The Stranger (1946) is a sadly forgotten masterpiece. Starring Loretta Young, Edward G. Robinson and Orson Welles, it tells the tale of a war crimes investigator Edward G. Robinson hot on the trail of a Nazi War criminal, Welles, masquerading as an American professor. The above scene has Welles giving his opinion of the Germans and what should be done with them, a hot topic in 1946:
Professor Charles Rankin: The German sees himself as the innocent victim of world envy and hatred, conspired against, set upon by inferior peoples, inferior nations. He cannot admit to error, much less to wrongdoing, not the German. We chose to ignore Ethiopia and Spain, but we learned from our casualty lists the price of looking the other way. Men of truth everywhere have come to know for whom the bell tolled, but not the German. No, he still follows his warrior gods marching to Wagnerian strains, his eyes still fixed upon the fiery sword of Siegfried, and in those subterranean meeting places that you don’t believe in, the German’s dream world comes alive and he takes his place in shining armor beneath the banners of the Teutonic knights. Mankind is waiting for the Messiah, but for the German, the Messiah is not the Prince of Peace. No, he’s… another Barbarossa… another Hitler.
Absolutely chilling, especially when we realize that is the Nazi’s honest opinion.
At the time this film was made, the world was still trying to come to terms with murder on an industrial scale.
Welles’ character cleverly echoes sentiments common at the time. Remember the infamous Morgenthau Plan? To hide your spying, play the loyal patriot, and to conceal your own identity agree with those around you that that identity is “bad”.
Germany’s now lost the will to live.
It could be taken as a critique of the Morgenthau plan. The film has a lot of nuances, many of which aren’t easy for us to catch 77 years on. The casting was inspired, especially having good girl actress Loretta Young married to a Nazi war criminal. The film works as a very dark comedy as well as a drama.
Welles as director brought the film in on time and under budget. He faced severe financial penalties if he did not do so, his reputation as a genius beginning to sink under his reputation of cost overruns and long artsy films that were box office death. It was the only Welles film to be a bona fide financial success at the box office.