The Stranger

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

The title of this 1946 movie, The Stranger, directed and starring Orson Welles, who also contributed to the script, suggests the unknown, which by its uncertainty can be a threat. It also implies that what we think we know about a person may not be the truth, and if one has placed trust in a false appearance of reality, betrayal of that trust is possible in the situation. The credits display over a large Gothic clock, which refers to the preoccupation of the villain in the story and points to his mechanistic mind. It may also be a metaphor for how the intricate parts of the mind of the protagonist works in solving a mystery to find the antagonist. The clock is part of a church which symbolizes religious purity on the surface, but evil and danger may exist below the outward appearance of things. There is also a cemetery situated near this church which reminds us of how death is close by. 

 

Government agent Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) forcefully insists to set a trap for a Nazi war criminal by releasing the unsuspecting Konrad Meinike (Konstantin Shayne) from jail who will lead them to the man they seek. (Wilson breaks his pipe while being emphatic, and the use of the pipe reappears later). Meinike travels to South America under an assumed name. There is a man whose face is hidden by a sign, implying that we can’t know all that is happening around us. He sends a woman, who is his wife, to secretly follow the man. The hidden fellow now is only shown in a black silhouette as he calls Wilson, who he and his spouse are working for. We have an atmosphere of suspense as the black and white photography stresses that secret activities lurk in the shadows. The spy tells Wilson that Meinike is going to have a passport photograph taken.

 

Meinike is reflected in the camera lens of the photographer (John Brown), which emphasizes that what we see in life and art is viewed through a lens controlled by subjective manipulation, which alters the perception of reality. Meinike demands that the photographer tell him where is Franz Kindler, who is the Nazi Wilson is pursuing. The photographer is frightened and says Kindler is dead (a deception). Meinike states he represents a supreme authority, another lie as it does not turn out to be some Nazi official as we might assume. The photographer tells him that Kindler is indeed alive and hiding in a proper Connecticut town named Harper as Professor Charles Rankin, another sham. 

 

The photographer hands Meinike a postcard which has a picture of a church with the clock we saw at the start of the movie. The next shot neatly replaces the picture with the actual church and town, a reference to how the postcard is a version once removed from reality, and we are watching a movie that is another step removed from truth. Wilson is on the bus arriving in Harper with Meinike who is also a passenger. As they disembark, Wilson drops his pipe (there it is again) on the seat that Meinike sat on, and Meinike appears shaken, as if the pipe is a warning, and he realizes he is a marked man. Potter (Billy House), who owns the store where the bus stops, listens to a comedy routine on the radio and his continuous laughing contrasts with the seriousness surrounding the two men who have arrived. 

 Meinike runs off to a school after looking up an address in a phone book, and Wilson tails him. Meinike knows he is being followed and leads Wilson into the gymnasium where he lets loose a rope with an attached ring that knocks Wilson to the ground. He appears to be dead (but remember appearances are deceiving in this story). Meinike then goes through a door that warns about using gymnasium equipment at one’s own “risk.” It’s as if the movie is saying that once one enters this realm of intrigue, danger is imminent. 

 

Having discovered the address from the phone book, Meinike practically bursts into Rankin’s house. He then softens his approach (more dissembling) and asks his wife-to-be on that day, Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young), if he can wait for the absent Rankin. Meinike decides to wait outside and encounters Rankin (Welles) by calling him Kindler. Rankin immediately wants to hide his association with the man and tells him to go into the woods (the archetypal place which represents the hiding of wrongful deeds), and follow the path near the church, the religious façade masking their dark motivations. In their meeting, Meinike tells Rankin he is a changed man. But Rankin says he is, too, but his change is superficial. He has destroyed all documents that could disclose his true identity. He says he is about to marry the daughter of a Supreme Court justice. He notes her lovely appearance, and adds everything is a perfect “camouflage,” which is meant to cover up his despicable past “til the day when we strike again.” He is in hiding until there is another war when he can fight as an enemy from within the country he has deceived. But Meinike has become a born-again Christian and says war is an “abomination.” He says God opened all doors for him and allowed him to be free. The clever Rankin realizes that the authorities allowed Mienike to escape to lead them to Rankin. Meinike admits he was followed but he believes he killed Wilson. He asks Rankin to pray on his knees and confess his sins in order to be forgiven by God. As they kneel, Rankin repeats holy words but as a diversion and he strangles Meinike to eliminate being found out (think of the contrast between Michael Corleone’s religious words at the baptism scene versus his simultaneous murderous commands being carried out in The Godfather).

 

As Rankin and Mary are getting married, Wilson recovers after being knocked out, and retrieves his pipe, which could be a reference to the detective work of Sherlock Holmes. He questions Potter, since he is the town clerk, and says he knows everybody living there. They play checkers, which Potter wins by diverting Wilson, and the game of opponents playing against each other mirrors what’s happening in the plot. For instance, Rankin used deceptive ploys earlier as he led some of his college students away from Meinike’s body and covered the corpse up after the wedding ceremony. 

 Wilson finds out about the wedding and then asks Potter questions relating to recent residents in the town. He then begins to eliminate those people as suspects as he narrows in on his prey. He goes into the church and finds Noah Longstreet (Richard Long), Mary’s brother, cleaning the inside of the building. Wilson knows about clocks and discovers from Noah that his brother-in-law, Rankin, will be returning from his honeymoon in time for examinations at the school where he teaches, and will be working on the clock. By hardly saying anything, he allows Noah to convey all of this information, including the exact day of the couple’s return. Noah does not look too happy about his sister’s marriage, suggesting he is not a fan of Rankin.

 Wilson, who is knowledgeable about antiques, discusses a Paul Revere item (symbolic of the American fight for freedom?) in the study of Judge Adam Longstreet (Philip Merivale), Mary’s father, when Mary and Rankin (who would not be a fan of Revere) arrive. By pretending to be an antiques specialist, Wilson is also hiding the truth, but his deception is an undercover act to reveal a criminal. Noah is there as well as is Dr. Jeffrey Lawrence (Byron Keith), who treated Wilson for his head wound. This fact is mentioned, and Rankin, the clock specialist, hesitates eating as his mind starts to click into gear. He most likely suspects Wilson based on his recent arrival and Meinike’s relating how he attacked his stalker. The Judge was talking with someone who reported that there were Germans about who wanted to revive Nazism. Wilson deliberately asks Rankin, who is a history instructor, what he thinks of these stories. Rankin seems to be making an objective psychological examination of the German psyche, but he is actually declaring German resolve against defeat. He argues that the German does not link himself to others who have found a broader sense of truth, and has not “come to know for whom the bell tolled.” He says the German still sees himself as a victim of other countries who he considers “inferior,” and recalls the greatness of his Teutonic ancestry embodied in German myths, as he waits for another Hitler who will be his messiah. Wilson says that Rankin must not believe that governmental reforms will work in Germany. Rankin says external concepts of liberty and democracy can’t be imposed from outside and will not take root in Germany. He believes the only solution is “annihilation.” Mary finds it difficult to believe that her husband holds that only a “Carthaginian peace,” which means a total domination of a defeated people, is what is needed to stop the zealously dedicated Germans from rising again. When presented with the concepts of Karl Marx who theoretically wanted to reform and unite the Germans, Rankin says that Marx was a Jew, not a German. Mary invites Wilson to a faculty event, but he declines, saying he will be leaving the town. 

 

Wilson says in a phone call that he agrees with the person on the other end that Rankin is “above suspicion.” Meanwhile, at home, Mary says it is coincidental that her husband and Wilson are both interested in antique clocks. Rankin already is suspicious of that similarity, and asks to take the family dog for a walk. It is night, which is a time of concealment, and Rankin is being sneaky again among the shadows of the trees as he checks out Meinike’s shallow grave. However, he was not thinking by taking the dog, Red, with him, who starts to dig up the corpse. Rankin attempts to drive the dog away, even kicking the poor animal (offscreen, of course), which shows his cruelty. 

 

The remark about Marx wakes up Wilson from his sleep, and he calls Washington, D. C. He says that a Nazi would call Karl Marx a Jew, and not a German, which shows condescension toward the communist theorist because of his Jewish heritage. So, Wilson decides not to return to Washington yet. Rankin appears like a black ghost as he approaches Mary in the dark of their bedroom. She wakes up startled and says she had a dream about the “little man” (Meinike) who came to their house. She says in the dream the man moved but his shadow remained behind and began to spread. It could signify the danger that his appearance brought to her false world where appearances seemed benign. Red cries because Rankin put him in the cellar and says during the day he must be kept on a leash. From a practical stance, Rankin doesn’t want the dog near the grave again. But the action also shows his propensity to hide the truth.

 

Wilson visits Noah who has Red with him since Mary most likely showed her opposition to having the dog restrained. They go out on a boat and Wilson states he can see that Noah does not like his brother-in-law. Wilson divulges he is a sort of “detective” because he wants someone in the Longstreet family he can trust, someone who is not devious and can be open to believing about Rankin’s notorious past. Wilson wants Noah to do some digging to bring to light Rankin’s activities on the day of his wedding. 

 

Wilson goes to Potter’s store and asks about the bag Meinike left there and has not come back to retrieve. He tells Potter he can open it up given how long ago it was left. Wilson is there waiting for Rankin’s regular stop at the store, and Wilson knows Potter will mention the bag. When Potter describes Meinike, Mary recognizes the description and Wilson observes Rankin grabbing his wife’s arm as if to restrain her from asking any further questions. Her hesitancy reveals to Wilson that Meinike went to see Rankin. Noah shows up and says Red keeps running off into the woods, most likely checking out the grave. Wilson shares his conclusions with Noah, and tells him that his sister must discover who her husband really is. He wonders what excuse Rankin is fabricating (more duplicity) to cover up why he didn’t want Mary to ask Potter about the visitor to the house.

 

The segue to the next scene answers that question. Rankin says he was a student in Geneva and a woman fell in love with him. They were on a boat and she said she would drown herself if he didn’t commit to her. She jumped off and he says he dived in but couldn’t save her. He says that Meinike was the girl’s brother, knew they were on the boat, and extorted him so he wouldn’t implicate Rankin in her death. He showed up again on their wedding day and he says he gave Meinike more money and the man went away. Mary seems to buy his explanation, but she astutely asks why didn’t the man take his belongings. Rankin offers that once he had money he probably felt he could buy better possessions. He tells Mary that he wants to work on the church clock for a while because it calms him. She says he doesn’t have to walk her home because, “in Harper, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” The line reminds one of the apparently safe town in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, where beneath the illusion of security lurks the existence of evil.

 

Noah finds Red and he is dead. He and Wilson take him to the doctor who determines that the dog was poisoned. Wilson uses his detective skills to conclude that the mud and leaves on the front paws of the dog indicate he was digging. He calculates how far the animal was found from where he was poisoned based on the doctor’s account of how fast the poison worked. Wilson correctly deduces that Red was digging up Meinike’s body. The dog’s unearthing the corpse fits as a metaphor for what Wilson is doing, exposing what has been hidden below the dissembling surface. 

 

Rankin learns from Potter that Wilson and Noah took the dog to the doctor and that there is a search for the man who left his bag at the store. Rankin returns home and Mary finds him packing. Rankin truthfully tells her that he is not the man who she believes she married. His existence has been a disguise. She insists he is the man who she fell in love with. But he confesses to killing Red, and says, “murder can be a chain, Mary, with one link leading to another until it circles your neck.” It is an apt metaphor about how violence breeds violence until it claims the one who began its inception. He also admits to killing the man who visited her (Meinike) with the same hands that embraces her. It is an ironic contrast that the parts of the body that show love and tenderness can also be used to destroy life. It points to the duality of human nature. But, Rankin uses the truth to fortify his previous lie, making it appear as if he was protecting Mary and her father. He says that Meinike knew Mary's father was wealthy and wanted more of a payoff which prompted Rankin’s attack on the man. He has manipulated her feelings and, since there is nothing to connect him to the dead man, she promises to keep his secret. Through his deception she is now complicit in his crime.

 

The body is discovered, and Wilson underestimates the story that Rankin has concocted, believing that what he told Mary would contradict his initial statement about Meinike. But Rankin has been consistent about the extortion lie. Wilson says that Mary must now learn the whole truth about her husband. Meanwhile, Mary is getting nervous, worried about having to identify the body. Rankin attempts to calm her to make sure she provides a consistent story. He fakes his intention to confess to the police if she can’t handle the situation just to reassure her of his devotion to her. Mary’s father calls her and wants to see her alone. While the couple talk, Rankin fiddles with the clock in the room and says he will go work on the church clock while Mary sees her father. The references to the clocks stress that time is running out for Rankin.

 

Mary finds Wilson with her father. Mary lies when she says she doesn’t recognize Meinike’s photograph. Wilson tells her that she is protecting a murderer. He now reveals his own hidden agenda. He works for the Allied Commission for the Punishment of War Criminals. He says that Meinike ran one of the Nazi concentration camps. Wilson then shows her footage of the mass graves and gas chambers. He says that Franz Kindler conceived of the plan to exterminate as many of Germany’s enemies as possible so that the country would emerge superior to other nations at the end of World War II. He shows the horrors of the camp to convince Mary that she is harboring the monster that created the Nazi death machine. Kindler was an anonymous partner in the genocidal plan so there is no way to identify him, except that he had a mania for clocks. The cold efficiency of how the concentration camps carried out the executions resembles the precise mechanism of how parts of a timepiece work together. Wilson tells Mary that he had Meinike released so he would lead Wilson to Kindler and that only the person who knows who Meinike came to see in Harper can identify Kindler. Mary is stunned and in denial, not believing that Rankin could be Kindler. She denies that anyone visited her on the day Meinike arrived, and says that they are trying to involve her in “a lie.” But a lie is exactly what she has become part of, only it is not Wilson’s but her husband’s deceitful web in which she is entangled. After Mary runs off, Wilson tells Judge Longstreet that his daughter is grappling with the facts versus her not wanting to believe she could fall in love with a monster. Wilson says that if she is unreliable as Rankin’s ally, then he may attempt to kill her. He is using her as bait, and he admits to his manipulation of the Judge’s daughter, but in essence he is fighting coldness with coldness. 

 

After Wilson states his plan, the church clock chimes, emphasizing the precision of both actors in the cat-and-mouse game and how the contest is coming to an end. Mary runs to the church and climbs the stairs to the clock tower. She tells Rankin the meeting was a trap, but she divulged nothing and that they can prove Rankin isn’t who they say he is by verifying his attendance at the school in Geneva where he said he knew Meinike and his sister. They walk out among the crowd that has assembled to congratulate Rankin for getting the clock to chime. The John Donne poem, referenced earlier by Rankin, comes to mind, which reads, “For Whom the Bell Tolls/It tolls for thee,” indicating that death impacts all of humanity, not just those singled out as victims.

 

Mary starts closing the drapes in her house, symbolizing her desire to cover things up and not let the light reveal what is going on. Rankin is at Potter’s store. He finds out that Wilson has picked up the ice cream that was ordered for the party at their house that night. He hurries home, most likely worried that Mary might divulge something about the dead man. At the party there is much talk about the murder which greatly upsets Mary. Someone mentions Ralph Waldo Emerson’s statement about crime. Wilson knows the quote which says, “things are arranged for truth and benefit, and there is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue.” There are always clues left behind because, “The laws and substances of nature - water, snow, wind, gravitation - become penalties to the thief.” So, despite efforts to hide wrongful acts, the truth will be revealed, which is consistent with the theme of the film about appearances attempting to conceal reality. 

 

Mary’s denial of her husband’s guilt is starting to break down as she becomes agitated, cries, and rips off a necklace of pearls, the beads spilling on the floor representing how her defenses protecting Rankin are falling apart. The housekeeper, Sara (Martha Wentworth) reports this incident to Wilson, Mary's father, and Dr. Lawrence. Wilson knows that as she reveals her lack of resolve, Mary will become more of a target for her husband. So, he tells Sara she must be vigilant and relate all incidents. Mary’s father essentially tells Sara that Mary is walking through a minefield of the everyday where a planned attack may appear (that word again) as an accident. 

 

From that warning we nicely segue to Rankin sawing cuts into the ladder that leads to the church clock tower. He also announces at a meeting that he will soon finish the work of the German clockmakers who preceded him concerning the church timepiece. Metaphorically, his statement sounds like he wants to continue the work of the Nazi genocide machine. This idea is reinforced as he draws a swastika on a piece of paper as he calls Mary to go secretly to the church tower. It is clever that Potter then plays Rankin at checkers and says to Rankin that it’s his move, which Rankin has just made regarding Mary.

 

Sara makes a fuss about Mary leaving, and pretends (again a charade, but for beneficial purposes) that she is ill. Mary calls Noah and asks that he go to the church to tell Rankin she will be late. She wants Noah not to divulge his activity, which would draw her brother behind Rankin’s veil of deceit. But, Noah calls Wilson and they go to the church while Rankin is still with Potter. Wilson grabs one of the sawed rungs and it gives way. Luckily, he recovers with Noah there to help. Wilson can even smell the glue where the wood was temporarily attached. 

 When Rankin returns home and finds Mary is still alive, he is stunned and becomes unhinged, fiddling with his grandfather clock like it is a security blanket that will restore order. When she explains that she sent Noah to the church he becomes enraged that she told someone of the meeting. He blurts out that if Noah was killed it would be her fault. Mary then becomes frightened as she realizes her husband was attempting to kill her. She now sees that who she thought was her husband is really “the stranger,” and yells, like an accusation, his real name, “Franz Kindler!” Kindler escapes just before Wilson arrives with Noah, and Mary faints out of relief that her brother is still alive. 

 

Mary awakes in the night and goes to the church, climbing up the bell tower, suspecting that Kindler is hiding there. She came by way of the cemetery (an ominous path) and does find her husband there. She says she was not followed. Wilson and the others discover that she left, and Wilson suspects she is heading for the clocktower. She is carrying a box, but it is a decoy to make Kindler think she had something to give him so he would help her up. She also can play games of strategy. She says that she is there to kill him, but he says she will die instead. She is okay with that if she takes him with her. He says from that height he can see the goings on below, like “God,” and compares the citizens to “ants.” His statement reveals the deluded “master race” belief of the Nazis. But Wilson appears and tells Kindler that he only has to look outside to see all of the people rushing to apprehend the Nazi, which sounds like the citizens of the town that went to destroy Frankenstein’s monster. Kindler says it’s a trick, and Wilson angrily says he doesn’t need tricks, which Wilson says is what Kindler is all about. His bag of deception has now been ripped apart. Wilson says that the world for Kindler has shrunk to the town of Harper and now to the bell tower. Wilson seems to be saying that the Nazi’s area of existence is approaching the size of a prison cell. Wilson notes that the people whom Kindler belittled are now there to take him down.

 

Kindler uses that lame Nazi excuse that he was “just following orders,” but Wilson points out that Kindler was the one giving the orders. He is able to knock the gun away from Kindler, and Mary grabs it and starts shooting, wounding Kindler. He manages to climb out onto the exterior of the church clock. (This use of mayhem on a place that symbolizes law and justice echoes Alfred Hitchcock’s use of Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest and the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur). One of the large rotating figures, an angel with a sword chasing, appropriately, a demon stabs Kindler, the real evil creature. He is ironically done in by the mechanism he worshipped, and falls to his actual death and symbolically topples from his delusional belief in his superiority.

The next film is It Happened One Night.