THE STRANGER

US, 1946, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Orson Welles, Loretta Young, Edward G. Robinson.
Directed by Orson Welles.

The Stranger is one of Orson Welles' earliest films. He made a great reputation for himself both as an actor and as a director with Citizen Kane in 1941. He was considered to have revolutionised styles in film-making, especially with lighting, sets, imaginative and symbolic filming. He uses many of these techniques, although on a minor scale, in this film. The Stranger echoes the atmosphere after World War II, the fear of infiltration of America by Nazis, and refugees from Europe.

Welles himself plays an extremely sinister character with suavity and alarm. Edward G. Robinson as the role of the enterprising detective hero. Loretta Young is very convincing as the threatened wife. The plot is interesting in itself although, in many ways dated. The film is important enough in Orson Welles career.

1. The impact of this film immediately after the war, now? Its impact as an Orson Welles film?

2. His use of sets and locations, the atmosphere of New England and the town? The quality of the black and white photography, the importance of light and darkness and the use of shadow? The clocks during the credits, the clock and clock tower throughout the film, its use and symbolism? How realistic was the presentation? How stylised?

3. The background of American patriotism after the war? Pride in the United States and its war record, its humanitarianism, the anti-Nazi tone? The emotional response to the war and the concentration camps? The incongruity of a Nazi being in New England? The importance of the insertion of the atrocities film for an American audience after the war? The audience sharing Mary's reaction to it?

4. The use of thriller conventions, a patriotic film, a study of a criminal and human nature? How well did these blend? Which predominated?

5. The focus on investigator Wilson: the initial set-up, his pursuing of the criminal, his cover, the various examples in which he found out information, his skill at detecting? Edward G. Robinson in this role, his presence? His living in the town, the risks and physical danger, the intensity of his pursuit of the criminal? How well delineated was his character, as representing America after the war?

6. The initial focus on the pursued man, the stranger? The irony of his escape, his taking the bait, the channels of discovery of Franz, his voyage, the dangers and his risk, the bus trip, leaving his bag at the drugstore? The confrontation with Mary, the happiness of the meeting with Franz, his fanaticism and prayer and expiation, the significance of his death in this context? His burial, the dog's discovering the tomb, the revelation of the corpse? His importance in life and death? The key to the identification of Franz and his arrest?

7. The presentation of the town itself., the ordinary people? The man at the drugstore and his observation of people, the intensity of his playing draughts, his allowing himself to be pumped for information, his curiosity? The opening of the case? The ordinary people in the drugstore, the boys at the school, the maids and servants, the judge and his family and status, Noah? How real did the setting seem?

8. The focus on Mary as an ordinary American citizen, able to be deceived by a Nazi? Our first meeting her, the confrontation with the stranger and its subsequent importance, her love and her marriage, the joy of the wedding, the return from the honeymoon, the meal discussion about history and Germans? Her love for her husband and her belief in him? The belief in each stage of his pretence and his lies? Her horror and hysteria at the atrocities film? Her still believing her husband? Her carelessness and its subsequent avoidance of death? The final confrontation of her husband? Her disillusionment? As a woman, as a symbol of America after the war?

9. How important was Franz? Also a stranger? His place in this New England town, his reputation in the school, the boys and their admiration of him, seeing him in class? His views of history, especially at the table? The fact that we had seen him murder the stranger initially and his explanation about the wedding? The tension in the audience's mind as they knew his identity and saw him go about ordinary life? His desperation and telling lies? His resisting Wilson? His powers of persuasion over Mary? His hostility towards the dog? Was it credible that he should have been such a Nazi monster? His wanting to escape, the plan and the tension for the murder of Mary? The final confrontation, the violence of his death on the clock? How credible a villain and a situation? What did it reveal about human nature and evil and using people?

10. The use of the clocks, the preoccupation with them, the town's admiration for the professor's fixing the clock, their turning against him? His death on the clock?

11. What did Orson Welles achieve in making this film?