"the stranger"

it's sad for me to say that orson welles peaked at his third film, "citizen kane", released in 1941.  that film is a work of genius and truly is one of the greatest films ever made.   that's what we think now, at least.   in 1941 it was a flop and actually booed at the academy awards whenever it's nominations were announced.  this resulted in welles never really being able to flourish in hollywood.  he had to take what work he could and try to raise money for his own projects which was much more difficult to do in the 40's and 50's.  but this isn't about "citizen kane", this is about a film that he made in 1946 called:

"the stranger" is a simple little tale of a wanted nazi war criminal posing as a professor in a small connecticut  town.  welles' nazi assumes the identity of prof. charles rankin and he's gonna marry a supreme court justices daughter, mary (played by loretta young).  

welles with loretta young (mary)

on the day of his wedding rankin gets a surprise visit from one of his old nazi buddies, meinike (not the muffler guy...the nazi guy).  rankin, at first, seems happy to see him but then realizes that this man is the only one that knows who he is and has to kill him.  rankin's world slowly begins to unravel as he tries to hold on to his new identity by any means necessary.

rankin doodles some nazi propaganda.

little does rankin know that meinike was followed by mr. wilson (edward g. robinson, see?) who is renowned nazi hunter for the government.

robinson as mr. wilson

thus begins a cat and mouse between mr. wilson and rankin as wilson reveals the truth to rankin's friends and family.  rankin grows steadily more desperate to escape that truth and even plans to murder the only other person that knows that meinike was ever in town, mary.


in lessor hands this would have been a throw-away thriller but welles' genius with film saves it.  you see many camera shots and performance nuances that you wouldn't see from the normal "cookie-cutter" hollywood machine.  welles even goes so far as to show actual concentration camp film footage to hammer home the atrocities that rankin is responsible for making this the first post-war film to use such footage.

i thought this film was really well done and even though there were some over-the-top melodramatic moments, mostly from loretta young, i found it compelling.  


this is only the second welles movie i've seen, so far.  i can't really compare it to anything other than "citizen kane" and that would be unfair to this film 'cos kane would crush it to little nazi pieces.


bottomline:
3 outta 5