20 classic films about mistaken identity

“North by Northwest” is perhaps the quintessential mistaken identity film. Cary Grant plays a man who is mistaken for a government agent by some baddies who want him out of the picture. Grant is left with no choice but to fend for himself in a quest to uncover the truth. Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic movie features the famed scene of a plane heading toward Grant as he runs away.

The rug really tied the room together, which is where this all started. Jeffrey Lebowski the stoner bowling enthusiast doesn’t go by his name. He’s The Dude! Unfortunately, there is another Jeffrey Lebowski, and the thugs looking for that Lebowski befoul The Dude’s rug as a warning. Thus begins one of the best comedy movies of its generation.

Apparently, some alien life out there doesn’t have scripted entertainment at their disposal. That seems to be the case in the comedy “Galaxy Quest.” The cast of a “Star Trek”-style sci-fi series is mistaken for actual space heroes by an alien species, and the crew gets mixed up in the madness thanks to the blowhard actor who is this world’s William Shatner, played by Tim Allen in perhaps his last good role.

Hal Ashby’s quiet, calm satire has a premise that could have easily gone awry, but he managed to make it all work out. Peter Sellers plays Chance, a gardener of limited IQ and worldliness left on his own after his wealthy boss dies. Chance heads out into the world and is mistaken for a man named Chauncey Gardiner by a different elderly businessman. Chance just repeats things he saw on TV, but he’s soon thought of in the upper crust as a certified genius.

“Three Amigos” is kind of like a proto-“Galaxy Quest” without the sci-fi element. The dynamic trio of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short play three Golden Age of Hollywood actors who play western heroes known as “The Three Amigos.” Unfortunately, a town under duress from bandits hires them to fight the bandits off, and they think it’s an acting gig. Needless to say, things don’t go as expected.

Brian Cohen isn’t mistaken for Jesus Christ per se, but in a way he is. In the Monty Python film, Brian is born the same night as Jesus in the stable next door. Due to some confusion, he is thus believed by some to be the Messiah, but he’s not. He’s just a very naughty boy.

No, we didn’t forget the title of “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” We aren’t talking about those two Alfred Hitchcock movies of the same name. This is actually a farce starring Bill Murray that is better than its reputation. Murray’s brother hires an immersive improv experience that puts you in the middle of a crime drama. However, right before that is supposed to happen, Murray is mistaken for an actual hitman. That means he thinks he’s in an immersive theater experience, but everything is real.

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are a married couple out on a date night to try and spice things up. When they can’t get a table they decide to use the names of two people who hadn’t shown up. Unfortunately, those names belonged to two criminals wanted by the mob. That turns date night into a fight for their lives. With this starring duo “Date Night” should be better, but it’s still good.

Think about it. When Marty McFly goes back to 1955, is he identified as Marty McFly? No, he becomes known as Calvin Klein by his mom Lorraine, his dad George, and everybody else in the town. Since Marty can’t tell them the truth, he runs with it until he can both save his parents’ marriage and also invent rock music.

It’s best not to think about the premise of this romantic comedy too much if you want to enjoy it. Sandra Bullock plays a lonely woman who takes a man who has fallen into a coma to the hospital. While there, she is mistaken for the fiancé of the man in the coma. Not sure what to do, Bullock runs with it, and problems arise when she falls for the man in the coma’s brother. Like we said, kind of a weird plot, but it has quite the cast.

We basically had to have two Hitchcock movies on this list, given his affinity for mistaken identities. Plus, this movie is literally called “The Wrong Man.” This noir is actually based on a true story and stars Henry Fonda, a fine actor who anchors the movie quite well.

Mostly remembered for being a Madonna movie, there are a few different people in this film that mistake housewife Roberta for the feisty Susan, who is somewhat renown for being the subject of a series of personal letters in a New York newspaper. One of the people who mistake Roberta for Susan? Roberta herself after she gets amnesia. Naturally, Madonna plays the vivacious Susan.

There is an active subterfuge on hand in “Dave.” When the President goes into a coma, a couple of members of his staff hire an impersonator to play him to keep the Vice President out of power. However, there are people who mistake Dave Kovic for President Mitchell, even if that is intentional.

Tucker and Dale aren’t mistaken for any specific people, but this horror-comedy is definitely of the mistaken identity nature. The two buddies get themselves a cabin in the woods to try and find some peace of mind and to relax. However, the teenagers nearby, being teenagers in a horror movie, assume they are evil backwoods killers. Of course, Tucker and Dale couldn’t be further from that, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of confusion and also still plenty of blood and bodies.

No, we aren’t talking about the terrible sitcom of the same name. Instead, it’s a romantic comedy about a woman who is mistaken for a man’s blind date and decides to roll with it. She’s very happy in the relationship, which complicates matters since the relationship is built on an initial lie. This small comedy has a lot going for it, namely the starring duo of Lake Bell and Simon Pegg.

“Brazil” is a dystopian film, and that starts at the beginning. A fly gets jammed in a printer, and because of that, a nice man named Archibald Buttle dies during interrogation even though the man who was supposed to be arrested is the renegade heating engineer (yes, these exist in the future), Archibald Tuttle. Unfortunately, our protagonist Sam notices the error, and that never bodes well in a bureaucracy.

First, Tom Ripley is mistaken for a Princeton graduate because of a jacket he borrows. This gets a rich man to pay him to look for his son Dickie Greenleaf and to convince him to turn home. Tom agrees to do it and then pretends to be Dickie on the boat. Later, when he is mistaken for Dickie, he decides to just go with it and claim Dickie’s life. Dickie is dead, so he can’t really fight him on it. Oh, did we forget to mention Tom is a dangerous sociopath? Yeah, that’s kind of important to the story.

This may fall more into the “false identity” genre, but that’s strikingly close to “mistaken identity,” and this is a fun film a lot of people love so we’ll go with it. Jack Black’s character actively chooses to pretend to be his roommate so that he can take his substitute teaching job. At the school, Black forms a band for the kids and they come to appreciate him and Black learns some lessons and such. That’s, of course, while he’s continually pretending to be somebody he isn’t.

Harry and Lloyd are just dumb enough to be dangerous. They are just trying to return a briefcase to a woman that Lloyd has a crush on. They don’t even know her, but it’s not like they have anything else going on. Their pets’ heads are falling off! However, from the moment Lloyd picked up Mary Swanson’s briefcase, which contained a ransom payment, the villains assume he and Harry are dangerous criminals, maybe even lethal hitmen. You know, even though Harry tried to lick frost off a frozen metal pole and what have you.

Charlie Chaplin is primarily remembered for his silent comedies, but he made some talkies as well. His most famous of those films is likely “The Great Dictator.” Chaplin plays two roles, one as a humble Jewish barber, and one as Adenoid Hynkel, a vicious dictator modeled after a certain real-life monster you know of. That confusion allows the barber to take the stage and give a speech as Hynkel, which is a plea for peace. It’s one of the iconic moments of Chaplin’s career and was also an early famous movie speech.