 1935 American drama film directed by Alan Crosland and starring Edmund Lowe, Valerie Hobson and Wera Engels. It was adapted from the 1920 novel 'The Great Impersonation' by E. Phillips Oppenheim. It was made by Universal Pictures 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 and 1942 respectively.
Plot
Before the First World War, Sir Everard Dominey, a drunken upper-class Englishman, encounters an old acquaintance the sinister German arms dealer Baron Leopold von Ragostein in Africa. 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 as Sir Everard Dominey/Baron Leopold von Ragostein
* Valerie Hobson as Eleanor Dominey
* Wera Engels as Princess Stephanie Elderstrom
* Murray Kinnell as Seaman
* Henry Mollison as Eddie Pelham
* Esther Dale as Mrs. Unthank
* Brandon Hurst as Middleton
* Ivan F. Simpson as Doctor Harrison
* Spring Byington as Duchess Caroline
* Lumsden Hare as Duke Henry
* Charles Waldron as Sir Ivan Brunn
* Leonard Mudie as Mangan
* Claude King as Sir Gerald Hume
* Frank Reicher as Doctor Trenk
* Harry Allen as Perkins
* Lowden Adams as Waiter
* Frank Benson as English Farmer
* Robert Bolder as Villager
* Willy Castello as Duval
* Edward Cooper as Butler
* David Dunbar as English Farmer
* Dwight Frye as Roger Unthank
* Nan Grey as Middleton's Daughter
* Virginia Hammond as Lady Hume
* Henry Kolker as Doctor Schmidt
* Priscilla Lawson as Maid
* Adolph Milar as German
* Thomas R. Mills as Bartender
* Pat O'Hara as Chauffeur
* John Powers as Policeman
* Tom Ricketts as Villager
* Violet Seaton as Nurse
* Leonid Snegoff as Wolff
* Larry Steers 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.
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