The Stranger (MGM Film Noir)
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DVD Cover Information
Author: Orson WellesBrand: ROBINSON,EDWARD G
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Stranger (MGM Film Noir)
Movie Review: Everything comes together in this crime drama
Summary: 5 Stars
The thing is, there really is no mystery in this film as far as plot is concerned. From the beginning you know who and what the players represent and you pretty much know what outcome the production code of this era - 1946 - demands. The thrilling part is seeing how everything works out. It is after the war, and Nazi Konrad Meineke has been imprisoned awaiting execution for war crimes. However, the real target of the Allied task force is Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), who is supposedly the mastermind behind the concentration camps and the genocide practiced there. The only problem is, nobody knows what he looks like - there are no photographs. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson), a member of the Allied task force, decides to let Meineke escape, knowing that as Kindler's right-hand man during the war he will lead the Allies right to Kindler. Meineke does just that and Wilson follows close behind, all the way to the small New England town where Kindler is living under the identity of Professor of History Charles Rankin. Unfortunately for Wilson, before Meineke can contact Kindler, Meineke spots him as someone who is tailing him and gives him a huge headache - knocking him unconscious. However, Meineke believes he has killed the man.
Meineke and Kindler represent the two types of evil. Meineke is the type that tries to fool himself - he believes that if he confesses his past sins to God he can escape consequences, and even continue on doing evil - such as his decision to kill Wilson - as long as he keeps confessing those sins once they are past. No real change has occurred. Kindler is the kind of evil that is content to fool others. When such men meet, the type that levels with himself always has the upper hand over the one that fools himself, and thus it is with Meineke and Kindler. Kindler decides - with him believing that the only person tailing Meineke is dead - that killing Meineke will cut the last link between himself and the past, and that is what he does.
The last step in Kindler's plan to elevate himself above suspicion is to marry the daughter of a Supreme Court Judge (Loretta Young), and so he does, only hours after he wipes Meineke's blood from his hands. The fly in the ointment is that Wilson is not actually dead, and knows that Kindler is in the town somewhere under an assumed name. Wilson soon narrows his focus to Rankin/Kindler, and the rest of the film is the odd dance that these two do as each of these people know who the other is but cannot prove it and cannot tip their respective hands before the time is right.
Robinson is very effective as Wilson, whose precision in his hunt matches Kindler's and as such he is left a rather unpersonalized and objective character - he isn't even given a first name here. He only shows passion in the opening and closing scenes. Welles' Franz Kindler is a ticking time bomb whose smooth facade gradually cracks under the tension of Wilson's methodical pursuit, as he is accustomed to being the cat, not the mouse. Highly recommended.
As for the product itself, the audio and video are excellent and the case sturdy. However, and most unfortunately, there are absolutely no extras. What a great commentary track could have been designed for such an interesting film.
Summary of The Stranger (MGM Film Noir)
No Description Available.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 10-JUL-2007
Media Type: DVD
The legendary story that hovers over Orson Welles's The Stranger is that he wanted Agnes Moorehead to star as the dogged Nazi hunter who trails a war criminal to a sleepy New England town. The part went to E.G. Robinson, who is marvelous, but it points out how many compromises Welles made on the film in an attempt to show Hollywood he could make a film on time, on budget, and on their own terms. He accomplished all three, turning out a stylish if unambitious film noir thriller, his only Hollywood film to turn a profit on its original release. Welles stars as unreformed fascist Franz Kindler, hiding as a schoolteacher in a New England prep school for boys and newly married to the headmaster's lovely if naive daughter (Loretta Young). Welles the director is in fine form for the opening sequences, casting a moody tension as agents shadow a twitchy low-level Nazi official skulking through South American ports and building up to dramatic crescendo as Kindler murders this little man, the lovely woods becoming a maelstrom of swirling leaves that expose the body he furiously tries to bury. The rest of film is a well-designed but conventional cat-and-mouse game featuring an eye-rolling performance by Welles and a thrilling conclusion played out in the dark clock tower that looms over the little village. --Sean Axmaker
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