The Stranger

Rating:
Summary: The Stranger
Review: "You can threaten me with the bottom pits of hell," Edgar G. Robinson as War Crimes Commissioner Mr. Wilson exhorts a roomful of tired old Europeans, "this obscenity must be destroyed."
The "obscenity" is former Nazi Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), a death camp mastermind who disappeared shortly after the war. Wilson wins his argument and Konrad Meinike, one of Kindler's Nazi subalterns, is allowed to escape, hoping that he'll lead Wilson to Kindler.
Like the best film noirs, this is a handsome movie of shadows and sunlight. Meinike does make a shadowy escape, and Wilson follows him to the bucolic town of Harper, Connecticut. The stakes are implied but clear - Kindler and his ilk are malignant cancers, and Harper is pure and uncorrupt. Evil can't be allowed to sink its rotted tendrils into Harper. Harper with its ivied walls and paper chases, with the boys whistling at pretty blondes and new brides hanging new curtains.
Meinike does find Kindler, now Dr. Charles Rankin, early on in the movie. Evil needs shadows and dark places to grow. "We must stay hidden `til the day we strike again." Kindler/Rankin is hunted, he knows it, and Meinike is an unwelcome intrusion. The last thing he needs is an old army buddy with the thick German accent hanging around.
Kindler makes and shallow plants the first corpse of the film, and so we're off.
THE STRANGER is a slick little suspense movie that really shouldn't be subjected to intense scrutiny. For instance, it's probably better we believe that Kindler was able to "disappear" into Smalltown, USA so smoothly. It's best we ignore the nagging question of how Rankin was able to woo and win the heart and hand of the beautiful daughter of a liberal Supreme Court Justice so quickly. And, later on in the movie, it's better not to snort at Wilson's rationalization for putting Mary Longstreet Rankin's (Loretta Young) life in danger. And it's definitely better not to wonder how a woman who is astute enough to question someone's advocacy of a "Carthaginian peace" can be so blind to her husband's dark secrets.
Young is wonderful as a young woman who has to journey from naïve young bride to a confused woman torn between love and terror. Robinson is just right as the driven Nazi hunter. Welles, in the lead role, is another story. He's too much the ham for a role like this. He's a little too over the top. Rankin/Kindler is a man who is living a great lie, and the penalty is great if he's found out. The role calls for someone who can internalize dread and terror, and Welles was never a great internalizer. Gregory Peck probably would have been perfect in the role - Peck was always better at repressing, rather than expressing, emotions.
Quibbles aside, I strongly recommend THE STRANGER. There's enough going on here to forgive its minor excesses and inconsistencies. Besides, it LOOKS so darn good. Welles' movies always have something visually interesting going on.
This IS a budget dvd, so the print and sound quality are less than pristine. I've seen worse, and frankly I didn't notice the scratches and splotches and such until I started looking for them.

Rating:
Summary: The Stranger
Review: "You can threaten me with the bottom pits of hell," Edgar G. Robinson as War Crimes Commissioner Mr. Wilson exhorts a roomful of tired old Europeans, "this obscenity must be destroyed."
The "obscenity" is former Nazi Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), a death camp mastermind who disappeared shortly after the war. Wilson wins his argument and Konrad Meinike, one of Kindler's Nazi subalterns, is allowed to escape, hoping that he'll lead Wilson to Kindler.
Like the best film noirs, this is a handsome movie of shadows and sunlight. Meinike does make a shadowy escape, and Wilson follows him to the bucolic town of Harper, Connecticut. The stakes are implied but clear - Kindler and his ilk are malignant cancers, and Harper is pure and uncorrupt. Evil can't be allowed to sink its rotted tendrils into Harper. Harper with its ivied walls and paper chases, with the boys whistling at pretty blondes and new brides hanging new curtains.
Meinike does find Kindler, now Dr. Charles Rankin, early on in the movie. Evil needs shadows and dark places to grow. "We must stay hidden 'til the day we strike again." Kindler/Rankin is hunted, he knows it, and Meinike is an unwelcome intrusion. The last thing he needs is an old army buddy with the thick German accent hanging around.
Kindler makes and shallow plants the first corpse of the film, and so we're off.
THE STRANGER is a slick little suspense movie that really shouldn't be subjected to intense scrutiny. For instance, it's probably better we believe that Kindler was able to "disappear" into Smalltown, USA so smoothly. It's best we ignore the nagging question of how Rankin was able to woo and win the heart and hand of the beautiful daughter of a liberal Supreme Court Justice so quickly. And, later on in the movie, it's better not to snort at Wilson's rationalization for putting Mary Longstreet Rankin's (Loretta Young) life in danger. And it's definitely better not to wonder how a woman who is astute enough to question someone's advocacy of a "Carthaginian peace" can be so blind to her husband's dark secrets.
Young is wonderful as a young woman who has to journey from naïve young bride to a confused woman torn between love and terror. Robinson is just right as the driven Nazi hunter. Welles, in the lead role, is another story. He's too much the ham for a role like this. He's a little too over the top. Rankin/Kindler is a man who is living a great lie, and the penalty is great if he's found out. The role calls for someone who can internalize dread and terror, and Welles was never a great internalizer. Gregory Peck probably would have been perfect in the role - Peck was always better at repressing, rather than expressing, emotions.
Quibbles aside, I strongly recommend THE STRANGER. There's enough going on here to forgive its minor excesses and inconsistencies. Besides, it LOOKS so darn good. Welles' movies always have something visually interesting going on.
This IS a budget dvd, so the print and sound quality are less than pristine. I've seen worse, and frankly I didn't notice the scratches and splotches and such until I started looking for them.

Rating:
Summary: Grat film, below average DVD quality
Review: As with all the releases from laserlight, gotham, or alpha you can expect horrible picture and sound quality and a low,low price. So once again if you've never seen this film before orsimply just want a version for real cheapit is quite worth it to pick this up. If however, you're anal about sound and picture fidelity just do yourself a favor and wait until someone releases a cleaned up, remastered version of this fine film.

Rating:
Summary: Wells was a ham on purpose
Review: He realized Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young could steal films from others easy so he had to make sure his character (who isn't in every scene) counted for a lot. Besides he maintains quite a stiffness through several scenes to make sure his Rankin-Nazi character never becomes too likable (unlike Charlie Kane in Citizen Kane). As for the plausability of the plot. It may interest everyone to know gangster Al Capone's own brother, Richard Hart, was bodyguard to President Calvin Coolidge in real life. Excellent film with (then) state-of-the-art camera angles.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting mystery/suspense film
Review: I was impressed with this film. The actors Orson Welles, Edward G. Robsinson, and Loretta Young live up to their names and don't disappoint. Edward G. Robinson in particular plays his detective smoothly.

Robinson stars as war crime investigator Wilson, sent to hunt down a concentration camp officer (Welles) who is hiding in America. The storyline basically works like an episode of "Columbo" - we already know who the criminal is, but the real drama comes from the criminal and detective looking and trying to outfox each other. Wilson is in particular an interesting character who definately knows his stuff. He isn't a Sherlock Holmes kind of detective who can see a footprint on the ground, tell how tall the man is, what he was wearing, what he was smoking, and what kind of pizza he likes - but he isn't stupid either.

The film overall isn't a classic and its story may be simple, but it nonetheless is a good watch. Even for a one-time viewing, I would recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Symbolic Warning
Review: This 1946 film seems to use high-speed (and high-contrast) film, which results in a stark effect. It is also a low-budget film, comparable to some 'film noir' of the 1940s. It is about the search for a Nazi war criminal, hiding in plain sight. Franz speaks American without an accent, and shows up as a new teacher in a rural college. He romances and marries the no longer young daughter of an important man (Chief Justice). But another war criminal, who got religion, searches for Franz. Franz realizes that Meineke is being followed, and kills him to keep his secret. Meineke is also a problem since he has got religion; and religion (or personal ideals) is always a threat to any secular system whether Fascism, Communism, or Plutocracy.

Nazi hunter Edward G. Robinson arrives, posing as an antique dealer. His comments on old silver shows he has studied his cover story. There is also a clue to Franz: an obsession with clocks (symbolizing a devotion to man-made mechanical devices, like social systems). Little by little the facts come out to point to Franz. Franz tries to kill his new wife, since she knows too much about him! This symbolizes his self-destructive philosophy, which leads to his fall from the top. Can anyone hide in a small town?

This film was an unheeded warning. It would be over thirty years later before we learned about "Operation Paper Clip" and other schemes to harbor Nazis in America. It wasn't just rocket scientists. The film also records a more innocent time, when college students ran through the woods as a pastime.


Rating:
Summary: One of the darkest films of this giant film maker!
Review: Welles made a little gem with this picture. He followed the lines about a nazi who assumes a new identity in a small town.
But Edward Robinson is ravishing when he reminds a wise statement of Ralph Waldo Emerson :Commit a crime and the world is made of glass .
Superb dialogues. Powerful intense with a gothic horror ending . As all the works of the Wisconsin's genius , unforgettable.