"The Stranger" 1946; Orson Welles & more (ADDED: link to view film)

[Bob Pr.]

Yesterday, I saw "The Stranger" (1946, B&W, 95 min) starring Orson Welles (he also directed), Edgar Robinson, Loretta Young, at the monthly showing of classic films at the KU Faculty Alum society (I'm an associate member). Genre: film noir, mystery, etc.

This is immediately after WW-II both in setting and time of film production. The plot has the Nazi war criminal, Kindler (Welles), responsible for many of the atrocities of the Nazi death camps, destroying any evidence that would identify him, constructing a new identity and then flees to the US. At Wilson's (Robinson) urging, the war crimes commission releases one of Kindler's most trusted lieutenants, Meineke, hoping that he will reunite with Kindler so Kindler can be identified, captured and brought to trial. Wilson tails Meineke to a small New England town where Kindler, using forged documents, has a job as a professor of history at a small college.

The ploy partially works: Meineke establishes very brief contact with Kindler, who -- correctly fearing Meineke had been deliberately released in order to follow him -- kills him and buries his body in the woods before Wilson can make positive identification of Kindler.

Kindler has successfully courted Mary (Loretta Young), the daughter of a US Supreme Court justice, figuring their relationship will add to his cover.

The rest of the movie deals with the cat and mouse game being played by Kindler and Wilson. IMO, the script does no favors to Loretta Young who first appears as a bright, attractive young woman but gradually gets dumber and less psychologically realistic as the movie draws to its climactic end.

I found Welle's Kindler character quite realistic in most of his psychopathic traits and actions but not his perfect American English without the slightest trace of German accent nor in Kindler's idealization of the Nazi movement and his faith it would rise again; to my knowledge, while psychopaths/sociopaths would profess any ideal they think will serve their momenentary purpose, functionally they are without any longterm ideal or faith except themselves.

The acting by Welles and Robinson was good; Loretta Young did very well with the material she was given. I'm sure I'm not the only person with a correct hunch of the exact ending by 1/2 or 2/3rds of the way through this film. While entertaining, it's many levels below Welles' "Citizen Kane" or "The Third Man" I'd give it half of however many total stars your scale has, whether 4, 5, or 10. The 1946 NYTimes review gave it a lower rating than mine; many reviewers favor it more highly than I have.

You can view the film and decide for yourself at: IMDb Video: The Stranger