Re-release poster for the film, “The Stranger” (1946)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 54.000 inches (137.16 cm) | Width: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm)
Creator(s)
- Universal-International (Production Company)
- RKO Radio Pictures (Distributor)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
- Independent Releasing Corp. (Distributor)
Biographical History
The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
Scope and Content
Poster for the film, “The Stranger,” released by RKO Radio Pictures in the summer of 1946, and re-released in the United States by Independent Releasing Corporation in 1953. “The Stranger” tells the story of Mr. Wilson, an American member of the War Crimes Commission, who is searching for Franz Kindler, a dangerous and elusive Nazi. Wilson releases an old associate of Kindler, hoping he will inadvertently lead him to his quarry. He follows him through Latin America to New England, and discovers that Kindler is living under a false identity and has married the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice. Writer Victor Trivas received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story. Directed by and starring Orson Welles, the film was a detective thriller, rather than a Holocaust film. It was emblematic of a post-war shift from portraying victimization at the hands of the Nazis to more familiar narrative frameworks. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Poster printed on a rectangular sheet of off-white paper, with wide margins on the sides and narrow margins on the top and bottom. The top half of the poster is filled with a sepia-toned illustration of two men and a woman, depicted from the shoulders up, over a black-shaded background. Directly below the illustration are the names of the three principal actors, printed in large, red text. Below is the film title in a white, script font, and additional film credits printed in red. The poster is creased into 16 sections, with small tears and losses along the creases and edges. There are pinholes in each corner. Depicted: Edward G. Robinson as Mr. Wilson, Loretta Young as Mary Longstreet, Orson Welles as Professor Charles Rankin
People
- Welles, Orson, 1915-1985.
- Robinson, Edward G., 1893-1973.
- Trivas, Victor, 1896?-1970.
- Young, Loretta, 1913-2000.
Subjects
- United States.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
- Thrillers (Motion pictures)
- Anti-Nazi movement in motion pictures.
- Emigration and immigration in motion pictures.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Women in motion pictures.
- Imprisonment in motion pictures.
- War criminals--Fiction.
Genre
- Posters
- Object
- Posters.