Character actor Billy House had a memorable role. Richard Long appears in his second screen credit. I will forever associate him with House on Haunted Hill (1959), but others may remember him from Big Valley or Nanny and the Professor. He did a lot of television before dying tragically young.
Faithful Mary (Loretta Young) is unknowingly engaged to marry the Nazi (Orson Welles). I found it peculiar that she refers to her father (Philip Merivale) by his first name, and he calls her "Sister". I wondered if this was a Quaker thing, but couldn't confirm it. Very strange. Another strange thing is when Mary returns from her honeymoon, little brother Noah asks “Did you remember to keep your knees together and your apparatus in?” This was in context to skiing, but I wonder if the screenwriter might be giving a wink to the audience.
Both may have been explained by the original edit. The producers gave the editor carte blanche to remove anything he felt was unnecessary. Cut and lost is thirty minutes of footage, much of it from the opening. Welles was furious.
Were I to criticize The Stranger, it would be that the story was rather linear, particularly for a Welles film. But it works and the performances are excellent. Robinson just got better as he aged and only Welles can deliver lines the way he does. I would love to see the two hour edit. AMRU 4.
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