Chameleon Street
Director: Wendell B. Harris Jr.
Writer: Wendell B. Harris Jr.
Cast: Wendell B. Harris Jr., Angela Leslie, Amina Fakir, Paula McGee, Anthony Ennis, Davon Kiley, Anita Gordon, Floyd Mackin, Margaret Branch, Christopher Williams, Alfred Bruce Bradley, Lynn Barbee, Jennifer Turner
Seen on: 26.11.2025

Content Note: misogyny, fatmisia

Plot:
William Douglas Street Jr. (Wendell B. Harris Jr.) is a man of many talents, but life gives him little opportunity to put those talents to any good use. Working for his father (Floyd Mackin) and taking care of his wife Darlene (Anita Gordon) is not enough for him. So he becomes creative and creates his own possibilities by taking on different identities – from blackmailer to journalist, from lawyer to doctor.

Chameleon Street has received mixed reception when it came out and can now be considered a classic of Black cinema. Unfortunately I have to echo those mixed reviews.

I had never heard of William Douglas Street Jr. before seeing this film, and his story really sounds unbelievable, especially given that he is a Black man who are usually met with so much more scrutiny than white men. So I understand why Harris would want to adapt his exploits into a film. But the way he structured the story just didn’t work for me. Mostly, he jumps from role to role that Street takes on, but never clearly establishing a throughline. I would have liked one of those to keep the story together.

Even more than that, though, I struggled with the way Harris portrays and Street treats women. Street always has a new flame at hand, it feels, but these women barely seem to have a personality. They are basically only beautiful and mostly interchangeable – it really got on my nerves. (There are also a couple of fatmisic comments, which is always a shitty thing.)

Here and there, the movie really strikes gold, though. One scene in particular stuck out to me: when Street plays with his daughter (Jennifer Turner), the game includes a knife and chasing her down, and it was downright chilly to watch as we see the brutality of Street shining through under all that charm. I was braced for him to actually kill her, that’s how creepy that moment was. We are talking, after all, about a man who operated on women without any medical training – this needs a sort of cold violence. The film, unfortunately, only acknowledges this in that scene, and then only playfully.

There are genuinely funny moments, too. Like when Street finds himself becoming a minor celebrity for blackmailing a sports guy – and milks his fame as much as he can. Or when he tries to pass himself off as being a French native speaker. But it never really comes together as a whole, leaving a strangly empty feeling behind.

Summarizing: has its moments.