thegulls1 This popped up on Netflix--so, I gave it a try. The setting for this noirish yarn is post World War II & Edward G Robinson is attached to an American 'War Crimes' group hunting escaped Nazis, in this case, Orson Welles. Welles plays a guy who has covered his tracks pretty thoroughly, and ended up in a small American town as a Professor, of sorts. He marries the pretty daughter (Loretta Young) of a judge, and looks to be scot-free. Welles is compelling, as usual, always bringing something unique to his roles, esp. as a bad guy. I loved his brief but outstanding contributions to another film noir, THE THIRD MAN. Robinson plays a friendly, but determined, investigator, in this entry after his 'tough hood' portrayals of the 30's but before his classic 'Johnny Rocco' role in the mid-fifties classic KEY LARGO. (Robinson was one of those who found his workload dwindling after accusations by the House UnAmerican committee, post WWII. Jimmy Stewart came to his aid to see that he got work in 10 COMMANDMENTS. I read this in Stewart's bio). This unusual role for Robinson was probably one of the few decent ones all he could pick up in this era, and he does a fine job.I enjoyed this unique yarn, but, whereas I could watch Third Man many times, the Stranger is kind of a 'one-off'. 7/10

grantss A lesser-known Orson Welles gem. Great, topical (for 1946) thriller. Solid plot. Orson Welles uses all his cinematic expertise as a director to good effect.Great performances from Orson Welles and Edward G Robinson. Solid support from Loretta Young.

atomicgirl-34996 There's this myth going around that anything that's old and shot in black and white must be unquestionably good. The Stranger is a movie that debunks this idea. It has got to be one of the worst movies from the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, if not of the 20th century.The sad thing about it is that it had all the elements of being a brilliant and insightful masterpiece. Made just after the end of WW2, this was probably the first movie to anticipate the very real problem of Nazi war criminals escaping justice and trying to create a new life of normalcy in the US. In the hands of better writers and a different director, it could've been gold. Instead, it's laughably, laughably bad and unrealistic. Professor Rankin aka Franz Kindler, could've just been a low ranking Nazi official, but no; he had to practically be the mastermind behind the Final Solution and was right up there in importance as Goebbels and Himmler! (How absurd!!) And then, to make matters worse, he doesn't have one trace of any accent whatsoever. Are we to believe that a German, born and bred, who was only running the camps a year before the events in which this film took place, was able to immediately speak English fluently with a perfect mid-Atlantic American accent?Even the movie knew how stupid this was, so it tried to be slick and have Mary (Loretta Young) address Mr. Wilson in an incredulous tone, as in, "What, do all foreigners have to have an accent?" Nice try, but what a load of bull. All foreigners have accents, even ones who've been living here for decades. So many of the other plot points are stupid beyond belief. Mr. Wilson and Mary's father literally decide to put her in harm's way to catch Kindler, knowing full well that he's a mass murderer and has just killed a man days before! Mary is oddly devoted to protecting Charles, in spite of the guy repeatedly lying to her over and over again about his past. Some of the scenes are ridiculous; in one scene, Kindler is casually drawing a swastika out in a public space where everyone can see him. In another scene, the actress that plays Mary's maid, screaming and crying about her heart, chews more scenery than Nicolas Cage in Vampire's Kiss.But the worst part of this movie is Orson Welles' himself. I've always loathed him as an actor (he ruined Jane Eyre and brought no humanity to the character of Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane). The Stranger confirmed how terrible an actor he always was. He puts on this ridiculous scowl the entire time, and his mannerisms couldn't be more unnatural or ridiculous. I can't remember which scene it was (was it with the dog?), but there's a scene where he's in the forest stumbling around at the scene of the murder, and he lumbers around like the Frankenstein monster. He moved similarly in the climactic scene in Citizen Kane when Kane trashes his bedroom. He looked stupid then and looks even stupider in this scene, with his arms and legs stiffly moving around like an idiot.If there's anything positive I can say about this film it's Edward G. Robinson, who rose to occasion playing against type as an impassioned Nazi hunter. Also, the scenes in the bell tower were shot so artfully that there's no question in my mind that Hitchcock cribbed shots for Vertigo. Otherwise, this movie is just awful, laughable, junk. No wonder Welles hated it.

s_ano I absolutely loved this movie. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Welles played Rankin so well, that I hated his character with everything I could muster throughout the entire movie. The only thing I disliked about this film was Mary. Her character bothered me so much that the scenes that she appeared in were hard to watch. She was weak and annoying and all I wanted to do after she continued to find out the dirty details about her new husband was shake her and tell her to get it together and leave him, or help in his arrest. She almost makes up for herself in the end, but her awful shooting skills kind of ruined any redemption from me. I loved the ending. The way Rankin dies was so expected yet so unexpected at the same time. When he's shot and falls onto the ledge, the first thought I had was "oh great all that action and they end it with someone falling off a roof." Safe to say what really happened was a pleasant surprise.