Having recently watched (finally!) this noir classic, I'm compelled to encourage others to do the same. It's a pleasure to see a work of art like this film which displays skillful attention to detail in every frame. I know there are those who would argue that this is a hack piece for the great Welles, but the stylish look of it is beautiful, and while there may be a few plot flaws, who cares? There's murder, political intrigue, suspense, a little gore and a wronged woman not to mention a few cutesy down-home characters to boot. What more d'ya want from a thriller?
Mr. Welles functions impressively in his dual capacity as director while acting the title role (a character who is also playing a dual role come to think of it), giving a nuanced performance as escaped Nazi-in-hiding, Franz Kindler, mastermind of the genocidal Final Solution, all the while applying his directorial genius to the piece. Edward G. Robinson is wonderfully restrained as the infinitely patient and unflappable Mr. Wilson, a G-man devoted to his job of hunting down and delivering WWII criminals to justice. Viewers are led along with Mr. Wilson to find the evil Herr Kindler living incognito in a small town in New England, having insinuated himself into the lives of the unsuspecting townsfolk, most notably, the beautiful and sweet but none too bright, Mary, played by Loretta Young. Imagine this fiend lurking in an idyllic Connecticut hamlet, waiting for the day when the Reich will rise again, while in the meantime having the brass to enhance his cover by marrying the innocent young daughter of a Supreme Court Justice!
The centerpiece of the town and the film is the clock tower at the Harper School for Boys, where Kindler has assumed the guise of Professor Charles Rankin. The clock tower offers a thrilling cinematic focus as we often find ourselves in and around it, never venturing far from it, beginning with the first moment when we see it on a picture postcard, right up to the exciting conclusion when the clock itself takes on an integral anthropomorphic role in the administration of justice. Of course the image of the clock tower and its dizzying visual and symbolic possibilities has since been employed in different ways by many a filmmaker, from Hitchcock on down, though not often on a par with Welles' diabolical vision.
OK, maybe not Citizen Kane, maybe not Orson Welles' proudest moment, but GREAT STUFF.
Mr. Welles functions impressively in his dual capacity as director while acting the title role (a character who is also playing a dual role come to think of it), giving a nuanced performance as escaped Nazi-in-hiding, Franz Kindler, mastermind of the genocidal Final Solution, all the while applying his directorial genius to the piece. Edward G. Robinson is wonderfully restrained as the infinitely patient and unflappable Mr. Wilson, a G-man devoted to his job of hunting down and delivering WWII criminals to justice. Viewers are led along with Mr. Wilson to find the evil Herr Kindler living incognito in a small town in New England, having insinuated himself into the lives of the unsuspecting townsfolk, most notably, the beautiful and sweet but none too bright, Mary, played by Loretta Young. Imagine this fiend lurking in an idyllic Connecticut hamlet, waiting for the day when the Reich will rise again, while in the meantime having the brass to enhance his cover by marrying the innocent young daughter of a Supreme Court Justice!
The centerpiece of the town and the film is the clock tower at the Harper School for Boys, where Kindler has assumed the guise of Professor Charles Rankin. The clock tower offers a thrilling cinematic focus as we often find ourselves in and around it, never venturing far from it, beginning with the first moment when we see it on a picture postcard, right up to the exciting conclusion when the clock itself takes on an integral anthropomorphic role in the administration of justice. Of course the image of the clock tower and its dizzying visual and symbolic possibilities has since been employed in different ways by many a filmmaker, from Hitchcock on down, though not often on a par with Welles' diabolical vision.
OK, maybe not Citizen Kane, maybe not Orson Welles' proudest moment, but GREAT STUFF.