Talk About a Stranger

"Talk About a Stranger" is a much, much better film that you might expect. Despite the credits order, it stars Billy Gray (as Robert "Bud" Fontaine Jr.). Mr. Gray would, later, become best known as another "Bud", on the TV series "Father Knows Best". In this film, he plays a boy who adopts a stray dog, which he names "Boy"; then, he finds the dog has been poisoned. Gray suspects a mysterious new arrival in town, Kurt Kasznar (as Matlock). Mr. Kasznar acts, and looks, very much like an outsider; and, he seems to dislike "Boy", and children…

Gray does a fine job in a difficult role; he has to play the boy as both unlikeable, and likable. The character "Bud" is redeemed (or, made sympathetic) by his caring for his dead "Dog"; and, the film effectively captivates, with its plot developments. Kasznar is great, as usual; he keeps the performance from going in a direction not in tune with the film's ending. Top billed George Murphy and Nancy Davis (as parents Robert and Marge Fontaine) are ordinary; undoubtedly, they are better appreciated in other films. Later, Ms. Davis was, of course, wonderfully cast as the second Mrs. Ronald Reagan. The film's weaknesses might have been arrested by strengthening the "Fontaine" family.

The other players in "Talk About a Stranger" are terrific. Lewis Stone is at least as "fatherly" as Mr. Murphy; he plays the newspaperman (William J. Wardlaw) Gray runs to for help. Teddy Infuhr has a great little part as a boy who lives near a "Haunted House" Gray visits; watch for their scene in the "San Sala" house. The film is full of weird scenes; and, Gray's trip to "San Sala" is one. Note, also, that Gray is picked up hitchhiking by motorcycling sailor Alvy Moore, who immediately asks Gray if he has a sister! Mr. Moore will, later, become best known as "Hank Kimball" on the TV series "Green Acres". You also get to see Kathleen Freeman, Burt Mustin, and some others…

Cinematographer John Alton is the film's most valuable player. Mr. Alton, David Bradley (director), Cedric Gibbons (art director), and Eddie Imazu (art director) make "Talk About a Stranger" a great looking film. For this, and its cast, "Talk About a Stranger" is well worth watching.

******** Talk About a Stranger (1952) David Bradley ~ Billy Gray, Kurt Kasznar, Lewis Stone

An old dark house in a California orange-growing community gains a mysterious tenant, and, scared on Halloween, the kids take an instant dislike to him. When the mutt belonging to one of them, Bud (Billy Gray), is later found poisoned, Bud fixes on the strange neighbor as its killer. With a November freeze threatening the crop, already restive townsfolk start to gossip, egged on by the implacable Bud. His parents, George Murphy and Nancy (Reagan) Davis -- both actors to become major forces in California and national politics in the next decade -- find him careening out of control. The story starts out as a fairly routine thriller based on a courageous (for its time) caution against McCarthyist hysteria. But then it turns into something more complex and memorable. When Bud sets off to find incriminating evidence, the tone and the images grow more gothic and evocative. John Alton's superb cinematography conjures up masterful effects from the smoke rising from the smudge-pots, the twisted branches and dark foliage, and the beclouded moonlight. (There's much in this movie that steals the thunder from Charles Laughton's solo masterpiece, the 1955 Night of the Hunter). The script deserves credit, too, for resolutely retaining the young adolescent's point of view while never stooping to condescend.

A boy and his dog, let no man stand between them. It may not sound as common as the phrase "a man and his woman, let no man stand between them", but a boy and his dog always tugs at the filmgoers heart strings. The young boy Robert Fontaine Jr. is a single boy about 12 years old who lives on his parents farm whose dad is tending 24 hours a day to the families orange fields.

When Robert finds a stray dog his parents allow him to keep the cute dog and they quickly become inseparable. Shortly after the dog named "boy" is taken into the Fontaine family home the young Robert Jr. finds his dog dead in the pathway that leads between his parents farm and the strange next door neighbors home, a man called Matlock.

Quickly Robert Jr. comes to no other conclusion than his reclusive next door neighbor Mr. Matlock must have deliberately killed his dog so Robert Jr. reports his dog's murder to the local police station and when they don't take him seriosuly he decides to prove that Mr. Matlock killed his beloved dog named boy himself.

I think most reasonable people can remember more than one past incident in their own lives when they prematurely jumped to an incorrect conclusion about a friend or family member by blaming them for something that eventually was proven that their friend or family member were innocent of.

Although classified as a film noir I think the film Talk About A Stranger is more an educational film for both the young and old by reminding us that all things that appear in front of our naked eyes are not always how they appear to be.

I give it a 6 out of 10 rating

Rather surprising that the director here, David Bradley, would go on to make some notoriously awful films. There isn't quite enough to the story and the ending is a timid disappointment, but the film boasts some unusually powerful, even unforgettable imagery. The kind that, if you see this movie as a child, will probably stick with you for a lifetime.

Bradley does a wonderful job conveying a sense of how alien and intimidating the world must look through the eyes of a ten year old, especially when that ten year old ventures outside the safe, protected space that is his every day environment. (An environment that seems relatively harmless during the day but hostile and terrifying at night.)

What images. The boy's head framed against the backdrop of the huge, sinister house next door where the mysterious, ill-tempered man resides. The boy sprinting through a fog-enshrouded orchard toward a raised, judgmental camera. Hitch-hiking on the side of a lonely highway as headlights bear down. A motorcyclist appearing like a ghost. Getting a ride through the dark in the cold night air, the biker's affable ramblings distant, dream-like. A mesmerizing montage of the boy watching his dedicated dad scrambling to heat his orchards on a night when the temperature drops below freezing, lighting flame after flame after flame. A subtle, unsettling sequence set in an abandoned home on the ocean where a creepy older boy scares the living daylights out of him.

"Father Knows Best" brat Billy Gray plays the lonely boy and he is an odd, atypically intense child actor. At times he is effective, at others he is simply obnoxious. He is one moody little actor in a moody little film. He would probably even unnerve that red-headed demon from those unfortunate "Problem Child" movies. Nobody else in the cast makes much of an impression, though everyone is adequate. George Murphy is the decent dad. Nancy Davis (actually not a bad actress at all) is hardly on screen and when she is she's playing the least pregnant looking pregnant lady you'll ever see. Kurt Kasznar is the strange neighbor, though he's not as ghoulish or ghastly looking as you're supposed to think he is. The child actress who plays Gray's nemesis/sweetheart, a girl named Anna Glomb, looks remarkably like Denise Richards must have looked like at the same age.

A not-so-distant cousin of "To Kill A Mockingbird". Bradley was clearly a uniquely gifted film-maker, though this may be the only evidence of that talent. What happened?

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Billy Gray played a horrible little boy in several movies--most notably the Doris Day films "On Moonlight Bay" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon". This sort of character was quite a bit different from 'Bud' on "Father Knows Best". Here, Gray is up to his typical sort of character of the day...all boy...and all BAD boy!

The film begins with Bobby (Gray) and his friends tossing rocks through the windows of a supposedly abandoned house. Imagine their surprise when they see it's NOT abandoned! Bobby has a VERY active imagination (in other words he lies a lot) and tells his dad that the man inside was mean and attacked him!! Well, Bob Sr. (George Murphy) is mad but level-headed and goes to see what is up. Well, the new neighbor isn't very friendly...and slams the door in their faces.

Later, Bobby comes home with an adorable mutt and the kid loves the thing. However, when the pet dies, Bobby begins imagining that the neighbor poisoned the dog...and he begins telling everyone that he KNOWS this to be true. What's the sad truth? See the film.

This is a very well written slice of life film..nothing great but well done all around. Gray, though playing a brat, played him wonderfully and the film is well worth seeing. I also agree with another review where it pointed out how amazing the camera-work was in the film. It was almost film noir-like...very artsy and amazingly good for a B-movie.