Tag: nazi

Film Review: The Stranger

Isn’t YouTube a marvellous resource? As a video library to delve into for few moments of pleasure it’s practically a bottomless pit of entertainment. The choices of things to watch are virtually limitless. But it should come with a warning just to remind you that it’s all too easy to end up spending hours rather than minutes of your spare time engrossed as you segue from one upload to the next. The suggestions that pop up at the end of each video do a fine job of enticing continued viewing.

But aside from the cute videos of pets and babies and the millions of other “caught on camera” moments, YouTube is for me, a great film library. Thanks to a copyright lapse in many old classic films, there are a plethora of great movies available and just one click away. I found one such film this morning. The Stranger from 1946 starring Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young and Orson Welles (who also directed) is a superbly put together drama that, thanks to its style, is also a fine example of film noir. Robinson is always good to watch and with great support from Welles and Young, the hour and a half that this film runs for, simply flies by.

Edward G. Robinson plays Mr Wilson – a “detective, of sorts” for the United Nations War Crimes Commission – who is hunting down a Nazi fugitive called Franz Kindler (Orson Welles). Kindler, having carefully erased all evidence of his former life and assumed a new identity – Charles Rankin – is now a prep school teacher in small town U.S.A. On the day we meet him, he marries Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young) who happens to be the daughter of the local Supreme Court Justice. In short, he’s managed to transform himself from a Nazi war criminal into a pillar of an American community.

Wilson releases Kindler’s former right-hand man Meinike (Konstantin Shayne) from prison in the hope that he will lead him to Kindler which of course, he does. All the way to the pretty town of Harper, Connecticut. But he loses him before he makes contact with Kindler. When Meinike (now a religious convert) and Kindler do meet, he begs his former superior to repent and to confess his sins. However, Kindler, afraid of being exposed by his former associate, strangles him instead.

The story unravels in a gripping, almost claustrophobic way as the determined hound chases down the wily fox. Wilson is pretty sure Rankin and Kindler are one and the same but without having witnessed Meinike meeting with him, he had no proof. So it’s left to Father Time and Kindler’s own fear at being exposed, a fear that will force him to make a paranoiac mistake – to betray his true identity to his pursuers.

As a screenplay, it’s a wonderfully taut piece of writing (Oscar nominated too) with very good dialogue – particularly from the authoritative figure of Wilson. Edward G. Robinson plays this to perfection and he lends his character an intelligent doggedness that is simply believable. Welles is also excellent at conveying a man desperately trying to hide something while Loretta Young is convincing as the new wife who refuses to accept that she fell in love with the wrong man. The town is dotted with other great characters too, in particular, Mr Potter the town clerk and proprietor of the local store/diner. He’s a hoot whenever he’s on screen.

Apart from the opening few minutes, all of the action takes place in Harper – a pretty little town where “there’s nothing to be afraid of” as quoted by Mary Longstreet. For a fugitive, it seems an ideal refuge but of course, for a local it seems like the last place on earth where something like that would occur. Welles’s direction confines us within the town, never giving us any long shot vistas of space and scenery, helping to create the sense of suffocation that Kindler must be feeling as his past captures up with him and his world closes in. Welles’ camera moves beautifully too on cranes and dollies and there are a few reminders of his Citizen Kane brilliance with emotive use of light and shadow in some of the interior shots as well as a lovely reflection in a camera lens. The film builds beautifully to a highly charged climax of which the set piece brings to mind Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

Curiously, The Stranger was the only film made by Welles that had any impact at the box office upon its original release. Hard to believe considering how highly some of his work is now regarded. Coming out shortly after the Second World War perhaps its anti-Nazi theme and the fact that war criminal fugitives really did exist, caught the public’s imagination. It contains, supposedly for the first time in a feature film, actual footage of concentration camps and although what we see is brief, together with Edward G. Robinson’s dialogue, it’s enough to horrify.

Overall then, The Stranger is a great waste of an hour and a half.

News in Briefs 23/04/12

Oh look, the potential fuel strike made yet another appearance. But this time both the unions and the Government said that people shouldn’t panic buy. Some people really need to learn something about the concept of keeping one’s mouth shut.

And, for some reason, Ed Miliband started moaning that the Bahrain Grand Prix should be called off due to alleged human rights abuses. Last time I checked, taking a car and racing it around a track had absolutely nothing to do with politics or human rights. Shut up, Ed!

Political Oops of the Week

It’s been a long time since we’ve all had a good laugh at the British National party (BNP) and those associated with them. Luckily, the upcoming election for the post of London mayor has given us the opportunity to laugh again.

Carlos Cortiglia, who is obviously of British descent, is the BNP’s candidate and he wants to implement free travel for families at weekends. He claims it will provide more access to London for more people, and it will increase the revenue levels for the city. It will certainly increase revenue in some areas, but how much would the travel sector have to fork out in terms of transport?

This is a valid question and this was put to him by a BBC journalist. They asked exactly how much it would be to implement this plan, and he replied: “I don’t give appreciations in terms of numbers.”

Throw money
Here, have a fire-breathing caterpillar coated in gold on me!

So you don’t like to produce facts, figures, and numbers when it comes to big programs like this, Mr, Cortiglia? Then you’re probably not the best individual to be holding a political office. Essentially, what you are saying is that money is no object and you don’t know and you don’t care how much it costs.

It’s like its 1933 all over again and the Nazis have just come to power. Strangely enough, Nazi Germany was nearly always in complete and utter debt because the ruling party didn’t care much for numbers either. In fact, that’s part of the reason they went to war in 1939 instead of later on because they needed the resources and the money.

Still, political parties tend to follow their direct descendents.

The Painful…

New 10p and 5p coins set to be released in Britain have been coated in nickel in order to save money. The only problem is that medical experts are claiming that around 10% of the population are allergic to nickel.

So like responsible and intelligent people, the Mint decided to ignore all medical advice, all previous experiences with the potential of implementing nickel coins in Sweden, and the possibility of carrying out any health tests at all and surge ahead with their plans.

This is almost beyond belief when we look at the economics of the whole measure. The Mint is predicting that this will save around £10m a year due to the rising cost of copper. However, what we have to remember is that local councils are going to have to change all of their public machines, at an estimated cost of £5.5 million. Furthermore, the cost of recalibration has been estimated at a cost of £100m. And that’s before we start talking about the potential costs to the NHS due to additional cases of skin problems.

So any savings will only be seen in the generations after us, and even then, what if the price of copper falls? Then it’s a complete waste of time and we all would have lost money. It’s so illogical that it’s embarrassing.

…And the Pointless

The internet is under attack again as MPs call for better protections to protect children against porn. Now here’s some pointless news. When will these old fogies realise that you can’t protect children against this sort of thing in the current society we live in. It’s just impossible and it won’t work. Why won’t it work?

For a start, it’s not difficult to get past the arbitrary blocking methods used on the internet. Secondly, most parents are too damn lazy to implement the parental controls necessary to block their children. If the problem is really as bad as everyone is making out then stop attacking the internet and start attacking useless parents.

Furthermore, I can’t grasp how it would protect them against anything like this because the increasing sexualisation of children is due to many factors. And the availability of porn on the internet is a very small one.

Prostitution

Look at the terrible parents who let their children dress like sluts, look at the celebrities which celebrate dressing like a third rate prostitute, and look at the fact that sex and getting rid of one’s virginity is seen as the biggest task of a teenager’s life in this country.

Trust me when I say that the internet doesn’t hold the answers.

The so Outrageous that it’s Borderline Hilarious

This week’s hilarious news comes from the Employment Minister Chris Grayling. It’s actually quite funny when you think about it because it’s so absurd. We all know that business is about making money and making profits. Naturally, you want the best employees to fulfil that role. And if you truly care about your business then you are not going to care about where they are from.

But Chris Grayling thinks that British businesses should hire some local chav to do the work instead. In fact, his words were these:

“It’s easy to hire someone from Eastern Europe with five years’ experience and many employers choose to do so,” he went on to say that: “But those who look closer to home find gems too – turning round the lives of somebody from a poor background, given no real opportunity in life – and end up up with a model employee as a result. So we should give these young people a chance.”

Is he serious?

Chav
Chris Grayling looks and sees an employee of the month, but everybody else looks and sees a waste of space.

I could end up with a model employee, but I could also employ the modern employee with a good track record, so why should I waste my time? Are you going to give me or my business an incentive to do this? No, you’re not. What you fail to understand, Mr. Chris Grayling, is that business is a global one. I don’t care if you’re gay, straight, or Australian. If you can do the job then I will employ you because I have no incentive to do otherwise.

I’m not going to reward some bloody chav for sitting on a street corner and throwing their own lives away when I can reward an Eastern European worker who has made something of themselves. If they are out of work because they didn’t listen at school, spent most of their time drinking, or decided to hump their way through the greater Metropolitan area then that’s their bed and they can lie in it.

A Positive Outlook for the Week

The positive news is I will be away in Brighton next week, so I get to leave this horrible city. But on the negative side of things, I won’t be writing this column next week as that is in the middle of when I’ll be away.

But for some reason, I don’t know why, I have a good feeling that something really good is going to happen next week. I have a feeling that the potential fuel strike will end well, all the rubbish about the Bahrain Grand Prix will evaporate, and something major and interesting will happen.

So maybe next week won’t be so bleak and irritating after all…