I recently watched a documentary on the effect the Holocaust had on Hollywood and vice versa. Among many films, the documentary reminded me of The Stranger.
Orson Welles plays an escaped Nazi, Franz Kindler, who is running from the government. He takes on a new name and therefore a new life, a life that doesn't involve a past of killing Jews. Edward G. Robinson plays the detective who is searching for Franz Kindler.
That's basically the plot of the movie, a cat and mouse type of thing. Between the chase a romance buds. At the beginning of the movie Franz is married to Mary. Mary plays a big part in the movie, as most beautiful leading ladies do. Throughout the entire movie the audience wonders if Mary will stand by Franz no matter what or if she will stand by her country. It was probably pretty scary for the audiences back then... the fact that they too, like innocent Loretta Young, could fall in love with a Nazi.
With that being said, the moral of the story is to never love a Nazi and if you find one, turn him in immediately.
You might be wondering why I have this film on my top 15 movies list if it is just political propaganda? I'm not all quite sure myself. It was a pretty good hit in box office... which was surprising because it starred Orson Welles. Maybe the public [and Hollywood] liked him better as a Nazi....
I think what I enjoy most about The Stranger is the amount of depth they gave Franz Kindler. This movie was released in 1946, movies involving Nazis and/or Hitler were pretty popular then. What separates The Stranger from those movies is that they showed a Nazi having other emotions rather than hatred.
Franz feared, he loved, he hated, he made small talk, he was a town favorite, he was human. Nazis portrayed in films during or near World War II seemed barely human. Yes, they did absolutely horrible, awful things... but that doesn't necessarily give the whole story.
What makes the Holocaust so awful to me is because so many humans were killed by humans. Jews, gypsies, handicaps, etc. were not killed by monsters - they were killed by humans. I think that's why The Stranger has always stuck out to me.
The audience gets so attached to Franz, or at least I did (then again, I might be a bit biased because I'm such a big fan of Orson). There were times in the movie when I was rooting for Franz and rooting against the investigator. I wanted Mary to stay with Franz, to hide with him and to love him forever.
Yet, in the end the movie's message is clear: a Nazi is a Nazi, no matter how "tender his eyes are"
Watch this movie. It's great [and it's on Netflix and Youtube Movies].
Interesting post. I actually wonder how many Nazis, after spending the day in a concentration camp killing Jews, went home to their families, played with their kids. Sort of a scary reality. Another film that touches on this point is "The Scarlet and the Black" staring Gregory Peck.
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