The Chameleon

Robert Duvall stars as Louis Mace, a world-weary government agent/assassin stranded in Mexico who is approached by a government official if he would be interested in a special, top secret mission. Mace readily complies, even when he is told that it involves him going undercover in a crashed alien ship by undergoing a radical new surgery using the alien DNA to literally turn himself into an exact replica of them! A cover story is contrived, but the other aliens don't buy it, though Mace is surprised to find them non-hostile, and that he prefers his new identity to the old one... Duvall is excellent as always, giving the unlikely premise a much needed boost of credibility.

A much younger Robert Duvall volunteers to be changed into an alien so he can infiltrate a space ship that is potentially dangerous. When confronted, some soldiers have been killed and it is assumed that the aliens are out for blood. An overzealous Colonel wants to destroy them while the scientists try to convince him to show patience. Duvall, who has disdain for the world, feels it is worth the consequences of being transformed for the rest of his life. He is a subversive assassin and is filled with self-loathing. He is able to infiltrate the space ship but is immediately recognized as an invader ("It is like a dog being able to recognize a cat" says one of the aliens). Most of the tension is brought about by the possible decision to kill these guys. The hesitation is that they may have fissionable material on board, leading to a potential big time explosion. The ethics of this are as true today as they were in 1964. We are confronting a lot of threats these days; how will be approach them.

Scientists turn a human into an alien.

Most Limits episodes get about five IMDb reviews but to my deep surprise The Chameleon only gets one other review! How could this be?????? This is one of the true classics of the series and indeed one of the top ten of the whole series.

For reasons I can't explain too well, there is a feeling of B&W Lost In Space Season One (1965-66) in this episode. Perhaps it is the B&W photography or the look of the aliens or the story that has shades of Lost In Space's Invaders From The 5th Dimension/The Keeper.

Whatever the case, I am lost-in-space with this hour and The Chameleon has survived about ten viewings in my lifetime. I love it!

In several series as guesting star we already envisage a bright future to skilled Robert Duvall on solid performances, smooth talking, self-assured and so for, he today boasts an uppermost status as finest actor, that he carefully paved for instance in this valuable acting one of my front-runner The Outer Limits.

After an alien spacecraft landed on Earth for technical glitches, aware the US' Army stays of readiness for a potential attack on those unknown aliens that could be a menace to Earth as a whole, advised by a chief of security agency Leo Chambers (Howard Caine) tries convince a harder line Gen. Crawford (Henry Brandon) to postpone the attack due the highest potential nuclear on board of alien flying saucer, he is willing to offer an unbeaten hitman Louis Mace (Robert Duvall) enough able to settle the matter as long as the sapient Scientist Dr. Tillyard (Douglas Henderson) who got an advanced process of shapeshifting through Alien's DNA found in the nails of the American soldiers when they face they them.

The task is bold and dangerous, got the Mace's body to becomes one of them aiming for to teaming up with the aliens to later destroy their nuclear weapons inside the spacecraft, the plan works out, Mace-Alien is accepts by the self-called invaders, although the friendly aliens there aren't any nuclear device whatsoever, they in fact had shaped such weapon to deceive the earthlings in order to dissuade the belligerent Gen. Crawford, giving enough time to fix the spacecraft to takes off back home, thus Mice is caged a force field whilst the wiser aliens figure out the real intents of Mice-Alien at there.

Reading some reviews here draw my attention one of them wisely perceived the offbeat giggling typified by Mace-alien when the morphing is already done, also as low budge series it has many flaws do discuss whom I have invite the viewers find out themselves and have a lot.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.

An Alien craft containing two alien beings lands on Earth, the security services send in an undercover agent, who is physically altered beforehand to fit in.

I have to give huge credit to the writer for the sheer originality of the storyline and script. If I'm totally honest, I can't say it's one of my favourites, but for sheer originality, it's impressive.

It's a story of fear, the fear of the unknown, not knowing what the other side wants, frightened to act directly, instead relying on infiltration. It's so cleverly plotted, overall it just works.

The alien beings themselves look pretty good, but it's their character, the movement and menacing laughs that gives them some credence, they could easily have just been a man in a rubber suit monster, but they were so much more.

Well acted, Robert Duvall stood out in particular for me.

8/10.