A spectacular entry into the film noir genre and one of the best movies of a Hollywood legend is among the easiest films to watch online. Released in 1946, The Stranger is an Oscar-nominated film noir with a star-studded cast, and yet, it’s in the public domain.
A long list of movies classified as film noir, from The Strange Love of Martha Ivers to Impact, have been widely available for a long time now. Many of these 1940s and 1950s films are worthy outings, but weren’t exactly huge hits that generated significant fanfare. As a result rights weren’t renewed at the appropriate time, thus placing them in the public domain.
Because of that, they can be streamed on various streaming services, including Prime Video and Tubi, which doesn’t even require a subscription. Alternatively, they can be watched on YouTube.
As far as quality goes when it comes to public domain film noir movies, that varies – some are admittedly low-budget private detective films, whereas a few rank among the film noir genre. It’s the latter category that The Stranger belongs in.
The Stranger Is A Top-Tier Orson Welles Film Noir
Orson Welles, who famously wrote, directed, and starred in the film that many consider to be the greatest movie of all time (Citizen Kane), had the same level of involvement in The Stranger, which co-starred two other Hollywood A-listers, Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson.
Orson Welles left an unforgettable mark on the film noir genre, but so did Edward G. Robinson, who played pivotal roles in both Key Largo and Double Indemnity.
Set in post-World War II Connecticut, The Stranger stars Orson Welles as Franz Kindler, a Nazi war criminal who has built a new life for himself as a seemingly ordinary professor. He even has a fiancé and a place in the community. But things become complicated for him when Edward G. Robison’s Mr. Wilson comes to town looking to bring him to justice.
But Mr. Wilson doesn’t immediately know the new identity of Franz Kindler and has to investigate other recent arrivals in the town, which causes Orson Welles to take desperate – and even murderous – measures to keep his newfound happiness from unraveling.
The Stranger successfully weaves a great cat-and-mouse tale, with Orson Welles putting in a great performance as the evil Franz Kindler, all the while painting an appropriately dark picture of the horrors that Kindler is complicit in due to his history as a Nazi.
The self-destructive path that Kindler finds himself on, as well as his inability to escape the past, speaks to the idea that there are some crimes that are so great, that absolution becomes out of reach. The Stranger works wonders with this theme, and uses its supporting cast to show how peoples’ views change when they realize who their friends really are.