Posted on 08/17/2025 5:36:52 PM PDT by simpson96
Immediately following World War II, ex-Nazi Franz Kindler is living under a false identity as a teacher in a small Connecticut town, and even married the headmaster's daughter as part of his cover. Then one of Kindler's old associates arrives unexpectedly in town, bringing in his wake a sly federal investigator, and Kindler resorts to desperate measures to preserve his secret.
Full movie (and to avoid using YouTube)
The Stranger (1946) Orson Welles Full Length Movie
https://rumble.com/v4ckwm9-he-stranger-1946-orson-welles-full-length-movie.html
The Third Man is another good film noir of that era with Orson Wells.
Some very memorable lines.
It’s a great scene; however, nobody should watch it...they should watch the entire film, which is a great movie!
That too is another great film, but now, I can’t get the theme song out of my head!
Of historical note, this was the first Hollywood film to show footage of the Holocaust. (There is one scene they show it.) This was from the same footage that was used in the Nuremberg Trials.
This is what Orson Welles wrote about it:
No, you must not miss the newsreels. They make a point this week no man can miss: The war has strewn the world with corpses, none of them very nice to look at. The thought of death is never pretty but the newsreels testify to the fact of quite another sort of death, quite another level of decay. This is a putrefaction of the soul, a perfect spiritual garbage. For some years now we have been calling it Fascism. The stench is unendurable
I wouldn't mind that. To paraphrase Christopher Walken, "Needs more zither!"
As long as you mention that one, you might as well add Touch of Evil, although Joseph Cotten is only in it for a minute.
You might as well add, Journey Into Fear and The Lady from Shanghai (The Stranger, The Lady From Shanghai, and Touch of Evil are directed by Welles, the other two were not.)
I’ve given up on watching Noir films. For every decent one there’s 10 lousy ones. I have no time to waste on lousy films.
Maybe it’s just me. But I can’t think of any of today’s actors who also belong in that group.
Like the checker-playing store owner.
Too bad Loretta Young’s character is such a twit.
For every old noir movie there are 10 awful ones. And for every good new one there are a 100 stinkers. You’re much better off watching old ones...superior quality in every way. I suggest 1939 to 1959.
I have quite a few of the old all time greats, whose movies I will watch and rewatch endlessly, as I have them on discs.The likes of Bette Davis and Edward G. NEVER were in a "bad" movie!
Remember, many of the “stinkers” were filmed in less than two weeks, often with budgets of far less than $100,000. They were essentially the equivalent of a single episode of a modern TV series.
This movie is one of them; it was on TCM a month ago and I recorded it. Another was A Dispatch from Reuters, a biopic about the founder of the Reuters news service.
One of these counter-character movies that I liked was Brother Orchid, possibly the movie that Robinson made to break the stereotype that let him make more diverse films.
-PJ
Thanks for posting that quote.
Welles was an eloquent man.
Yes. I meant modern movies when I said stinkers ...can’t stand the blandness of most hew ones. The oldies are great. Bogart alone has a good 7 or 8 undeniable classics.
The Stranger is a fine film.
One of the somewhat lesser known ones, THE SEVENTH VICTIM, is one you should see, if you haven't seen it before.
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