The Great Impostor movie storyline. Fictionalized account of Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. who stole or created fictional identities and worked in a variety of occupations, most quite successfully. He worked as a prison warden, impersonated a monk and was also a doctor aboard a Royal Canadian Navy warship where he was required to perform an appendectomy. His impersonations are more to allow himself to live different lives as opposed to making any kind of personal gain although he did get in trouble with the law as a result of his exploits.
The Great Impostor is a 1961 movie based on the true story of an impostor named Ferdinand Waldo Demara. The film is loosely based on Robert Crichton’s 1959 biography of the same name, it stars Tony Curtis in the title role, and was directed by Robert Mulligan. The film only loosely follows Demara’s real-life exploits, and is much lighter in tone than the book on which it is based.
About the Story
As he is arrested by the Coast Guard on an island in New England, a man born as Ferdinand Waldo Demara but known by many other identities recalls the events that brought him to this point. Demara quit high school as a boy and joined the Army. He wanted to become an officer, but his lack of education worked against it. On a whim, he fakes a set of credentials and becomes a U.S. Marine.
When his lie is detected, Demara, facing jail, fakes a suicide and hides out as a Trappist monk. After a while, he is expelled from the monastery, captured and imprisoned in a military brig. But the warden inadvertently confides too many details of his own life to Demara, taking a liking to him. Upon his release, Demara impersonates the warden and lands a job working in a Texas penitentiary, where he takes up with his new warden’s daughter, Eulalie.
Blackmailed by an inmate who recognizes him from the military jail, Demara once again flees. He joins the Royal Canadian Navy, using the forged credentials of a doctor. After falling in love with a RCN Nursing Sister, Catherine Lacey, he goes to Korea to serve aboard HMCS Cayuga. He ends up doing dental work on the ship’s captain, then performing operations in a Korean hospital.
Hailed as a “miracle doctor,” Demara gains publicity that exposes his past. The Navy finds out who he really is and intends to hold a court-martial. Nurse Lacey and others vow to testify on Demara’s behalf, having seen his good side. Worried about possible disrepute to the RCN, and his stellar service, he is allowed to leave under a general discharge. He then goes and becomes a teacher in New England.
The Great Impostor (1961)
Directed by: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Tony Curtis, Frank Gorshin, Gary Merrill, Edmond O’Brien, Arthur O’Connell, Karl Malden, Raymond Massey, Joan Blackman, Jeanette Nolan, Sue Ane Langdon, Cindi Wood
Screenplay by: Liam O’Brien
Cinematography by: Robert Burks
Film Editing by: Frederic Knudtson
Set Decoration by: Julia Heron
Art Direction by: Henry Bumstead, Alexander Golitzen
Music by: Henry Mancini
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 3, 1961
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