The Amazing Mr. Nordill

Watching this short subject from John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series put me in mind of a 20th century case somewhat similar to this one. The Leonardo DiCaprio/Tom Hanks Catch Me If You Can had almost the same plot with Leo as young Frank Abegnale who was a master forger and identity stealer living it up on his illegal gains while a very dogged and determined FBI agent Tom Hanks just relentlessly plods on to get his man.

The DiCaprio role is played here by Leon Ames who is a master counterfeiter whose work is so good that the best experts are stumped by him. The Treasury Department calls in an outside expert in the person of Clinton Sundberg who first identifies and then pursues Ames just waiting to catch him cold passing phony money. Sundberg is a rather unprepossessing sort, like Hanks in Catch Me If You Can or maybe even Peter Falk as Columbo. But it's those guys the majority in the audience identify with.

The Amazing Mr. Nordill is a delightful short subject and let me tease the potential viewer in that it isn't the quality of his engraving that eventually gives Ames away.