Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

dbdumonteil I like Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli ,but you cannot always win ,that is to say you cannot expect another "third man" every time ;their parts are unworthy of their talent ;the screenplay is desultory -for instance ,Cotten is to work in Valli's father's factory ,but he is so busy gambling and cheating you do not see him work at all-;Valli spends the whole movie in her wheelchair.The best scenes are to be found in Cotten's landlady's house ,particularly when another man shows up.Cotten was ideally cast for he is par excellence the ambiguous man,not quite the good guy but not the villain either ;even when he's a criminal ("shadow of a doubt") we feel for him;the movie avoids the traditional "happy end" or at least postponed it for years.

dougdoepke The trouble with this Stranger is that it walks too softly. I agree with others: the movie is too low-key for its own good. Unfortunately, the narrative straddles a number of movie genres— romance, crime, regeneration, noir— without blending them into a compelling whole. At the same time, the parts are stretched out at such a leisurely pace, it's sometimes hard to stay involved. Then too, Cotten is a master of subtlety and can play a nuanced psycho as in Shadow of a Doubt (1943) to perfection. Here, however, he doesn't supply the kind of tough- guy edge of a petty criminal and stick-up man at those moments when they should surface. As a result, we never see the side of his personality that's in conflict with his charming, sociable side. Cotten's performance is perfect for the romantic side, but not for the tough- guy criminal side. Thus, the reform that comes at the end lacks the contrast and dramatic impact it needs. All in all, I think the film works best as a romantic tale of moral regeneration. The screenplay could have deepened this approach by making Hale (Cotten) a con-man gigolo instead of a violent criminal, that is, a man who is reformed by coming home to his first and one true love, Elaine (Valli). For one, that would have eliminated the ridiculous sequence where, as reviewer cutterccbaxter notes, Hale takes three slugs in the back while in a rolling car, yet emerges in the next scene with his arm in a sling! My guess is that the film was rushed into production to cash in on the success of the Valli-Cotten teaming in The Third Man. The result, however, is a Luke-warm mix at best.

The_Void Walk Softly, Stranger may not be the most memorable slice of classic cinema of all time, but even so; Robert Stevenson's film offers an interesting tale of redemption and retribution, despite not being at all innovative. The film stars Joseph Cotten as a man who travels to a town called Ashton. He quickly becomes friendly with the locals, and tells them that he once lived there as a boy. His friendship with a young wheelchair-bound lady named Elaine Corelli, daughter of a successful factory owner, proves his most fruitful. But people's pasts have a habit of catching up them, and the man's gambling exploits are his weakness. The fact that this film stars Joseph Cotten was my main reason for seeing it. The man has a great screen presence that blends excellently with film noir. His performance here isn't one of his best, but he does well at hinting at a sinister side to his character just below the surface. He is joined by classic actress Alida Valli, who is most notable to me for the fact that she was one of the leads of Dario Argento's masterpiece 'Suspiria'. The plot flows well throughout, and while it's never too full of surprises; and the ending doesn't live up to the beginning, the film still offers 80 minutes of decent entertainment.

cutterccbaxter Valli looks as beautiful and depressed as ever in this film. She always had a sad aura about her and the producers were wise to stick her in a wheel chair where they could make good use of her gloomy vibe. This is a story that seems to know where it wants to go and I found myself engrossed in it, but I found the ending to be less than satisfactory. Joseph Cotten takes three slugs in the back and the car he is in rolls over about six times and yet he doesn't die?!? Maybe if he had been wearing his seat belt I might of accepted him living and ending up in a wheel chair. Then he and Valli could have wheeled off into the sunset together. Paul Stewart is fun to watch in this film. His eyes remind me of a raccoon, yet he's one hundred percent weasel.