Cheap The Stranger / Orson Welles on Film (DVD) (Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson) (Orson Welles) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Stranger / Orson Welles on Film

Welles is the nazi war criminal hiding out in a small Connecticut town where he has become a valued member of the community.

Edward G Robinson, playing a good guy for a change, is the detective who tracks him down, and then has to prove who he is.

It isn't up there with Citizen Kane, or the Magnificent Ambersons, it isn't a movie that will have your jaw dropping at its extravagant brilliance and fire-work, box-of-tricks direction. But it is solid, it is entertaining and it is well-scripted.

Certainly any project with the Orson Welles stamp is worth watching and this, on its own terms, is a well-honed and interesting minor classic.

Welles is superb in the lead role. There's a wonderful bit of dialogue when his professorial nazi character is fielding questions on the German character. Somebody asks him about Karl Marx to disprove a point.

"Ah, but Marx wasn't a German, he was a jew," comes the telling response, delivered with such arrogance and conviction it makes you seethe.

Well worth the admission price.

Minor Classic From a Master Filmmaker
A noir-ish thriller directed by and starring Orson Welles post-"Citizen Kane". Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young co-star. Shares a neat clock-oriented subtext with "The Third Man". The character Welles plays, a Nazi baddie named Franz Kindler, who has established a new life for himself under a new name in "Harper" (neé Hartford), Connecticut is only a step or two removed from the nefarious Harry Lime of Carol Reed's classic. That was the film in which Welles gave the great speech -- one of the film world's best -- about Switzerland and the cuckoo clock. "The Stranger" isn't quite as clever, but it's a fine film nonetheless. Somewhat reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's underrated "Shadow of a Doubt", in which Joseph Cotten played an urban killer hiding from the authorities in the deceptive safety and security of the suburbs. "The Stranger" isn't based on Albert Camus' novel; that was made into a film a few decades later by Italian director, Luchino Visconti.

Aptly Titled
'The Stranger' is certainly an appropriate title. The film IS a strange one for director/actor Orson Welles ' it was uncharacteristically completed on time and under budget. It is also a fairly straight-ahead thriller that just barely has the 'Welles touch.' In fact, compared to Welles' other work, it seems'well, ordinary.

Welles plays a Nazi war criminal who has found refuge as a professor in a sleepy college town. This is the type of town where nothing much ever happens and the owner of the town's general store knows everyone and everything about them. When Edward G. Robinson comes to town looking for 'antiques,' suspicions are aroused, especially Welles'.

The best parts of 'The Stranger' are the cat-and-mouse game between Welles and Robinson as well as the relationship between Welles and his new wife Loretta Young. The film still holds up as a good thriller, but not a great one. The second half of the film feels too manipulated. You might say, 'But Welles was a MASTER of manipulation,' and you'd be right. But the difference here is in the manipulation of supporting characters who aren't given sufficient room to develop or to think.

The commentary track by Jeffrey Lyons is, unfortunately, unremarkable. Lyons spends much of his commentary giving us a resume of each film the actors made, rather than discussing the merits and qualities of the film. I was hoping that someone with the knowledge and expertise that Lyons possesses would give us more.

Although not as good as other Welles films, every film lover should watch the film to catch glimpses of greatness from Welles, Robinson, and Young.

95 minutes