The Stranger is a compelling movie which holds up well after 70 years, and while not noted on anyone’s list of 100 best films, should not be overlooked.

Years ago when Joe co-authored a biography of Loretta Young he interviewed Tom Lewis, Young’s former husband. They had been married in 1940 and had two young sons, and Loretta had promised to give up her career to raise their children.

But the war had intervened and after the war Loretta and Tom agreed that if she were to continue working it must be with a goal. To make better films, and shoot for critical acclaim (think Oscar). She signed with International Pictures, and made Along Came Jones opposite Gary Cooper, which Cooper produced. It was several notches above the programmers she’d been making.

Then Loretta was cast in The Stranger, to be produced by the infamous S.P. Eagle (Sam Spiegel). There was much discussion as to who would direct. Spiegel wanted John Huston, but he was in the Army.

It was decided to give Orson Welles (pictured above with Loretta) a chance to prove he could direct AND stay within budget and on schedule. Contract negotiations had been fierce but were eventually ironed out. Welles was given some creative control, but though he wanted to cast Agnes Moorehead as the agent hunting Nazi war criminal, Franz Kindler, the studio insisted on Edward G. Robinson.

Orson would portray Kindler himself. Elaborate sets were constructed to re-create a small town in Connecticut. And production began. Loretta (and Tom) considered it a step in the right direction for her career. They both admired Welles’ previous work.

Welles told a story about Young’s support in a dispute with Spiegel.  The producer wanted a closeup of Loretta when Welles wanted a medium-full shot when her character is fighting with Kindler.

Orson told Loretta a close up would be “fatal” and she declared, “Well then, we’re not going to make it.”  Spiegel insisted on the closeup so Loretta called in her agent. Years later Welles loved saying, “Imagine getting a star’s agent in to ensure that she wouldn’t get a closeup!”

In Joe’s opinion The Stranger is Young’s best performance, and probably why she won the Oscar a year later for a rather standard turn in The Farmer’s Daughter.

Tomorrow Frank will analyze The Stranger from the perspective of Welles’ career.

He had one of the longest careers in Hollywood, starting as a male lead in the 1930s, segueing to roles in B pictures, re-emerging as a leading man again in the 1940s and eventually becoming one of the biggest stars on television with 2 hit series.

Talk about roller-coaster resumes.  Young started out in movies in the early Thirties under the aegis of MGM, the studio which more or less nourished his fledgling career.  That worked out pretty well, with Young costarring with some of MGM most glamorous costars.

Then a partial fade-out to independent films, some of which are better than what MGM had offered.

By the late Forties, Young’s career as a leading man was in eclipse, rescued by a radio version of what became his signature tv series, Father Knows Best. In the late Sixties and Seventies came another smash series, with Young as paternalistic Marcus Welby, M.D.

Young is most recalled today for those two tube series, despite a feature film dossier that stands up today.  And he was the personification of the Hollywood adage that actors are NOT in private what they appear to be onscreen.

Ok, let’s see how much you know about Robert Young.  As usual, questions today and answers tomorrow.  Here we go:

1) Question: Not many realize that during his years at MGM, Young costarred in a leading role in one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best British-made thrillers.  Which one? a) Blackmail; b) The Man Who Knew Too Much; c) Lord Camber’s Ladies; or d) Secret Agent.

2) Question:  Although the image of cheery paternalism on television, Young battled depression and alcoholism, and at least once tried to kill himself. a) True; or b) False?

3) Question: Which of the following leading ladies did Young NOT costar with?  a) Katharine Hepburn; b) Hedy Lamarr; c) Luise Rainer; or d) Helen Twelvetrees.

4) Question:  Which of the following provided Young crucial acting support on his hit tv series, Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby, M.D.? a) Red Buttons; b) Jane Wyatt; c) James Brolin; or d) Barbara Payton.

5) Question: Young always nurtured a bit of an inferiority complex when it came to the leading roles he played.  Why? a) He often felt he was only offered roles after the likes of Robert Montgomery turned them down; b) He really was an inferior actor; c) Young was continually underpaid; or d) none of the above.

Did you know the girl who starred opposite Marlon Brando? She had also been in a film with James Dean and one with Steve McQueen.

Here’s another look at her. In a more glamorous pose.

Our mystery actress is — Mary Murphy.

Doesn’t ring a bell?  Who can blame you.

Although she is credited with nearly 70 roles over the course of a largely anonymous career (mostly on tv), she may well be classic Hollywood’s most famous “one-note” actress. Murphy said she never set out to be a movie star, and she amply fulfilled her professional expectations.

She made just one movie with Brando, just one.  It is 1953′s The Wild One, a somewhat dated lookback at how nasty motorcyclists go about take over a tiny town and abuse its residents. Murphy’s father is the weak-kneed sheriff who also runs the local cafe-confectionery. There is it pictured with Mary (above).

As ‘Kathie Bleeker,” the daughter of small town sheriff who quickly loses control of what’s left of his town’s law and order, Murphy is model gorgeous. A most welcome find in a picture pretty much stinks up the place today although Brando’s magnetic performance as lead motorcyclist rebel, Johnny, is memorable today as is the opening, over-the-titles sequence (check it out and you’ll see what we mean).

For her part, Murphy gets to be swept away by the noisily iconoclastic Brando, exclaiming such lines as “Why do you hate everybody?”  Just for the hellevit, responds Brando.  The Wild One is NOT a great movie.

Murphy appeared with James Dean in the 1952 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy, Sailor Beware.  Both had tiny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bits in a movie made three years before East of Eden, Dean’s first of the three films that made him a Hollywood star. The Martin-Lewis comedy had no similar effect on Murphy’s career.

With McQueen, Murphy had a more substantial part in director Sam Peckinpah’s 1972 rodeo fairy-tale, Junior Bonner. She plays Ruth Bonner. The movie is a good one, sparked by strong supporting performances from Robert Preston and Ida Lupino.  Well worth another look.

But to this day, Murphy — who was born in 1931, and died in 2011 at age 81 — is remembered almost exclusively for her”good girl” turn opposite “bad boy” Brando in The Wild One. 

Was, as Frank theorized yesterday, James Mason artistically — and commercially — most valuable British import to Hollywood in movie history (aside from Cary Grant, Chaplin and Laurence Olivier)?

This was in our email box this morning, from Hollywood veteran and regular reader Graham Hill: Frank could well be right about James Mason… Although he was never a star the likes of Chaplin, Olivier or Grant …

Yes, he never quite achieved front ranked stardom of the trio mentioned above. But Mason rarely if ever gave a dull performance despite the fact that he was an exceptionally hard worker  – more than 150 credits over a career lasting a half century.

And while some of that work was of questionable quality, much was supervised by the last century’s most demanding directors.

Hollywood was not unappreciative.  Mason was Oscar nominated twice in the best supporting actor category for 1966′s Georgy Girl and for 1982′s The Verdict. Then there was his best actor nomination for George Cukor’s 1954 classic A Star Is Born, costarring Judy Garland.  (There Mason is above drunkenly abusing Garland in the movie.)

Ok, let’s get the answers to our James Mason Quiz.  As usual, to review the questions, just scroll down to the blog below.  Here we go:

1) Answer:  d) None of the above. As indicated in today’s introduction, Mason was nominated for three titles, but never won an Oscar.

2) Answer:  As far as we know, Mason never worked with German-born Fritz Lang. With Sidney Lumet, he made 1966′s spy thriller, The Deadly Affair; with John Huston, Mason made the 1973 Cold War thriller, The Mackintosh Man; and with Alfred Hitchcock, Mason played the very nasty villain in 1959′s North By Northwest. 

3) Answer:  b) False. Mason believed that The Star Is Born with Garland was inferior to the 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, which he felt was better as drama.  The musical portions of the George Cukor edition detracted from the whole, Mason believed. (We strongly disagree.)

4) Answer: a) True.  Even though in his Fifties, Mason was pitched the 007 role as James Bond before Sean Connery nailed the part.  Mason was also considered for the role in a 1959 tv edition, which eventually went to fellow British import, Michael Rennie.

5) Answer:  Sorry, this is a trick question.  Mason admired each. All choices apply. He obviously had catholic tastes.