The Great Impersonation (1942 film)

The Great Impersonation is a 1942 American thriller film directed by John Rawlins and starring Ralph Bellamy, Evelyn Ankers and Aubrey Mather. It is an adaptation of the 1920 novel The Great Impersonation by Edward Phillips Oppenheim with the setting moved from the early 1910s of the novel to the Second World War. It was made by Universal Pictures and was a remake of their 1935 film of the same name. German intelligence believe they have planted an agent into the British establishment by murdering a British aristocrat Sir Edward Dominey in Africa, and replacing him with his doppelganger. However, over time, they begin to have doubts about just what happened in Africa and if the man claiming to be Dominey is really an imposter.

Sir Edward Dominey (Ralph Bellamy) and Baron Leopold von Ragenstein are spitting images of each other and know each other since their days at Eton College in England. The story picks up as Dominey is found severely ill in the Dakar jungle and is brought into his old college buddy's camp, where he heals from his injuries.

One night when they are in the jungle camp together, England declares war on Germany and they conclude that they are now each other's enemies. Ragenstein orders his right hand man, Dr. Schmidt (Ludwig Stössel), to kill Dominey, and sets out on a long journey to London to impersonate Dominey and spy for the Third Reich.

Some time later, the German High Command sanctions Ragenstein's mission to go undercover into Britain and infiltrate the English upper ranks. His first task is to find out the defence plans for the English channel. He meets with another German agent, Frederick Seamon (Henry Daniell), who is a native Brit. Ragensteins sets out to get the plans from a relative to Dominey's wife, Sir Ronald Clayfair (Aubrey Mather), who is the British Minister of Home Defense.