The Stranger

Great cast in Nazi fugitive drama ‘Stranger’

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (left), Lorretta Young and Orson Welles star in "The Stranger."

Actors in “The Stranger” alone are enough to make watching this film worthwhile.

Not to mention it is an excellent film that addresses the Holocaust a year after World War II ends. Oh yes, you can watch it anytime streaming from your computer by going to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com).

Boy was Edward G. Robinson a great actor. In this film he plays a war crimes commissioner trying to track down a Nazi fugitive.

The way he finds the bad guy is by releasing a lesser Nazi criminal and following him.

Konstantin Shayne plays Konrad Meinke, who when freed heads straight to a small Connecticut town where Nazi Franz Kindler (played by Orson Welles) is posing as Professor Charles Rankin. As Rankin, he is well respected at the local college by the students and marries a beautiful local girl, Mary, played by Loretta Young.

Welles plays the character chillingly well, considering he must play him as a pleasant, small-town educator as well as a blood-thirsty war criminal. We are constantly reminded of the horror under the surface.

When he is stopped on the street by Shayne’s character, he offers to talk in a more secluded area. Shayne’s character has repented and found Jesus and wants to pray with the Welles character.

Franz wants to lay hands as well, right on Meinke’s throat and squeeze until he is dead. So he does.

Franz then buries him in a shallow grave in the woods.

Robinson arrives in town, gets in good graces with the professor and his wife and begins digging into the situation.

Unfortunately so does the family dog, who doesn’t make it out of the film alive.

Robinson confides in Young’s character’s brother, played by Richard Long, who would later play one of the sons in TV’s “The Big Valley.”

The backdrop of this drama has Welles’ character working on a clock housed in a tower in the community.

The film is ahead of its time as the Robinson character lays out to the Young character the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the deaths of millions of Jews. He then reveals one of the main figures behind it all is her husband.

Now that could ruin your day.

Except she doesn’t believe him and repeats the allegations to loving Hubby.

The climax, as you can guess, takes place in the cloak tower.

This is wonderful film noir featuring a sterling cast.

Five years before he directed this, Welles produced his masterpiece, “Citizen Kane,” described as the greatest film of all time. Welles was dubbed “the boy genius.”

That genius continued with “The Stranger.”

Not only is it available streaming from IMDB, but Netflix customers can stream the movie from their computers or televisions as well.

THE STRANGER

Directed by Orson Welles

Written by Anthony Weller (screenplay) and Victor Trivas (adaption)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Not rated but intense for young audiences, plus a dog dies

4 stars out of 5