The Stranger (1946)

Edward G Robinson's detective sets a Nazi criminal free from prison hoping this one will lead him to another hiding out in smalltown Connecticut, and from this opening scene, Orson Welles' thriller sets such a furious pace, in the end we feel like we have only cursorily looked in on these characters - one played by Orson Welles (the nazi (read 'generic bad guy' - he could have been simply a psychopath or criminal - he is not a political figure)) on the run and doing everything he can, even murder, to remain undetected - and one, a detective hot on the nazi's trail, who turns the thriller into something closer to a melodrama when he insists on commentating the various character's psychological states, including that of Loretta Young's just-married wife of the nazi.

★★★★☆

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