Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Stranger

Orson Welles, 1946, 90m

A straight suspense thriller which could easily be mistaken for Hitchcock, except for its lack of psychological depth, or Freudian overtones. Its about an escaped German war criminal, and the chase to pin him down. It is characteristic of Welles to chose the challenge of an outright villain. He was driven by the creative urge, never aiming at being an icon of any kind. The references to the chambers seem farcical, since so grim a topic seems unfit for box office fodder, and that too in 1946. A less than riveting movie in its genre. 

No comments: