Chameleon Street

Wendell B. Harris -- he also wrote and directed this movie -- is bored with his life with his well-paying job with his father's company and his beautiful wife. So he reinvents himself as an exchange student at Yale, then as various other people. It's all remarkably easy for him.

He's playing William Douglas Street Jr., a real man who did exactly that. It's a remarkable performance, although after a while it becomes apparent that it is a performance; after all, Harris is acting here, and his ability to work in different registers is an actor's meat and potatoes.

Nonetheless, the movie itself is an interesting character study, as the character reveals himself as a very intelligent manic-depressive who grows bored with his successes. That's good scripting combined with good acting. I'm not too sure that the ending, which is probably lose to what happened, is good story-telling; the police come to arrest him and the story ends, like a Tex Avery cartoon.

In real life, Street kept the impersonations going for perhaps 46 years, false identities he assumed included those of a reporter for TIME magazine, a Houston Oilers wide receiver, an all-star football player from the University of Michigan, a physician at Henry Ford Hospital (in 1973), attorneys (1979 and 1980) and as a first-year medical student at Yale University. Staff at the Detroit Human Rights Department where he posed as an attorney volunteer found him skillful enough that "if he ever straightens out, we wouldn't mind having him back." What the movie doesn't mention is that he was caught kiting checks and extortion. He was sentenced in his mid-60s to three years on identity theft.

It's a shame this film didn't get more notice and better distribution at the time it was released, in spite of being championed by indie fave Steven Sorderbergh. I've been waiting for another directorial effort from Wendell B. Harris, but nothing appears to be forthcoming. That's unfortunate but indicative of the realities of contemporary Hollywood, where talented black performers are given short shrift in favor of the bottom line. This usually means that the project that gets made is based on the name recognition of the rising black star who's attached and where they are on the pop music charts.

Even though the film itself suffered a bit on the production value end because of its low budget, the story was original and Mr. Harris' portrayal of the identity shifting protagonist was exhilarating for its boldness. The idea of person of color who unapologetically subverts "the system" is daring in and of itself. The fact that it was done with style and a good bit of humor was both refreshing and encouraging. It says that there are statements to be made through the medium of film without being overtly confrontational or dogmatic.

About half as good as "Catch Me If You Can", this at times funny film is way too one note, that note, of course, being that the white establishment is so stupid that it can even be hoodwinked by a none too clever con artist. I got the point after the first scam involving the title character impersonating a Time Magazine journalist and by the middle of the second, when Street pretends to be a surgeon, I was officially tired of the whole thing. That I didn't bail until the start of the third impersonation (an African exchange student at Yale) was mostly due to writer/director/star Wendell B Harris' comic chops, which are not inconsiderable. Kinda surprised that he didn't get a shot at a second feature, at least as a scenarist and/or actor. Give it a C plus.

I saw this movie after it was recommended by The Criterion Channel. The premise of "Chameleon Street" is simple: a guy needs money, so he impersonates people in order to get money.

Titular William Douglas Street's morality is vintage confidence man, as is his technique. The film's narrative is uncomplicated, a by the numbers imposter flick in the tradition of "The Great Imposter (1961) or "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) with a hint of "Hollywood Shuffle" (1987).

"Chameleon Street" appears to have had a low but decent budget, unlike some other Sundance successes. At times the camera and lighting techniques reminded me of Robert Florey's "The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra" (1928).

If the movie has a problem, it resides with Street himself. An imposter only after money, a point Harris emphasizes in addressing the camera, falls a little flat, at least in relation to, say, the Will Smith character of Paul, in "Six Degrees of Separation" (1993). Street displays only the mundane pathology of straitened circumstances with a little greed thrown in. There is hardly any dark side to his character, unlike Ferdinand Waldo Demara's great imposter or DiCaprio's Frank Abagnale.

Actor Wendell Harris gives an adequate, if less than brilliant, rendition of his subject. I would have appreciated a little less of his overbroad, wink-wink approach to some of Street's "roles". But writer Harris is good, very good. The dialog is often witty, eloquent, even garnished with butchered French in one of Street's "roles". According to this website, this movie is Harris' only writing credit, a shame. This guy can write.

If you want to hear well crafted dialog composed with wit, verve, and all those other things that have been missing from your screens, this is the movie for you.

A biting satire based on true stories of separate con-artists that tried to pull various scams, including blackmail and impersonating a reporter, surgeon, lawyer and others. Not a simple comedy so much as a deep look into how different races, social classes and ways of making a living are taken for granted. A true "independent" film, not because of its small budget or Wendell Harris's role as writer-director-star, but from its story and style taking chances. Even after winning best film at Sundance (before it was the super-popular fest it is now), no distributor would pick it up, apparently scared by the film's content. The only offer was to remake the film with "Fresh Prince" Will Smith, effectively putting a happy face on it. Appalled at that idea, Harris held out and STREET finally made an all-too-limited release in theaters and later on home video. Highly recommended.