The Stranger

Overview

The Stranger is often considered Orson Welles' most "traditional" Hollywood-style directorial effort. Welles plays a college professor named Charles Rankin, who lives in a pastoral Connecticut town with his lovely wife Mary (Loretta Young). One afternoon, an extremely nervous German gentleman named Meineke (Konstantin Shayne) arrives in town. Professor Rankin seems disturbed--but not unduly so--by Meineke's presence. He invites the stranger for a walk in the woods, and as they journey farther and farther away from the center of town, we learn that kindly professor Rankin is actually notorious Nazi war criminal Franz Kindler. Conscience-stricken by his own genocidal wartime activities, Meineke has come to town to beg his ex-superior Kindler to give himself up. The professor responds by brutally murdering his old associate. If Kindler believes himself safe--and he has every reason to do so, since no one in town, especially Mary, has any inkling of his previous life--he will change his mind in a hurry when mild-mannered war crimes commissioner Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) pays a visit, posing as an antiques dealer.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/15/2013
UPC:	0738329120320
Original Release:	1946
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kino Classics
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	30,218

Special Features

Audio Commentary by film historian Bret Wood; Original theatrical trailer; Image gallery; "Death Mills" (1945, 21 min.), an informational film on the Nazi death camps (Produced by Billy Wilder), footage of which appears in The Stranger; Orson Welle's Wartime Radio Broadcasts; Four complete programs exemplify Welle's blending of propaganda and entertainment: "Alameda" (Nazi Eyes on Canada, 1942), "War Workers" (Ceiling Unlimited, 1942), "Brazil" (Hello Americans, 1942), and "Bikini Atomic Test" (Orson Welles Commentaries, 1946)

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Orson Welles	Franz Kindler/Prof. Charles Rankin
Edward G. Robinson	Wilson
Loretta Young	Mary Longstreet
Philip Merivale	Judge Longstreet
Byron Keith	Dr. Jeff Lawrence
Martha Wentworth	Sara
Billy House	Mr. Potter
Konstantin Shayne	Konrad Meinike
Richard Long	Noah Longstreet
Isabel O'Madigan	Mrs. Lawrence
Johnny Sands	Student
Pietro Sosso	Mr. Peabody

Technical Credits

Anthony Veiller

Orson Welles	Director
Decla Dunning	Original Story
Sam P. Eagle	Producer
Perry Ferguson	Art Director,Production Designer
Arthur Johns	Sound/Sound Designer
Corson Jowett	Sound/Sound Designer
Bronislau Kaper	Score Composer
Russell Metty	Cinematographer
Ernest Nims	Editor
Victor Trivas	Original Story
Anthony Veiller	Screenwriter
Michael Woulfe	Costumes/Costume Designer