A full holiday, in my book, involves a hike or a walk in Colorado’s morning sunshine, an afternoon crammed with food, family and friends, and movies flooding the living room at night, as the uncles doze off their turkey trance and the cousins argue over Monopoly.
If you find yourself with an alert teenager ready to watch some movies on the couch late on a holiday eve, why not throw some classic film noir into the mix? You’ve seen “Jurassic Park,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Shawshank Redemption” often enough, and so have they. Film noir from the 1940s is an artistic study in the masterful uses of lighting and blocking — anyone in your family interested in photography or the graphic arts might actually pay attention.
“The Stranger” from 1946 is a tense Orson Welles project combining detective noir with the geopolitical strains of the immediate time period. Edward G. Robinson plays a good guy for once, a postwar Nazi-hunter following a nervous German flunky to a small town in New England. Robinson is after bigger bait: He’s convinced a shadowy Nazi bigwig has settled anonymously in the town, and he’s determined to uncover the heinous criminal.
Like Hitchcock’s brilliant “Shadow of a Doubt,” Welles exploits the possibilities and contradictions of life in small-town America as a backdrop for his web of suspicion. In their telling, these townsfolk are eager to help but quick to gossip, protective of their own yet eager for justice. Throughout, Welles uses drawn shades, clock towers and sideways glances to heighten the drama.
If not “The Stranger,” keep an eye out for other noir classics like “The Maltese Falcon,” “Laura” or “Touch of Evil.” They can provide a chilling antidote to great “happy” holiday movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“The Stranger”
Rated: “Approved” under an old ratings system, mostly PG for minor violence, emotional content and discussions of war guilt and murder.
Best suited for: Teenagers ready to see how classic black and white looks on the big HD screen.
