The Stranger

1946

Action / Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Mystery / Thriller

26
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 81% · 32 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 81% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 30544 30.5K

noir nazi clock tower professor clock connecticut

Plot summary

An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi, who may be hiding out in a small town in the guise of a distinguished professor engaged to the Supreme Court Justice’s daughter.

Director

Orson Welles Photo
Orson Welles

Top cast

Richard Long Photo
Richard Long as Noah Longstreet
Edward G. Robinson Photo
Edward G. Robinson as Mr. Wilson
Lillian Molieri Photo
Lillian Molieri as Undetermined Role
Ruth Lee Photo
Ruth Lee as Undetermined Role
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
780.45 MB
988*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds 8
1.48 GB
1472*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds 26

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Hitchcoc 8 / 10

Who Says Fear of Terrorism Is a Contemporary Problem

Who says that fear of terrorism is a new development, post 9/11. Imagine the fears and exposed nerve endings of the average towns person living in the shadow of World War II. There was the fear of infiltration by the Nazis with their secret agents, blending in with our everyday citizens. Orson Welles plays just such a guy. He is kind, pleasant, quiet, and very dangerous. He even sets about marrying a woman as part of his secret plot. Edward G. Robinson, who normally would have been the heavy, plays a tired, hard working investigator who is leaving no stone unturned. The plot is intricate, though predictable, and the whole thing is hard to take your eyes off. Welles was a great director, but perhaps an even better actor. He keeps this thing going, raising it above the common fair of the time. The writing keeps the good guys at bay, but the clues continue to sit there, ripe for discovery. The clock tower is a great symbol, continuing to remind us of the urgency of everything. The dramatic irony presented makes us continually uncomfortable. We are treated to the movements and activities of the villain, and being let in, it makes everything more enjoyable. See this if you can.
Reviewed by zetes 10 / 10

Vastly underrated Welles - one of his best films, one of the best thrillers ever

The Stranger is a little slow to start. Edward G. Robinson, playing a war crimes detective named Wilson, lets loose one of the right-hand men of an important Nazi war criminal named Franz Kindler (Orson Welles) who escaped prison and managed to erase his identity. He was the mastermind behind the concentration camps. No photographs exist of him, and only this goon might know where he is. Wilson tracks the goon to a small town in Connecticut, where Franz Kindler is posing as a history professor about to marry the daughter of an important politician. Immediately the goon disappears, but the professor arouses Wilson's suspicion.After the setup is over, The Stranger bolts ahead at a breathless pace. All the clues point to the professor, though there is nothing definitive. When his wife, Mary, finds out (played by Loretta Young), she refuses to believe it. Kindler feeds her a nice lie explaining everything, and she's desperate to believe it. He's not sure that he can trust her.Welles pulls a ton of suspense out of the situation. He's so good at creating points of tension out of both the simplest means, like a group of college boys on a paper chase, a dog who won't stop digging in the leaves, or something much more gothic, like the ancient, broken-down clock in the church tower. Kindler was an expert on clocks (which is one of the biggest clues), and when he revives this old monster, an iron angel with a sword chases away the devil and then rings the bell to the hour. To get to the top of the tower, an extraordinarily tall ladder must be climbed. This leads to as much or more suspense as existed in the cognate scenes in Hitchcock's Vertigo. In fact, I'm sure Hitchcock watched and liked this film. Everyone knows he admired Welles' later Touch of Evil, which he mimicked in his own Psycho, so why not this film?The acting is quite brilliant as well. We would expect it from Orson Welles, of course. This is actually one of his very best roles. He is amazing at telling believable lies to his wife and friends, but with the dramatic irony in which the audience is in possession, we see the depth and the nervousness and the evil. Edward G. Robinson has a pretty thankless role for a long time, but nearer the end he begins to expand. We cringe when he coldly suggests that Mary is in mortal danger. He is simply great in the climactic scene (which I won't mention except to say that it is one of the best in film history, although some might find it a bit silly). Loretta Young is also great as a naive wife who so desperately wants to be the perfect wife and believe everything her husband says. If this movie were to be remade today, her character would have been developed further psychologically, but what is here is good. She is also great in the climactic sequence.Welles' films often have thriller elements, but this is his most thrilling. It's also probably his least philosophical, and almost certainly his most conventional. He made the film as a concession. I think he was allowed to make The Lady of Shanghai in return, which is an even better film than this. That is no matter, though. It's a masterpiece anyway. 10/10.
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