Talk About a Stranger (1952) User Reviews

The Worst Impulses In Your Mind

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 8 December 2007]

Kurt Kaszner who has certainly played his share of villains on the screen has come to settle down in a small California town in the citrus fruit growing area. He's surly, bad tempered, and scares off anyone trying remotely to be friendly to him. Especially young Billy Gray who has a paper route that Kaszner is on. Even Gray's father George Murphy can't get any kind of smile out of him.

In a small town, a fellow like Kaszner is bound to raise eyebrows, but no one outrightly accuses him of anything until a dog that young Mr. Gray has adopted is poisoned.

Of course there's a lot more to the story, but I won't spoil anything by going farther. Talk About A Stranger can be deadly if you don't know the facts and let the worst impulses in your mind start taking control.

Talk About A Stranger is an unpretentious film from MGM's B picture unit which has a simple message and speaks it plainly. Nancy Davis is in this as Gray's mother and Lewis Stone is in this as well in one of his last films.

The film has a nice moral lessons about jumping to conclusions before all the facts are in.

It made a great statement on first impressions

[rsgallo · 6/10 · 6 March 2001]

Talk about a Stranger had a lot of very good moral implications. I enjoyed the story, and the characters in it, flaws and all. It was a great reminder to look deeper than what we might project onto others or a first impression and the damage it can do. It became somewhat suspenseful in parts. It did not seem dated to me. A good movie with a good moral lesson...wish we could have more movies like this today.

Visually Hypnotic

[abooboo-2 · 6/10 · 22 September 2001]

Rather surprising that the director here, David Bradley, would go on to make some notoriously awful films. There isn't quite enough to the story and the ending is a timid disappointment, but the film boasts some unusually powerful, even unforgettable imagery. The kind that, if you see this movie as a child, will probably stick with you for a lifetime.

Bradley does a wonderful job conveying a sense of how alien and intimidating the world must look through the eyes of a ten year old, especially when that ten year old ventures outside the safe, protected space that is his every day environment. (An environment that seems relatively harmless during the day but hostile and terrifying at night.)

What images. The boy's head framed against the backdrop of the huge, sinister house next door where the mysterious, ill-tempered man resides. The boy sprinting through a fog-enshrouded orchard toward a raised, judgmental camera. Hitch-hiking on the side of a lonely highway as headlights bear down. A motorcyclist appearing like a ghost. Getting a ride through the dark in the cold night air, the biker's affable ramblings distant, dream-like. A mesmerizing montage of the boy watching his dedicated dad scrambling to heat his orchards on a night when the temperature drops below freezing, lighting flame after flame after flame. A subtle, unsettling sequence set in an abandoned home on the ocean where a creepy older boy scares the living daylights out of him.

"Father Knows Best" brat Billy Gray plays the lonely boy and he is an odd, atypically intense child actor. At times he is effective, at others he is simply obnoxious. He is one moody little actor in a moody little film. He would probably even unnerve that red-headed demon from those unfortunate "Problem Child" movies. Nobody else in the cast makes much of an impression, though everyone is adequate. George Murphy is the decent dad. Nancy Davis (actually not a bad actress at all) is hardly on screen and when she is she's playing the least pregnant looking pregnant lady you'll ever see. Kurt Kasznar is the strange neighbor, though he's not as ghoulish or ghastly looking as you're supposed to think he is. The child actress who plays Gray's nemesis/sweetheart, a girl named Anna Glomb, looks remarkably like Denise Richards must have looked like at the same age.

A not-so-distant cousin of "To Kill A Mockingbird". Bradley was clearly a uniquely gifted film-maker, though this may be the only evidence of that talent. What happened?

Creepy little item has an obvious message at the center...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 8 December 2007]

This unknown little MGM item is based on a Charlotte Armstrong story (American mystery writer who wrote THE UNSUSPECTED and DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, among others). The main focus is on the little boy (BILLY GRAY) who thinks the new menacing neighbor is the man who killed his faithfuldog and he's played with professional assurance by Gray. In fact, he has to carry the film since GEORGE MURPHY and NANCY DAVIS are relegated to roles on the sidelines.

It's directed in competent style by Arthur Bradley, photographed in more than competent style by John Alton, full of moody B&W imagery, but the story is so thin it's almost transparent and winds up in a brief running time of one hour and five minutes.

The last ten minutes wind up the story in good fashion, although the ending is a bit hard to swallow, as contrived and synthetic as any character-driven tale could be. KURT KAZNAR is the mean looking neighbor who suddenly turns out to be Mr. Good Guy when we learn about his past. The simple moral of this fable is that you can't judge a book by its cover, nor a person by first impressions.

I have no criticism of Billy Gray's performance in the central role. He was one of the least self-conscious of all the child actors who came along at this time--and probably reached his peak as Doris Day's bratty little brother in BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON and ON MOONLIGHT BAY.

Offbeat story elevated by John Alton's magical camerawork

[bmacv · 7/10 · 24 September 2001]

An old dark house in a California orange-growing community gains a mysterious tenant, and, scared on Halloween, the kids take an instant dislike to him. When the mutt belonging to one of them, Bud (Billy Gray), is later found poisoned, Bud fixes on the strange neighbor as its killer. With a November freeze threatening the crop, already restive townsfolk start to gossip, egged on by the implacable Bud. His parents, George Murphy and Nancy (Reagan) Davis -- both actors to become major forces in California and national politics in the next decade -- find him careening out of control. The story starts out as a fairly routine thriller based on a courageous (for its time) caution against McCarthyist hysteria. But then it turns into something more complex and memorable. When Bud sets off to find incriminating evidence, the tone and the images grow more gothic and evocative. John Alton's superb cinematography conjures up masterful effects from the smoke rising from the smudge-pots, the twisted branches and dark foliage, and the beclouded moonlight. (There's much in this movie that steals the thunder from Charles Laughton's solo masterpiece, the 1955 Night of the Hunter). The script deserves credit, too, for resolutely retaining the young adolescent's point of view while never stooping to condescend.

Premature judgement can lead one self to erratic behavior

[Ed-Shullivan · 6/10 · 18 December 2018]

A boy and his dog, let no man stand between them. It may not sound as common as the phrase "a man and his woman, let no man stand between them", but a boy and his dog always tugs at the filmgoers heart strings. The young boy Robert Fontaine Jr. is a single boy about 12 years old who lives on his parents farm whose dad is tending 24 hours a day to the families orange fields.

When Robert finds a stray dog his parents allow him to keep the cute dog and they quickly become inseparable. Shortly after the dog named "boy" is taken into the Fontaine family home the young Robert Jr. finds his dog dead in the pathway that leads between his parents farm and the strange next door neighbors home, a man called Matlock.

Quickly Robert Jr. comes to no other conclusion than his reclusive next door neighbor Mr. Matlock must have deliberately killed his dog so Robert Jr. reports his dog's murder to the local police station and when they don't take him seriosuly he decides to prove that Mr. Matlock killed his beloved dog named boy himself.

I think most reasonable people can remember more than one past incident in their own lives when they prematurely jumped to an incorrect conclusion about a friend or family member by blaming them for something that eventually was proven that their friend or family member were innocent of.

Although classified as a film noir I think the film Talk About A Stranger is more an educational film for both the young and old by reminding us that all things that appear in front of our naked eyes are not always how they appear to be.

I give it a 6 out of 10 rating

Once again, Billy Gray plays a real weasel of a kid!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 23 February 2016]

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Billy Gray played a horrible little boy in several movies--most notably the Doris Day films "On Moonlight Bay" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon". This sort of character was quite a bit different from 'Bud' on "Father Knows Best". Here, Gray is up to his typical sort of character of the day...all boy...and all BAD boy!

The film begins with Bobby (Gray) and his friends tossing rocks through the windows of a supposedly abandoned house. Imagine their surprise when they see it's NOT abandoned! Bobby has a VERY active imagination (in other words he lies a lot) and tells his dad that the man inside was mean and attacked him!! Well, Bob Sr. (George Murphy) is mad but level-headed and goes to see what is up. Well, the new neighbor isn't very friendly...and slams the door in their faces.

Later, Bobby comes home with an adorable mutt and the kid loves the thing. However, when the pet dies, Bobby begins imagining that the neighbor poisoned the dog...and he begins telling everyone that he KNOWS this to be true. What's the sad truth? See the film.

This is a very well written slice of life film..nothing great but well done all around. Gray, though playing a brat, played him wonderfully and the film is well worth seeing. I also agree with another review where it pointed out how amazing the camera-work was in the film. It was almost film noir-like...very artsy and amazingly good for a B-movie.

"If You Ask Me, Something's Out Of Line"

[davidcarniglia · 5/10 · 16 December 2018]

This is one movie that needs its happy ending. For almost the entire time, Billy Gray's Robert Jr. plays an incipient juvenile delinquent. His clueless parents indulge him completely. Blaming Matlock (Kurt Kaszner) for his dog's death, he runs amok; even the Mayberry-like townspeople buy into his witch-hunt. When he gets caught in a lie he sulks, and then his parents apologize to him. Only destruction satisfies his rage; to the point of sabotaging the whole community by draining the last barrel of smudgepot oil.

Actually, all the kids are jerks here. Robert's bullied by other boys and has to deal with the haughty Camille (Anna Glomb). The child actors are excellent. It's almost as though they've become victims from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and refugees from The Bad Seed. It's painful to watch; Hayley Mills wouldn't have lasted a day with these kids. One thing that does emulate Pollyanna is the dilapidated Victorian, suitably occupied with an eccentric (Matlock). The first scene showing Robert and other kids pranking the house Trick or Treat-style is pretty cool. It sets up later nighttime scenes where the tables are turned on Robert.

The eerie fog conjures up some nightmarish stuff: Robert looks like he's going to be hit by a car, but it's two motorcycles that emerge and rush by on either side of him. Later, as he tries to run away from Matlock, he's engulfed in fog again; only his falling into the irrigation ditch stops this hallucinatory scene. Another interesting bit develops at the doctor's (Matlock's) former house. With the older kid, who's vaguely menacing, he explores the vacant, boarded-up place. He's a bit scared by the other boy's ghost/murder tale. We're left in the dark, so to speak. Does this mean that Matlock has killed the doctor and taken his car and his identity? I would've liked to have had this scene earlier to develop the sense of mystery.

If nothing else, a possible murder mystery would've given he townspeople more to get stirred up about than a dog-poisoning. But that raises a question: wouldn't people know that Matlock was really the doctor? Even if the doctor hadn't been around for some time, there were plenty of old folks who would've known what he looked like; especially if he showed up again. Anyway, I was glad to see the reunited happy couple, and both Matlock/the doctor and Robert finally show a better side. It's significant that Robert not only realizes he "has some serious thinking to do," but, after Matlock gives him a new puppy, he's even nice to Camille.

Hopefully Camille will have a good influence on him so he doesn't become another Rebel Without A Cause. Talk About A Stranger is entertaining; particularly when the moody atmosphere takes over. I'd just like some more mystery--either a creepier Matlock or a more dangerous (but less pesky) Robert. 5/10.

Talk about a Future Fuhrer!

[mls4182 · 7/10 · 2 August 2022]

Scapegoating brat with a persecution complex believes a a lie based on personal prejudice and nearly ruins a man's life.

Unfortunately, that's the history of the world. A good films for kids to see. It teaches about prejudice, rash assumptions, scapegoating, and people feeding off each others worst emotions.

Of course the idiot adults are as dangerous as the kid.

*

[edwagreen · 2/10 · 26 July 2015]

Totally miserable film dealing with a young boy's suspicion when his dog is found poisoned. The next door neighbor, a disagreeable, nasty and mysterious man is thought to be the killer and the boy goes out of control whenever he sees the man.

Nancy Davis, Mrs. Ronald Reagan, played his mother. Her character is outrageously benign here. Even the way she calls out to her son in the film, a mother would be so much more assertive here. As the father, George Murphy is given a poor script to work with. Owner of a fruit orchard, a sidebar theme in this dismal film regards the dropping of temperatures and its affects upon what is being grown.

Our mysterious neighbor's transition is sudden and while he becomes a sympathetic figure in the end, it's too much to digest and believe.

Well-made Billy Gray vehicle

[user1089r · 8/10 · 8 December 2007]

Surprisingly well-made and, at times, subtle and unpredictable Billy Gray vehicle released six months after the spectacular "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Billy was certainly on a roll.

Although there is a certain Bildungsroman aspect to the film, the emphasis is on plot and intelligent development. Several scenes introduced primarily to increase interest and suspense are brought off very effectively. Bradley's treatment of children is intriguing.

Photography and music are certainly above average for this era, genre, and budget.

Unfortunately, this movie does not appear to be available on DVD or video, although if you keep an eye out, you may catch it on TMC.

Interesting Story

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 8 December 2007]

Enjoyed this story concerning a family who lived in an orange growing community in California. The father was George Murphy, (Robert Fontaine Sr.) and his wife Nancy Davis, (Marge Fontaine) and they had a son Bud Fontaine,Jr. (Billy Gray) who was a bratty kid. Bud Fontaine had a little dog who followed him everywhere he went and one day this dog was found dead by poisoning and Bud immediately accused a stranger in the neighborhood of killing his pet. This man was Paul Mahler,(Kurt Kasgnar) who lived in an old dark looking house that all the children called a haunted house. Bud spreads rumors among the local town about Mr Paul Mahler killing his dog and he is advised by the police to prove what he is saying and to bring them the proof of his accusations. George Murphy moved on in life to become a United States Senator and Nancy Davis married Ronald Regan. Great little film.

Talk About a Stranger

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 8 December 2007]

A child's pet dog dies of poisoning and young Robert(Billy Gray)points the finger at a mysterious neighbor named "Matlock"(Kurt Kasznar)who lives near where the mutt was found dead. Robert pursues the truth with passion and without restraint no matter the consequences his doggedness brings..but is he correct on his presumption that Matlock committed the deed to start with? Robert didn't see Matlock actually poison the dog, but a few near run-ins with the strange, quiet man who keeps to himself, separated from the little town merely only to drop in for supplies every now and then, motivates his blinded rage for finding the truth against him making up most of this little film. Robert's father(George Murphy) is an orange farmer and when Daddy doesn't charge Matlock for supposedly killing the dog, their relationship is strained. We watch as Robert, Jr. forces his hand around town asking local newspaper publisher William Wardlaw(Lewis Stone)to print the story of Matlock's poisoning the dog. While Wardlaw won't just publish a story based on theory, he does encourage Robert the truth by asking around and fishing for clues. So Robert does, but his anger for the loss of his pet pooch might cause the young lad to make rash decisions he might soon regret.

Little film barely runs over an hour and has a simple story regarding the reasons for not storming blindly against someone without knowing all the facts just because the accused seems guilty of the crime presented. The boy is the perfect protagonist for his dangerous mission might not yield the results he built up in his little mind..yet his pursuit often causes him to make irrational decisions which could cause multiple harm to others. And, I'm pretty sure many will point out that this whole dangerous mission is over "just a mutt", but I think to a kid who grown to love it with all his heart, that this film is able to capture that. Still, when the result is shown, the child makes a decision out of hatred, and it could possibly affect the farmers trying to make a living with the frost threatening their crops, that the film comes full circle speaking it's peace(the moral lesson this story had been planning to unleash) about finger-pointing without knowing for sure if the one whose getting singled out is actually the culprit. I think this flick is much ado about nothing, but it does build up some tension considering the child's journey into possible(this is the word I'm trying to emphasize) shark-infested waters. Some fabulous photographic work by John Alton bringing a noirish look that actually heightens the suspense which might dazzle some viewers(there is a cool sequence where little Robert is returning home from a California estate that might've pointed out Matlock as a murderer and appears on the verge of being run over just to watch the headlights split under the fog pointing out a young man on a motorcycle, or the scene where it, at first appears, that Robert is being pursued by Matlock in the orange grove), but the film, in my opinion, isn't that lasting..you'll probably forget it shortly after you've watched it.

A BOY & HIS DOG...!

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 19 December 2018]

A film noir from 1952 focusing on a child's loss of a pet & the newly moved in neighbor he blames. According to Eddie Muller's Noir Alley, this film noir isn't an aberration since there was a small subset of child noir films made during this period but seeing the inconsolable boy deal w/his dog's death isn't an easy watch as most people know a pet's life has a short, determinate ticking clock. The film is gorgeously shot by noir vet John Alton accentuating the dream-like imagery of shafts of light cutting through foggy tracts of land & building structures made to look like haunting hulks. The only quip would be the happy ending which in most noirs would be a disaster, upending any feelings of angst & dread most noirs engender but here, the boy almost deserves a reprieve from the emotional onslaught & maybe we do too.

A Childhood Favorite Of MIne

[Jimmy_the_Gent4 · 7/10 · 16 January 2020]

Bud, a small town boy thinks a mysterious new neighbor killed his dog.

This is a short B film that I discovered on late night TV when I was a little kid. The fact that is told from a child's point of view is why I liked it so much and still has nostalgic feeling for me. Other 1950s films like the later "Invaders From Mars" (1953) and "Night Of The Hunter" (1955) have the same feel to it. Billy Gray ("Father Knows Best" also named Bud on that show) plays Bud and he gives an excellent performance. Kurt Kasznar (best known as the cowardly Fitzhugh on the TV show "Land Of The Giants") is well cast as the strange neighbor Matlock. Matlock is secretive and surly, plus he has a foreign accent which makes him the perfect target for suspicion in a small 1950s American town. There is a great scene in a grocery store where Bud makes the accusation that Matlock poisoned his dog, the suspicious townsfolk (character actors like Burt Mustin and Kathleen Freeman are among them) really start jumping to conclusions. All the mystery is tied up at the end, I recommend this to anyone fond of 1950s movies with good child actors and if you like short to the point B&W suspense.

Now that "pigs have wings," as the Walrus said . . .

[cricket30 · 6/10 · 16 December 2018]

. . . and the Red Commie KGB Chief can Put in anyone he wants onto the SCOTUS Bench, the time has come to talk of many OTHER things (including strangers). Some pundits have seen a repeal of Women's Suffrage as the High Court's likely next move. Others predict a return to race-based human slavery, or requiring that a minimum $100,000 bank balance be maintained by would-be voters. However, TALK ABOUT A STRANGER presents an argument in favor of eliminating the wrong-headed age threshold for America's Sacred Death Penalty. Whether "Bud" is supposed to be 12 or 15 years old, he's certainly Public Enemy #1 in Citrus City, CA. TALK ABOUT A STRANGER depicts Bud as being a compulsive vandal, at one point putting his entire town on the verge of economic collapse by sabotaging the last-ditch defensive oil supply available to save the area's cash crops. Bud's crime career also includes grand larceny, home invasion, and incitement to riot. Bud's heedless traffic incursions endanger everyone on the local roads. Teachers, parents, and police prove powerless to curb the incorrigible Bud's Reign of Terror. TALK ABOUT A STRANGER makes the case that if you don't make all the Buds marauding around us face the Ultimate Punishment (even if that means equipping "Old Sparky" with a booster seat), the age of our youngest Mad Dog Killers will plunge at an geometrical rate. Since TALK ABOUT A STRANGER's release, it's become common across America for first graders to fatally gun down their little classmates, often in school. And why not, when films such as TALK ABOUT A STRANGER teach them that kids NEVER pay for their crimes in the soft-headed USA?

No law against being a hermit, but there is a law again slander.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 13 April 2024]

Considered guilty of something simply because he doesn't much like people, Kurt Kasznar arouses the suspicions of the townsfolk particularly young neighbor Billy Gray who doesn't like him from the start. That suspicion grows when the dog that Gray has adopted is found poisoned, and in listening to the gossippy people talk about him, Gray begins to become more determined to destroy this reclusive neighbor.

This film is ironic in its casting of George Murphy and Nancy Davis (Reagan) as Gray's parents as a decade before this, Murphy played the father of Davis's future husband Ronald in "This is the Army". Davis isn't very good in this at all, showing nothing maternal in scenes with her on-screen son. Murphy's more hands on, but I wouldn't call his character the best father either, barely paying attention to his son when Gray's obviously losing it.

You'll recognize Kathleen Freeman and Burt Mustin in the minor roles, and in one of his last films, Lewis Stone is basically the town patriarch. Gray is scary as the boy who allows suspicion to cloud his judgment, and Kasznar is frightening but ultimately sympathetic, reminding me of Roberts Blossom in "Home Alone". He gives a riveting performance. Love the house he lives in too, looking like something that Charles Addams might have drawn. The biggest flaw in this film is the awkward editing, cutting out scenes before it seems like that they're done.

Not a thriller or film noir at all

[lcf02139-1 · 3/10 · 22 January 2005]

I found this film to be quite boring and the plot just plain silly. Once the boy finds his dog dead, with the expertise of a vet, he exclaims, "My dog has been poisoned!, and it was Dr. Mahler!" Even more ridiculous, his father responds, " I wouldn't put it past him!" Then they go to the mysterious Dr.'s house to confront him, only to hear his denial and leave. Definitely a kids movie to teach the morals of not "judging a book by it's cover". But if anyone

thinks this is even mildly creepy, you would never survive the Boston subway system. No wonder why the director did not direct any major film for over 8 years after this piece of silliness. Some good camera work, but it still feels like a Leaver it to Beaver episode. Watch it at your own risk.

Shows Some Dreadful Things About The 1950s

[Handlinghandel · 4/10 · 5 January 2005]

This movie is creepy. To a small degree it's creepy in the way it intends: It does seem as if Harper Lee may have seen this before writing her lovely "To Kill A Mockingbird," also about children (here just one child) wrongly suspicious of an odd neighbor.

In that novel, and the movie made of it, the children are very likable. Billy Grey is not, though possibly he was at the time. Maybe if I ha been a little boy seeing this at the time I would have identified.

The fact is, though, the boy at the center of this is very troubled, constantly near the brink of hysterics. When he is acting like a boy, he is shooting a toy gun or making gun sounds. In a time capsule, this aspect would be interesting indeed but today it is distasteful.

The original may well have had to do with the boy's worries about his mother's pregnancy. Would a new little girl (the whole thing seems very misogynistic) or little boy take away all her attention? Something, for sure, has made his kid a bundle of nerves.

Nancy Davis has a thankfully small role and so does George Murphy. Kurt Kazsner as the eponymous stranger is good, as are the supporting players.

The fifties gave us some fine music and art but a little item like this serves to remind, or show someone unfamiliar with that decade, what an unpleasant time it was, also.

Weird Scenes Inside a Boy's Mind

[wes-connors · 8/10 · 9 December 2007]

"Talk About a Stranger" is a much, much better film that you might expect. Despite the credits order, it stars Billy Gray (as Robert "Bud" Fontaine Jr.). Mr. Gray would, later, become best known as another "Bud", on the TV series "Father Knows Best". In this film, he plays a boy who adopts a stray dog, which he names "Boy"; then, he finds the dog has been poisoned. Gray suspects a mysterious new arrival in town, Kurt Kasznar (as Matlock). Mr. Kasznar acts, and looks, very much like an outsider; and, he seems to dislike "Boy", and children…

Gray does a fine job in a difficult role; he has to play the boy as both unlikeable, and likable. The character "Bud" is redeemed (or, made sympathetic) by his caring for his dead "Dog"; and, the film effectively captivates, with its plot developments. Kasznar is great, as usual; he keeps the performance from going in a direction not in tune with the film's ending. Top billed George Murphy and Nancy Davis (as parents Robert and Marge Fontaine) are ordinary; undoubtedly, they are better appreciated in other films. Later, Ms. Davis was, of course, wonderfully cast as the second Mrs. Ronald Reagan. The film's weaknesses might have been arrested by strengthening the "Fontaine" family.

The other players in "Talk About a Stranger" are terrific. Lewis Stone is at least as "fatherly" as Mr. Murphy; he plays the newspaperman (William J. Wardlaw) Gray runs to for help. Teddy Infuhr has a great little part as a boy who lives near a "Haunted House" Gray visits; watch for their scene in the "San Sala" house. The film is full of weird scenes; and, Gray's trip to "San Sala" is one. Note, also, that Gray is picked up hitchhiking by motorcycling sailor Alvy Moore, who immediately asks Gray if he has a sister! Mr. Moore will, later, become best known as "Hank Kimball" on the TV series "Green Acres". You also get to see Kathleen Freeman, Burt Mustin, and some others…

Cinematographer John Alton is the film's most valuable player. Mr. Alton, David Bradley (director), Cedric Gibbons (art director), and Eddie Imazu (art director) make "Talk About a Stranger" a great looking film. For this, and its cast, "Talk About a Stranger" is well worth watching.

******** Talk About a Stranger (1952) David Bradley ~ Billy Gray, Kurt Kasznar, Lewis Stone

A must-see movie!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 9 December 2017]

For one horrible moment it looks as if Mason is going to play the whole film in an ill-becoming naval beard. Fortunately he gets the sack early on and is able to shave it off.

As you know I operate on the principle that any film with Herbert Lomas is an entertaining one. Good old Lomas has a typically spooky informative role here, even if but a brief one. And as for finding my favorite comic detective/spy chaser Tom Walls on the wrong side of the law for once, it's a pleasure...

If this comedy-thriller is a bit shy in the laughs department — despite (or maybe because of) its hard-working heroine — it certainly delivers the thrills. Three or four scenes (a rendezvous with a corpse in a spooky house; attempted murder on a speeding train; Chesney playing the secret code) are staged with all the flair and panache of the master himself. In fact, when you come right down to it, the script has quite a few echoes of The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Number 17, and Young and Innocent.

The Director: A refugee from Hitler's Germany who served in the Royal Air Force during the war, Lamac has an extraordinarily large number of distinguished European films to his credit including The Bat, Little Dorrit, White Horse Inn, Hound of the Baskervilles and The Ghost Train.