IMDB
"As intelligent as one would expect from Welles"
Independently produced by Sam Spiegel, "The Stranger" is a fascinating work by Orson Welles, only flawed by its anti-Nazi preaching, though I guess this judgmental posture was common in movies released after World War II. Even a more praised movie as Roberto Rossellini's "Rome: Open City" contains such discourses. Welles' visuals are something else. Under the influence of Expressionism (a very appropriate treatment for a story about German "legacy"), his images are elegant, and his mise-en-caméra is as intelligent as one would expect from him. From the first time we see the investigator (from his nape), to the following sequence as a Nazi arrives in Mexico and is followed through eerie streets full of shadows, the peculiar tone is set, even if most of the action takes place in a sunny Connecticut town and the story is told directly. Though the movie follows the dictates of so-called zero-degree style, there are indications in Welles' direction to the strangeness of the subject: slightly out of focus shots; bizarre positions of characters' faces in a frame, suggesting dislocation, or a very unconvincing "I will" said by the wife in her wedding ceremony. In one of the most upsetting scenes, Welles keeps the suspect's face out of frame during most of the dialogue, first as his long shadow approaches his wife in bed, and she describes a nightmare, until his hand offers her a lit cigarette. Welles also constructs long takes with few camera movements (as opposed to his famous opening shot in "Touch of Evil"): the conversation between the Nazi comrades in the forest and the subsequent killing in broad daylight, while birds sing and young athletes run around; and a checkers game with the investigator sitting with his back to the camera, creating expectation as he constantly turns to watch the clock in the church. On the other hand, the energetic final confrontation is fragmented in shots from all the main characters' point of view. After this movie, Welles worked again for a major studio, when the following year he did "The Lady from Shanghai" for Columbia, another great movie with a memorable final sequence. Again he was misunderstood (especially for his handling of his star and wife Rita Hayworth) and had to wait ten years until he made "Touch of Evil" for Universal. In my opinion, Welles was most of the time on target, and he did not make only one masterpiece. He did quite a few. "The Stranger" may not be in that category, but it's pretty close.
