The Incredible Stranger

A man moves into a small town in the 1890s. He speaks to no one, communicating by occasional note. It is directed by Jacques Tourneur as 'Jack' Tourneur, one of the last shorts he directed before turning full-time to features.

John Nesbitt's long-running MGM series, THE PASSING PARADE, usually showed audiences reenactments of true events, or educated them about some small point overlooked by many. Many of the events were fictionalized, but I cannot recall seeing another which admits that it was all fiction, although based on 'scientifically proven psychology.'

It is, alas, one of the weakest of this interesting series, based upon the hysteria Nesbitt shows, from the short's title to the people who prepare to lynch Paul Guilefoyle.

Incredible Stranger, The (1942)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Part of MGM's Passing Parade shorts, this film takes place in the late 1880's when a stranger arrives at a small town. Previously the stranger had a house built and is constantly ordering stuff for four even though he is the only one living there. The people in town want to know what's going on but it takes five years for the secret to get out. This was always one of the better short series produced by MGM and this here is one of the better episodes. Tourneur was on the break of becoming a big time director but you really can't see any of his trademark style here, even though he still creates a very good movie. The entire film is done with narration so there's no spoken dialogue but this trick is actually good for the movie. The secret of the man is rather obvious but it's still nice when it's revealed.

Despite the renowned Jacques Tourneur directing this short, it was a huge disappointment to me. This is because the style of the story was very stilted and it was told in the worst possible fashion. In other words, instead of showing the story unfold normally, the entire production is narrated....giving the viewer a strangely disconnected view of events.

The story itself is about an unusual man who arrives in town. He doesn't talk at all and seems pretty rude. He also has bought outfits of clothes for a woman and two children...but there are none living with him. Soon, the folks in this small town begin wondering and putting two and two together....and coming up with 7. What really is going on here?

Again, if the story was just told in a normal fashion, it would have been far more engagin. Instead, it's like watching a silent movie with someone narrating EVERYTHING. Pretty dull as a result.

This was a pretty interesting short from John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series. The series was supposed to be from true stories inspired by clippings John Nesbitt found in his late father's trunk, but in this case, there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the short saying that Nesbitt's stories are not actually true descriptions of real events or people. Did he get in some kind of trouble over a previous short that was disproved? I'll get back to my theories on that later.

The director is Jacques Tourneur, now famous for the Val Lewton horror films he directed over at RKO, but here he is billed as "Jack" not "Jacques". In old Hollywood people would often hide their foreign roots via their names, and I guess this is an example.

The story is a bit macabre though and right up Tourneur's alley. In the 1890's a man writes to a small town and asks that a four bedroom house be built, and remits the detailed specifications and the funds. After the house is complete he moves into it alone. He never talks to anyone nor does he let anyone inside. He also orders clothes for a woman, a female child, and a male child, yet there is nobody living in his house but himself. Naturally the townspeople are very suspicious of this fellow. One night, passers by see the doctor's carriage pull up to the man's house. Later, the horse pulling the doctor's carriage goes back to the doctor's house by habit - without the doctor. The townspeople storm the house just sure that the odd stranger has murdered the doctor. What do they find inside? Watch and find out.

Back to why there was a disclaimer on the short - my own suppositions. The short Nesbitt made before this was about a British woman whom Nesbitt actually called by name - Catherine Starr. When her fiancée is killed in battle in 1901 she develops a fear of people as a result of the shock that causes her to not leave her house for almost 40 years. She only does so when Germany's bombs force her out. I wondered how the British - at the time our allies and in the fight of their lives - would feel about one of their own being portrayed as a lifelong coward only set in motion by extreme events, and perhaps they didn't like it so much and complained to MGM. If the story turned out to be fabricated, it might well have caused such disclaimers on future shorts that weren't about actual historical figures. I can't find anything on any scandal involving the truthfulness of John Nesbitt, so I guess the sudden disclaimer will remain a mystery.

This is a well done, 11 minute short. It does not take place in the 1880's as the previous reviewer wrote-but from summer 1892 when a stranger buys land in the little town and has a home built, completed in December 1892 when the stranger comes into town and moves in. The stranger keeps to himself for the next 5 years though. He does not seem to want to mingle with anyone else in town. The stranger is quite and keeps to himself. Why does the stranger remain so withdrawn? Why has he never invited anyone into his home? This mysterious man receives women's clothes from the City, but does not comment on what they're for when questioned, instead just giving the local folks a hand written note thanking them for a cake they brought him when he first arrived in town. He is a mystery-which is solved on Christmas eve 1897.