JRand54, I watched THE STRANGER tonight. While it has many interesting, outre, and frenzied moments. It seems to be a movie of isolated scenes and off-kilter performances which never quite hang together as a whole.
It seems especially stinted in logical motivation and connective tissue. A tad disjointed. We never see any reason why Loretta Young would be in love with Orson Welles who's telegraphing his villainy from the get-go. And the doctor character who appears without introduction and has some interesting scenes seems like he should be a jilted love interest who's part got cut to the bone.
The most bizarrely wonderful performance is Billy House as Potter the checker-playing (and cheating) proprietor of the cafe/grocery.
While I'm glad I saw it, I was ultimately disappointed. It did not live up to the memory of the last half hour I had seen previously and the expectation I had for the first half.