The Impostors

Arthur and Maurice are two struggling actors who scrape by performing roles on the street and will take almost any part that comes their way. After a drunken confrontation with a pompous Shakespearean actor named Jeremy Burtom, the pair go on the run from the authorities and end up hiding aboard an ocean liner preparing to set sail. Their troubles multiply when Burtom turns out to be one of the passengers, and the voyage forces the two men to improvise their way through one dangerous situation after another.

Stanley Tucci directed and wrote the screenplay, and stars opposite Oliver Platt as the two leads, with Alfred Molina as Burtom. The film was made for Fox Searchlight Pictures and arrived in 1998, following Tucci's directorial debut Big Night two years earlier; he went on to direct Joe Gould's Secret in 2000 and Final Portrait in 2017. The credited cast runs to around forty performers, among them David Lipman and E. Katherine Kerr in smaller parts.

The comedy had a limited commercial impact, taking roughly two million dollars worldwide against a modest production. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6 out of 10 from 72 votes, while a critics' rating of 6.4 out of 10 from 38 reviews indicates a mildly favourable professional response that sits close to the audience score.