It’s hard to believe it now, but before Donald Trump entered the political arena, he was known as something of a crank on Twitter, sending the world ill-considered thoughts on topics as diverse as Hollywood superhunk Robert Pattinson:
Hollywood superhunk Robert Pattinson:
And, on a more serious note, Hollywood superhunk Robert Pattinson:
But the rigors of the political trail and the awe-inspiring responsibility of leading the free world have matured our president-elect, who, we presume, has not tweeted at all since announcing his candidacy on June 16, 2015. So, with full confidence that the adults are in charge—and that, even if they weren’t, responding to the paranoid vote-fraud fantasies of an angry toddler would be a waste of everyone’s time—Slate is proud to present Orson Welles’ The Stranger in its entirety.
The film, Welles’ third as a director, was produced by Sam Spiegel and released by RKO in 1946. Based on a story by Victor Trivas, The Stranger is about a United Nations war crimes investigator (Edward G. Robinson) searching for a Nazi war criminal (Orson Welles). Welles’ character has escaped Germany to hide in a small town in New England, where he is teaching prep school and repairing the town clock in his spare time. Despite its fantastical idea that a fascist might be able to hide in plain sight in the United States, the film was one of Welles’ biggest financial successes. Although Welles wasn’t fond of it, “not as good as Citizen Kane” is a pretty high bar to clear—and, in fact, the film is tense, well constructed, and striking in almost every frame. It’s also in the public domain, which is why crisp transfers are readily available on YouTube; you can watch it with a clear conscience.
Beyond its considerable merits as a film, The Stranger was also one of the first American movies to use actual footage from the Holocaust, at a time in which the existence of the death camps was less well-known. Welles wrote about the newsreels he would soon incorporate into his film in his New York Post column in May of 1945:
The thought of death is never pretty but the newsreels testify to the fact of quite another sort of death, quite another level of decay. This is a putrefaction of the soul, a perfect spiritual garbage. For some years now we have been calling it Fascism. The stench is unendurable.
We hope you enjoy this special Slate presentation of Orson Welles’ The Stranger. Now, to take a giant sip of coffee and look at Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.
