The Stranger (MGM Film Noir)
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DVD details
Actor: Orson WellesBrand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of The Stranger (MGM Film Noir)
DVD Review: First-rate copy of "The Stranger"
Summary: 5 Stars
At last, you can throw away those old VHS tapes and/or substandard DVDs of "The Stranger". A gorgeous copy of this film.
I have watched a couple of others in this series as well, and they are equally beautiful. No extras to speak of, just first-rate presentations of the films at a great price. Highly recommended.
DVD Review: The Best Edition Available
Summary: 4 Stars
When looking for a good DVD edition of "The Stranger," it's difficult to tell from among all the copies floating around which one is a quality transfer from an actual print of the film. The problem arises because "The Stranger" has fallen into the public domain. That means any basement-dwelling hustler can legally download it for free from some site like Internet Archive, slap it onto a blank DVD, print a label for it, and sell the slapdash product as "remastered" or some such. And a lot of these customer reviews aren't much help, reviewing the movie itself instead of telling you what you really want to know, which is the quality of the image on the disc. So there's no way to tell what you're getting until after you've ordered it. Well, I'm more than happy to tell you exactly what you need to know.
Bottom line: if you're looking for a good copy of this movie, The Stranger (MGM Film Noir) is the best available edition. It's manufactured by MGM, and bears the studio logo when the DVD starts up. The image itself is a quality transfer from a good master from a consistently clear print, fully intact. That's important, because some of these extremely messy public domain copies are missing the "Independent Releasing Corporation" banner before the credits begin, a sure sign that worse things are to follow. Though this edition has not undergone a frame-by-frame digital restoration, it's sharp, with rich blacks and good contrast, with enough detail to reveal the flaws in the source material, the ordinary marks of age such as scratches in some spots, which I noticed only because I was viewing it so critically. Otherwise, these flaws are negligible. The important point is that, while it's not perfect, it's a studio transfer from a good master of a preserved print, free of jumps or jiggling from bad splices, and no cracks or pops on the soundtrack. And even more satisfying, when upconverted on my HDTV, soft natural grain was visible, which demonstrates just how accurate the transfer is. I was very, very pleased by this edition. VERY pleased.
A couple of weeks ago, I ordered the trashy Triad edition because of the claim that it was "remastered." It was expensive enough, so I believed it. It was an out-and-out fraudulent claim, and I immediately returned it and bought this one instead. It doesn't matter that it's not remastered, because whatever master they're using meets the studio standard, and manufactured with regard for customer satisfaction. Perhaps one day we'll get a fully digitally restored edition, but for now, The Stranger (MGM Film Noir) is the best edition on the market.
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DVD Review: Big Brother in the Movies.
Summary: 4 Stars
The Trial, which starred Anthony Perkins, was directed by Orson Welles, who was the character's advocate. He also wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Franz Kafka. He declared early on that this was his best movie and used the last name Cane, because of his success with 'Citizen Cane,' about Randolph Hearst.
In this movie, The Trial, Josef was arrested at his own apartment and had to stand trial before his totalitarian neighbors. Doors play a big part in this strange movie in an abandoned Paris railway station. The outside facade is beautiful, likes ours in America, but it being French makes it especially so. The empty part of the inside is dark and scary. Josef doesn't know why he has been singled out for prosecution.
Anthony Perkins was just a kid, long before 'Psycho' and this is a most unusual psychological study of society, or a strange part of same. It is very talky. Ending is like 'Suddenly Last Summer.'
DVD Review: Outstanding
Summary: 5 Stars
Orson Welles's THE STRANGER is outstanding. Edward G. Robinson is terrific as the Nazi hunter on the heals of a suspect in a rural town in New England. Great performances, script and b&w cinematography help create a very special film. DVD Review: A clockwork oddity
Summary: 3 Stars
Orson Welles's 1946 film noir seems to have been largely inspired by Hitchcock: the basic plot of a murderous wolf among the trusting lambs of an American small town (and a few other story points) owes much to SHADOW OF A DOUBT, while the heroine's central dilemma seems lifted from SABOTAGE. (There are other debts, too, to such films as DOUBLE INDEMNITY, with a central investigator played by Edward G. Robinson trying to gain the trust of the villainous protagonist.) On paper, this film's basic set-up may sound irresistible: Welles plays a high-ranking Nazi fugitive hiding in a small Connecticut prep school town while posing as a teacher, and his unsuspecting wife (Loretta Young) must decide what to do when his identity is revealed to her by the investigator. There are all kinds of amusing Gothic touches--a buried body hidden in the woods, a deathtrap involving a high ladder, and a mammoth medieval Glockenspiel installed in the town clock tower that plays a deadly part at the film's conclusion--but it all seems undigested and poorly executed. Welles took this project on to prove he could direct a film on time and under budget, but he seems to have suffered from the constraints put on his imagination. You keep glimpsing great ideas, and there are some excellent camera shots that rival some of his best work, but it all seems finally to disappoint in the end.
Part of the problem lies with the performances. Welles himself seems unconvincing in his role as the architect of the Final Solution, and sweats too much and gives away too much. Loretta Young, who so often seemed as if she could do so much more than she was asked in the usual fluffy fare Hollywood handed her, gives a wildly erratic performance as the tortured wife. As usual she's superb in her smaller scenes (particularly near the film's beginning, when she gains just an inkling of what lurks sub rosa), but in two of her biggest scenes--when Robinson reveals to her the truth about her husband, and a terribly conceived scene where she attempts to rush into a death trap and is stalled by the complaints of her housekeeper--she fails to bring her part off. Still, there's much of interest here, especially if you're a Welles fan, and the screenplay does some very clever things involving moral ambiguity among all the characters (as the film progresses, both the wife and the investigator begin to behave cruelly and inhumanly, suggesting their own mutual identification with the enemy).
Description of The Stranger (MGM Film Noir)
Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 07/10/2007 Run time: 95 minutes Rating: NrThe legendary story that hovers over Orson Welles's The Stranger is that he wanted Agnes Moorehead to star as the dogged Nazi hunter who trails a war criminal to a sleepy New England town. The part went to E.G. Robinson, who is marvelous, but it points out how many compromises Welles made on the film in an attempt to show Hollywood he could make a film on time, on budget, and on their own terms. He accomplished all three, turning out a stylish if unambitious film noir thriller, his only Hollywood film to turn a profit on its original release. Welles stars as unreformed fascist Franz Kindler, hiding as a schoolteacher in a New England prep school for boys and newly married to the headmaster's lovely if naive daughter (Loretta Young). Welles the director is in fine form for the opening sequences, casting a moody tension as agents shadow a twitchy low-level Nazi official skulking through South American ports and building up to dramatic crescendo as Kindler murders this little man, the lovely woods becoming a maelstrom of swirling leaves that expose the body he furiously tries to bury. The rest of film is a well-designed but conventional cat-and-mouse game featuring an eye-rolling performance by Welles and a thrilling conclusion played out in the dark clock tower that looms over the little village. --Sean Axmaker
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