The Stranger

[Wich2]

I know this has been around the block before - but, "A Good Post Deserves Repeating"!

[Wellesnet]

Available at ebay for as low as $140. Doesn't look in great shape though:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Superman-62-GD ... Sw37VemezF

[RayKelly]

In a recent 48-minute remote Q&A with Milwaukee Film members, Welles scholar and film historian Joseph McBride talks about THE STRANGER. You can watch the complete video at:
https://www.wellesnet.com/joseph-mcbride-orson-welles-stranger/

[tonyw]

Another eloquent and informative presentation. In addition to the wealth of material, the video also shows us his study so those of us also following V.I Warshawki's practices of "Good Housekeeping" can take pleasure in the fact that "we are not alone"

I'd like to raise a few points that are more refinements of Joe's comments than anything else.

Amazingly, anti-Semitism was still around in the USA and U.K in the immediate post-war era but not as blatant as in the 30s. Monty in CROSSFIRE (1947) does articulate the resentment of many who believed that their presence in the armed Forces was the result of Jews, many of whom had it easy on the "homefront". We must also remember GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT and John Garfield's role as a Jewish veteran experiencing anti-semitism in one scene. Also, it did still exist in the UK. David Britton's alternative "autobiographical" novel BAPTISED IN THE BLOOD OF MILLIONS (Savoy, 2001) reveals this a an actual autobiography written by a former member of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, BLACKSHIRTS AND ROSES (2013) by John Charnley covers this.In Dennis Potter's 1980 TV play, BLADE ON A FEATHER, Tom Conti's character is called a "Yid" by Phoebe Nicholas, an actress later best-known for her role in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.

Unfortunately, as Joe points out, these ideas never went away.

[Wellesnet]

From Wellesnet Facebook (John Coleresi):

A good interview but I disagree with McBride's assessment of the Kino Lorber Blu-ray's A/V quality. Read the many complaints on Amazon including mine called "Buyer Beware." Here's part of it: According to Blu-ray.com, a good site for reviews and my starting point in learning about a Blu-ray's video & audio quality before I buy one, "the folks at Kino-as they often do-have essentially left the print 'as-is.' This means you will see bouts of specks and vertical scratches through out the film - along with a few missing frames...." Boy Oh Boy was that an understatement! The front cover states this version is a "35MM Archival Restoration" but your eyes will tell you it's obviously not true and I complained to Kino about their false advertising but they never replied. The back cover says the film was "Mastered in HD from archival 35mm elements preserved by the Library of Congress." Obviously these elements were not in good shape.

At best, this disc looks like a remastered, sharper version of a public domain print with more contrast minus the badly needed cleanup and digital repair.. Compare Criterion's impressive Blu-ray of Hitchcock's original THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH to public domain versions and you'll see how good an old film can look given the proper treatment. Compare this new STRANGER to a public domain version one and I doubt you'll see much difference. If it's any consolation, I will say the audio was better than the visual aspect and that's not saying much. Those who want subtitles will find none. What's good about this disc? The informative commentary and the extras.
I bought the MGM Film Noir DVD. It's wayyyy better than the Kino Blu-ray in video quality, albeit a bit on the soft side. You'll have to look very hard to see the few specks present. It also has subtitles.

Depends on what you want. As DVD Beaver shows, the Kino Lorber Bluray is sharper looking than the Olive Bluray, which is based on the same source as the old MGM DVD. But the Kino, as was said, has some bad scratches that mar some critical scenes, so overall, if you can't stand scratches and other artifacts, the Olive seems to be the one to get.

FYI, Netflix, in addition to still showing "The Other Side of the Wind" and "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", is also still showing "The Stranger" as well. They are using the Kino-Lorber Bluray version.

[Roger Ryan]

I would agree that the term "restoration" was the wrong one to use on the Kino packaging. However, the Kino release is the first time we've been able to see a print struck from the original elements, albeit a very battered print. I have no doubt the Library of Congress print had made its rounds in the theaters back in 1946 before finding its way into the archives. While the missing footage, frame jumps, and scratches cry out for a proper restoration, the overall picture quality is better than the duped prints available elsewhere and I like having those last few seconds of Robinson lighting his pipe which is cut off is all other editions.

[tonyw]

To follow up on my May 9, posting here is a recent article from THE GUARDIAN UK dealing with the resurgence of anti-semitism and Fascism in post-war Britain. It again shows how perceptive Welles was in reading the "sign of the times" in his own country.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/m ... ns-streets

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, THE STRANGER seems to anticipate the rise of HUAC and McCarthyism in America.

Interesting 1954 article about Sen. J.W. Fulbright of Arkansas, whose opposition to McCarthy inspired a slew of anti-semitic hatemail:
https://www.jta.org/1954/12/01/archive/ ... ic-letters

Senator Fulbright quoted from a letter he had received from G. Gurley, president of the Chemical Attraction Oil Corporation of Texas. Mr. Gurley wrote to the Senator:

“When you joined the only Jew to vote against 76 Senators that proved you were the henchman of the Jew Deal. H. H. Lehman should be deported out of this nation to Russia, or let Germany take that ‘bird’ in and give him the gas, like Hitler did, as per my opinion of his record,”

Mr. Gurley also wrote: “We know there is always some crackpot fronting for the Jews…”

Those railing against the "Jew Deal" went so far as to assert that FDR himself was secretly Jewish.
Franklin Delano Rosenfeld:
http://clevelandcentennial.blogspot.com ... nfeld.html

Roosevelt is Jewish. Rosenfeld was the first name and he wasn’t regarded as one of the first founders of Jewry in this country, either. I have a book out there with the pedigree of all the Jews in it written by a Jew which I can show you ...some of them more famous Jews than he.
- Charles Coughlin, 1970

"President Roosevelt intends to repeat the “Pax Judaica” of Woodrow Wilson who led the United States into the World War because he acted on behalf of Morgenthau, Warburg, Jacob Schiff, Louis Brandeis, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., all Jewish bankers of New York and masters of the world."
- Roman newspaper, 1940

Interesting that Father Coughlin made that remark the same year Welles started filming THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. Doesn't necessarily mean anything, but an interesting coincidence.

"I'll bet you didn't know those people are still in business, did you?"
- Matt Costello, TOSOTW

[tonyw]

Don't forget Senator Rankin in the late 40s. He is actually metnioned in the restored full text of James Jones's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. It was among the controversial items removed from the 1951 published edition. LIKE SAME COME RUNNING, that nook also comments indiretly on the period in which it was written.

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Tony, didn't know that about Jones. One of the leaders of HUAC, Rankin was the only choice for Kindler's disguise name, but interestingly, Kindler was not the first choice for his real name. The early August 1945 draft of THE STRANGER, credited to Welles and John Huston, has "Kuhn" instead of "Kindler", maybe after the German/Jewish banking firm of Kuhn and Loeb. By the final revised draft of late September, that had been changed to Kindler. Not sure what game Welles and Huston were playing with that, but Kuhn apparently is a Germanization of the common Jewish name "Cohen". "Kohn" and "Cohn" are as well. Just a wild guess, but is it possible that Welles and Huston were originally planning an oblique dig at Harry Cohn, Rita Hayworth's tormentor at Columbia studios?