The Stranger

Dir: Orson Welles

1946

*****

The Stranger is a great noir thriller that is very much a film of its time, its subject matter making it a rather fascinating piece of historical fiction. Released and set in 1946, the film starring Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young and Orson Welles followed the investigation of a war crimes investigator who tracks a high-ranking Nazi fugitive to a New England town where he has changed his identity and hides in full view. It is noted to be the first Hollywood film to present documentary footage of the Holocaust and would have been the first time many had seen such images. Produced by Sam Spiegel The Stranger was the last International Pictures Production distributed by RKO Pictures. Spiegel initially planned to hire John Huston to direct but Huston entered the military, so Orson Welles was given the chance and prove himself able to make a film on schedule and under budget - something he was so eager to do after issues and a reputation he had made for himself following his previous work. He was so keen in fact that he accepted a disadvantageous contract that saw he and his wife Rita Hayworth sign a guarantee that he would owe International Pictures any of his earnings, from any source, above $50,000 a year if he did not meet his contractual obligations. He also agreed to defer to the studio in any creative dispute. A huge commitment to a creative genius such as Welles but it worked, although The Stranger is never regarded as highly as his other works. He later spoke of editor Ernest J. Nims who was given the power to cut any material he considered extraneous from the script before shooting began. "He was the great supercutter," Welles said, "who believed that nothing should be in a movie that did not advance the story. And since most of the good stuff in my movies doesn't advance the story at all, you can imagine what a nemesis he was to me.” Welles still managed to re-write the script and many of the ideas he came up with made it into the final cut. The film follows Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) of the United Nations War Crimes Commission as he hunts down a Nazi fugitive Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), a war criminal who has erased all evidence which might identify him, with no clue left to his identity except a hobby that almost amounts to a mania - clocks. Wilson had released Kindler's former associate, hoping that he would lead him to Kindler. Wilson follows him to the United States, to the town of Harper, Connecticut, but loses him before he meets with Kindler. Kindler, who has assumed a new identity and is known locally as Charles Rankin, finds his former associate and kills him in the woods. He has become a prep school teacher and is about to marry Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young), daughter of Supreme Court Justice Adam Longstreet and is involved in repairing the town's 300-year-old clock. As Mr. Wilson gets to know those around him, Kindler gets more and more panicked, leading to a climatic conclusion. Unlike most war films, The Stranger directly acknowledges the atrocities committed by having Mr. Wilson play film reel to the other characters to show them just what the man he is searching for is capable of. It’s a stirring scene that hasn’t softened any after all these years. The story is notable for many historical reasons and the directorial techniques used in the film were unique at the time. In the shot where Wilson plays checkers with Potter the pharmacist (and town gossip in some respects), you can look behind Potter and see a mirror behind him, and through the mirror see Potter and Wilson again, and then see the window behind the camera, and see through that window to cars, buildings and natural sunlight. It was something truly radical in film at the time and just one of many fascinating techniques used in the film. International Pictures backed out of its promised four-picture deal with Welles. No reason was given, but the impression was left that The Stranger would not make money but it did. It was to be Welles’ only box office hit in his entire career but the critics of the day were rather cold about it. However, after all these years of reflection it is seen as a classic, a fascinating and unique film noir that broke new ground without anyone noticing it seems until years later.