New York Times Movie Review
Chameleon Street (1989)
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Review/Film;
The Multiple Masks of a Compulsive Impostor
By VINCENT CANBY
Published: April 24, 1991
At the beginning of Wendell B. Harris's serious and funny "Chameleon Street," opening today at the Film Forum, a prison doctor is analyzing Doug Street's problem: "You intuit what other people need and become that person."
Doug (played by Mr. Harris), a good-looking, mannerly young black man, intuits what the blandly self-important white doctor needs. Doug immediately becomes a receptive patient who couldn't agree more. There will be no further impersonations, for the time being anyway.
In "Chameleon Street," which he also wrote and directed, Mr. Harris demonstrates that he's a triple-threat new film maker of original and eccentric talent. In his first feature film, he also shows he understands that the compulsion to adopt alien personalities is a lot more complex than the need to please.
Mr. Harris's source material is the real-life story of William Douglas Street, who apparently had a brief but successful career as an impostor in the 1970's and 1980's. Just how closely Mr. Harris follows the facts, I've no idea. But the film is involving enough to prompt one to want to know more.
"Chameleon Street," which was voted the best dramatic film at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival, is both breezy and dark as it recaps Doug's quite remarkable succession of impersonations.
At one point, having passed himself off as a Harvard Medical School graduate to obtain a residency at Wayne State Medical School, he is required to perform a hysterectomy. "Lord," he says to himself at the start of the operation, "I hope my mascara doesn't run."
It doesn't. The patient survives and Doug is congratulated for the speed and efficiency of his technique.
Yet Doug has a way of accomplishing the difficult task and then being tripped up by a minor detail. To gain access to Paula McGee, the Midwestern basketball player who plays herself in the film, he takes on the identity of a magazine reporter. All goes well until someone notices that in his letter to Ms. McGee he has identified himself as a Time Magazine "wrighter."
Doug isn't stupid. He is brilliant in his improvisations, but there's always the need to self-destruct. As the film's writer and director, Mr. Harris doesn't waste time offering easy analyses of the character, which is all to the good. Instead he presents vivid incidents and details that can be explained only by a multiplicity of reasons.
Doug, the older son of a Detroit businessman, has grown up comparatively well-to-do. Still in his early 20's, he is on his second marriage. He is impatient to get ahead. He needs cash now, which is why, early on, he participates in an attempt to extort money from Willie Horton, the Detroit Tigers baseball star.
The plot might have succeeded (or, at least, Doug might not have been caught), if one of his cohorts hadn't signed Doug's name to the extortion note.
Doug's later impostures, including one as a French exchange student at Yale, aren't especially well planned. They just sort of happen. Once into a new life, he experiences a terrific excitement that must be due, in part, to the constant expectation of being found out.
His most magnificent obsession is his medical career. As Doug makes his hospital rounds, he's forever ducking into the men's room to look up something in one of the textbooks he carries.
He's a phenomenally quick study, though not always a thorough one. His career at Yale is cut short when it's realized that his knowledge of French is decidedly limited, though it's amazing how long he lasts by simply repeating, "J'accuse Jacques Brel. J'accuse Jacques Cousteau."
There's also the suggestion that, after establishing himself in some new role, as, say, a crackerjack lawyer for a Detroit civil rights group, Doug loses interest. He has to move on. Yet he has no identity of his own. Without a fabricated resume, he is invisible.
Mr. Harris, who graduated from Juilliard with a B.F.A., gives an exceptionally good, quite eerie performance. He has a deep actorly voice that perfectly matches Doug's florid behavior, which, near the end, veers near the psychotic.
Mr. Harris's direction is without fancy flourishes, which also serves the subject. The film's weak link is its screenplay, which may be inhibited by the fact that "Chameleon Street" is an authorized biography, at least to the extent that the subject is still alive. For whatever reason, the continuity is unclear. Doug is always being nabbed by the police, but he is seen serving only one jail term.
Though the women in Doug's life are beautiful if shadowy presences, some of the other supporting characters are nicely realized, including his lay-about pal who, near the beginning of the film, complains about his lot in life.
"I'm a victim," the friend says with satisfaction. "For 400 years I've been conditioned to be a victim. Even my conditioning has been conditioned."
Doug Street bucks the system in his own way. Chameleon Street Directed and written by Wendell B. Harris Jr.; director of photography, Daniel S. Noga; produced by Dan Laston. Executive producers, Helen B. Harris and Dr. Hobart Harris. Distributed by Northern Arts Entertainment . At Film Forum 1, 209 West Houston Street. Running time: 98 minutes. This film has no rating. William Douglas Street . . . Wendell B. Harris Jr. Gabrielle . . . Angela Leslie Tatiana . . . Amina Fakir
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