I Watch Films: The Stranger

 

The Stranger (1946)

Investigators into Nazi war crimes are searching for Franz Kindler who destroyed all evidence of his identity before vanishing. The only clue seems to be that he loves clocks. They question a former colleague Konrad Meinike but get nothing from him. Wilson (Edward G Robinson) comes up with a plan; they will release Meinike and follow him hoping to find Kindler.

Meinike goes to a small town in New England in the US. Kindler is there under the name Charles Ranklin (Orson Welles), a teacher in the posh school, involved in repairing the town clock and preparing to marry Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young), the daughter of a Supreme Court Judge. Meinike attacks Wilson and gets away; he finds out from Mary where Ranklin is. Having repented and found his Christian faith Meinike tells Ranklin to confess his sins. Ranklin kills him and hides the body.

Meinike having vanished Wilson, undercover as an antiques dealer, settles into the town. He asks about newcomers. Initially he discounts Ranklin, but his vociferous condemnation of Germany combined with his backhanded defence of Karl Marx (to be discounted as a German as he was a Jew) arouses his suspicion.

The rest of the film is a cat and mouse game between Wilson and Ranklin/Kindler. Ranklin resorts to more and more desperate attempts to remove evidence – killing the family dog when he find Meinike’s body, telling Mary Meinike was trying to blackmail him. In turn Wilson presents graphic evidence of Nazi crimes to her.

Directed by Welles this is a good looking and somewhat grim noir film. Does Ranklin intend to vanish, or is he setting up to re-create Nazism in the US? Either way he’s bad and must be stopped. The scenes in the town drug store, where people sit and drink, or buy items, or play chequers with the owner (Billy House) really ground it, make the town more than the place where posh people live.

Watch This: Dark thriller with some good scenes of small town life and desperation
Don’t Watch This: Occasionally tips into melodrama and flags up set piece locations