The Stranger
1946
****
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Philip Merivale, Richard Long, Konstantin Shayne, Billy House, Byron Keith, Martha Wentworth, Pietro Sosso
After WW2, a war crimes agent tracks a high-ranking Nazi to a small town in Connecticut, where the war criminal has started a new life as a respected professor and husband-to-be. Following the critical success but commercial failure of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles was hired to direct a studio movie. The end result is a solidly acted, well scripted, and captivating film noir in which Welles plays the homme fatale role. This may not be his most personal work, but he does manage to add some Welles flourishes with the long takes.
