The Stranger

The Stranger is not as wildly creative as his other films, but all the Welles trademarks are present, including superior lighting, inventive camera angles, strong transitions, and characters silhouetted in darkness.

Adroitly directed by Orson Welles, who also plays the star, it is a grade A gooseflesh-raiser.

Welles' third film, often described as his worst, but still a hugely enjoyable thriller.

The Stranger may not be at the same level as Citizen Kane, but what is? On its own terms, it is a fine and invigorating experience that deserves to be sought out and enjoyed.

Orson Welles's 1946 film reproduces his personal themes of self-scrutiny and self-destruction only in outline, though it is an inventive, highly enjoyable thriller.

It's a smooth, proficient, somewhat languorous thriller, handsomely shot with some showy long takes. It's quite watchable, but the script is clever in a shallow way; the people need more dimensions.

The whole thing becomes a routine and mechanical cat-and-rat chase, with the outcome completely apparent, despite a few bright and clever twists.

After seeing this film years ago and coming away disappointed I figured maybe it needed another chance. For Wells fans and film geeks, this is supposedly a “great” movie but for those with an eye for film greatness - it’s simply a rampant melodrama - overflowing with half-baked ideas and ridiculously unbelievable situations. If examined intelligently, it’s impossible to take seriously any of the stories characters – as all fit a stereotypical clichéd mould. While it starts out interestingly, with a couple of visually well set-up scenes it quickly becomes tiresome. In the early stages, Wells walks through a wooded part of town with schoolboys running around everywhere and murders a man in broad daylight...without even checking to see if anyone might be looking, this is just one of many glaring weakness that pepper this strained production. Acting runs the gamut between intense and laughable. Edward G. Robinson takes all honours with his performance as the high profile investigative officer hunting a prominent **** death camp criminal...a mass killer, who just months after the war, happens to fit neatly into a provincial Connecticut town teaching in the local college (with no hint **** accent!) Good work if you can get it. Loretta Young does what she can with a weakly written part. Director of photography Russell Metty (The Misfits), a reliable general all-rounder, adds the best touches to this messy picture with nice moody B/W shots - in an attempt to add some class to otherwise sub-standard work. He is aided with interesting work from production designer Perry Fergusson (The Best Years Of Our lives ’46). Wells tackles his character with badly measured, overacted bluster, often looking laughably silly and displaying glaringly obvious signs of guilt with every move he makes. One scene, at a dinner table, where he delivers a monologue about the German ‘character’ is good but then that’s it for him. As with most works coming from those with inflated egos, they blame studio interference (sometimes rightly but never always) or those they worked with - then head downhill. Mr Wells’ post ‘Kane’ fans will last the distance, some others may run screaming from the room (as with much of his later works). This man rose to fame on the super talented back-up support he received from the dedicated professionals he was fortunate to have assigned to him at RKO for ‘Kane’, then went rapidly to the bottom as soon as he lost their creative assistance. Those who like movies that feature style over substance won’t understand many of these comments - while many other viewers may shake their heads in disbelief throughout (and this is supposed to be one of the better later works)