The Stranger (DVD)

This classic 1946 American film noir stars Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, and Orson Welles. It was the first Hollywood film to depict footage of the Holocaust. Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) is hunting a Nazi fugitive Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), a war criminal who has erased all evidence of his identity except his hobby which is a mania about clocks. Wilson releases Kindler's former associate hoping the man will lead him to Kindler, but Wilson loses Kindler's associate. Meanwhile, Kindler has taken on a new identity as a school teacher, and is involved in repairing the town's 400-year-old clock which crowns the belfry of a church in the town square. When Meinke (Kindler's former associate) eventually meet up, Kindler kills Meinke for fear of being exposed. Kindler's wife begins to suspect her husband of being a murderous monster, but is torn between this truth and the idea of helping him create a new life for himself. Mr. Wilson convinces Mary (Kindler's wife) that Kindler is a war criminal by showing her graphic footage of Nazi concentration camps and explains how Kindler developed the idea of genocide, and that Kindler plans to kill her. In the end, Kindler's passion for clocks is his undoing as he meets his own death. This is a superb classic movie with lots of twists and turns which leaves you on the edge of your seat all the way through.

• drama
• film noir
• thriller