Over at Criminal Element I have a new installment up in my series on the centennial of Orson Welles. This time around I'm talking about THE STRANGER, which is widely acknowledged as one of Welles's failed films. Welles himself treated the film like an unloved child because it was the one that he "did for the studios." It was the one time he tried to make a Hollywood film in a way that would impress the studios. The funny thing, of course, is that the film is entertaining from beginning to end. I never tire of watching it. So if it is a failure, then we have to say it's a failure that only Orson Welles could have made. Which, I suppose, is another way of saying that it's a failed experiment which shows us exactly why Welles was never a good fit for the Hollywood system.
Click here to read my piece on THE STRANGER.
