Welcome to the fifteenth episode of our ongoing series: Fascism On Film. Each episode of this series, the Holmes Brothers look and review a film that has to do with fascism. During the episodes, the brothers look and see how the aspects and portrayal of fascism shown in the film relate to current and/or past events.
On this Fascism on Film episode, the Holmes Brothers along with friend of the podcast Richard Bruno sit down to discuss Orson Welles's The Stranger. Released in 1946, it stars Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young. The Stranger is a film noir thriller set in a small town in Connecticut. This was Welles's third film as a director and his first film noir picture. After the making of The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles took on the job of directing this film to show he could make a film under budget and under schedule. And more importantly, a successful film. His last two films, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, were not successful at the box office. The Stranger stars Robinson as Agent Wilson, a war crimes investigator for the United Nations, is on the hunt for a Nazi war criminal hiding in plain sight under a new identity. The man he is after is Franz Kindler who goes by the name Charles Rankin and is a professor at the local college. Rankin/Kindler is also about to get married to Mary Longstreet, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Adam Longstreet. They are played by Loretta Young and Philip Merivale. With nothing to go on except Kindler's passion for clocks, Wilson releases Konrad Meinike (Konstantin Shayne) at the hopes he will lead him to Rankin.
We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes of this Fascism On Film series.
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Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US and the UK. In Finland it was released on Apple TV after finishing its limited cinema run and was the Number 1 film for multiple weeks. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website. The film is now available to watch in the other Nordic territories like Sweden, Oslo and of course Denmark. If you live in Denmark, you can watch the movie here on Apple TV by clicking this link.
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