Flying under the radar are reports that a major restoration of Orson Welles’ post-war thriller The Stranger is currently underway.
Wellesnetter Roger Ryan alerted us to notes accompanying the recent My Name is Orson Welles exhibition in Paris. Frédéric Bonnaud, director general of the French cinematheque, revealed that “restoration work is currently underway on Orson Welles’s The Stranger by la Cinémathèque française in collaboration with the Library of Congress, using the négatifs originaux (original negatives).” The work is being carried out by the Stockholm-based TransPerfect Media.
Kino Classics remastered the 1946 film for high definition Blu-ray in 2013 using an original 35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress. It would be amazing if the original negative has surfaced eight decades after the film’s release
In a conversation with TransPerfect Media managing director Benjamin Alimi during the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025, Hervé Pichard, head of Restoration at la Cinémathèque française, casually mentioned their joint plans for The Stranger. La Cinémathèque française and TransPerfect previously teamed up on a well-received restoration of F for Fake.
Set immediately after World War II, The Stranger stars Welles as Nazi fugitive Franz Kindler, who is masquerading as a teacher in a small Connecticut town. Kindler marries a Supreme Court justice’s daughter (Loretta Young), but he is in danger of being exposed with the arrival of a war crimes investigator (Edward G. Robinson).
The movie was initially intended for director John Huston, who became unavailable. As a result, Welles was given the chance to direct his first feature film since his ouster from RKO Pictures after The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942.
Welles often downplayed the The Stranger as one of his lesser works, saying said he took on the movie“to show people that I didn’t glow in the dark, you know. That I could say ‘action’ and ‘cut’ just like all the other fellas.”
But personal politics may have made the project appealing.
The Stranger was the first Hollywood feature to include documentary footage of the Holocaust. In political columns published before The Stranger‘s release, Welles wrote that the concentration camp footage must be seen by the general public and expressed concern that fascism would rear its head in Germany again.
Russell Metty was the cinematographer on The Stranger. He would reteam with Welles on Touch of Evil in 1958 and win the Oscar for Spartacus two years after that. Citizen Kane associate art director Perry Ferguson was tapped to be the production designer for The Stranger.
Welles delivered The Stranger to International Pictures under budget and a day ahead of schedule. It cost slightly more than $1 million to make and grossed $3.2 million during its initial release. It was the most commercially successful Welles-directed movie during its initial box office run.
Despite its commercial success, International Pictures reneged on a promised four-picture deal, and Welles returned to the stage for the musical Around the World, before directing The Lady from Shanghai for Columbia Pictures in 1947. (Welles took on The Lady from Shanghai in order to obtain much-needed funds to stage the Cole Porter musical Around the World.)
The Stranger lapsed into public domain and numerous labels have released it on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray over the years.
Though many Wellesians have been dismissive of The Stranger — partly due to Welles’ own take on the movie — it received mostly favorable reviews upon its release.
Variety described it as “a socko melodrama, spinning an intriguing web of thrills and chills.”
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