“Orson Welles’s 1946 film reproduces his personal themes of self-scrutiny and self-destruction only in outline, though it is an inventive, highly enjoyable thriller.”
Immediately following World War II, ex-Nazi Franz Kindler (Orson Welles) is in hiding under a false identity as a teacher in the small town of Harper, Connecticut. But when one of Kindler's old German associates (Konstantin Shayne) arrives unexpectedly in town, bringing in his wake a sly federal investigator (Edward G. Robinson), Kindler resorts to desperate measures to preserve his secret. After the behind-the-scenes headaches of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Welles’ third feature film was his conscious attempt to prove to the studios that he was capable of making a bona fide genre pic. The result is a thoroughly entertaining noirish thriller which boasts brilliantly memorable performances and more than a few of Welles’ trademark flashes of cinematic genius.
