Based on the actual adventures of consummate con artist William Douglas Street, CHAMELEON STREET is a witty, perceptive study of a man who takes on his environment and, with great--if limited--success, makes it suit his lively imagination.
While William Douglas Street's (Wendell B. Harris, Jr.) I.Q. is high, his opportunities thus far have been limited. He's black, living in Detroit and married to Gabrielle (Angela Leslie) who keeps chanting "make some money, make some money." This isn't possible working for his father in a menial
job, so Street puts his fertile brain to work on overcoming his mediocre existence.
Like a chameleon, Street begins playing different roles, many of them successfully. He starts off with an extortion scheme which ends up as a publicity stunt. He quickly proceeds to becoming a reporter for Time magazine using false credentials. Attacked in a bar by a white man, Street is treated
in a hospital where his next adventure turns him into a visiting intern from Harvard Medical School. With his forged papers he is accepted by the staff and patients; boning up on medical procedures by reading medical books, he keeps just one step ahead of the authorities. Finally caught in a
routine security check, Street is sent to prison.
While incarcerated, he reads voraciously, and when a sexual assault is attempted he fakes a fit and is saved. Street is transferred to the prison hospital for psychiatric care. In a session with the psychiatrist William admits that he gives people what they want. When he meets people, he knows
within minutes who they want him to be, and he immediately cuts the emotional cloth of his personality to suit the situation. Escaping from the hospital, Street heads for Yale. Getting an I.D. is easy when he accidentally knocks down a student and picks up his I.D. With access to the university,
the library becomes his home, his intellectual haven. The charade continues.
Meeting his wife again at a masked ball, Street opts to return to Detroit and his family, which now includes a young daughter. Back to square one, the Detroit Human Rights Commission becomes his new target. Taking on the guise of an attorney, he moves up the ranks to become a key figure in the
movement. Street's rise to power is sharply curtailed by a visit from a state marshall. His wife has blown the whistle. So ends the multifaceted career of William Douglas Street, a legend in his own time.
CHAMELEON STREET provides excellent entertainment with solid production values. Writer-director-actor Wendell B. Harris, Jr., proving that facts are stranger than fiction, has fashioned a fast and funny chronicle of William Douglas Street's escapades. To Harris's credit, he has managed to project
the human factor as well. As Smith slides from one identity to another, he endears himself to the viewer with his charisma and ingenuity. Many of the characters in the film portray themselves as the actual events are recreated. Among them is Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit. (Violence, substance
abuse, profanity, sexual situations, adult situations, nudity.) leave a comment
