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Released by: Film Chest
Released on: 2/15/2011
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young
Year: 1946
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The Movie:
Edward G. Robinson plays Mr. Wilson, an operative of the United Nations' War Crimes Commission intent on tracking down a former Nazi war criminal named Franz Kindler who was responsible for horrible crimes during the Second World War and who helped plan the Holocaust. To find Kindler, Wilson releases a fellow war criminal named Konrad Meinike (Konstantin Shayne) who he trails to the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Here Meinike is murdered before he can contact Kindler, who Wilson suspects is living in the surrounding area under an assumed identity.
With Meinike out of the picture on a permanent basis, the only clue that Wilson has to work off of is that Kindler has an obsession with antique clocks of all kinds. As he starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together he begins closing in on Professor Charles Rankin (Orson Welles) and his lovely and dutiful wife, Mary (Loretta Young). Wilson is sure that Rankin is actually Kindler, but there's no evidence to support his theories and the townsfolk seem to disagree with him. Wilson, however, is a smart man and he soon comes up with a clever plan to expose Rankin for the monster he believes him to be.
Directed by Orson Welles and based off of a script from Anthony Veiller (that featured uncredited rewrites from Welles and John Huston), The Stranger is a superb exercise in creating cinematic tension. Expertly acted by two literal titans of the era's cinematic elite, the powerhouse combo of Welles and Robinson play off of each other perfectly. In fact, simply watching Welles play a character so deeply imbedded in his lies is reason enough to watch this picture - he delivers it all with such conviction that we almost fall for it ourselves.
While it's well documented that Welles didn't think nearly as highly of this picture as he did of some of his other pictures, that doesn't change the fact that The Stranger is a fantastic film. The story keeps you guessing and the small town setting (which was actually more or less just a well made up Hollywood back lot) appears to be the perfect location for shifty characters and morally dubious decision making.
The cinematography is exceptional, complimenting Welles' pitch perfect moments of tension with consistently perfect angles and aiding in the drama and the suspense immeasurably. While the film does take a little while to hit its stride and feels a bit slow for the first half hour or so, once it picks up it will have no trouble keeping your attention right through to the finale, which even by modern standards, is a strong and exciting finish.
Video/Audio/Extras:
HD Cinema Classics presents The Stranger on Blu-ray in its original fullframe aspect ratio in black and white, as it should be, an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. While the contrast looks decent and there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts to note, it does look like someone got a little too excited in the noise reduction department as a lot of grain is gone and with it, facial textures and detail. There are moments where obvious HD clarity shines through and offers a big improvement over the many public domain offerings on standard definition, but softness is apparent throughout. This is an improvement over the DVDs that are around, but it probably could have looked better.
Audio options are provided in English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and 2.0 Mono with optional subtitles available in Spanish. No lossless audio option is provided, but the tracks that are here sound fine. Dialogue is reasonably clear and basically problem free.
Extras are light but there's a trailer and a quick, one minute restoration demo included on the disc, both in high definition. The package also includes a DVD of the film with the same extras and a postcard insert inside the keepcase.
The Final Word:
The transfer isn't as much of an improvement as some might have hoped for but this is still a nice title to have on Blu-ray. The movie itself holds up extremely well and features not only some great performances but a truly amazing ending that keeps the tension ramped up right to the finish.
