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Watch free: full movie The Stranger 1946
Prefer it restored and in HD? Rent or buy it
A war crimes investigator, played by Edward G. Robinson, lets a captured Nazi go free in the hope that he will lead him to his former commander. The trail ends in a sleepy Connecticut town, where a respected new schoolteacher, played by Orson Welles, is about to marry the judge's daughter. Welles directed it straight after the war and filled it with shadows, a creepy clock tower and real newsreel footage of the camps, among the first shown in a Hollywood film. It was his biggest hit as a director in his own lifetime, and the cat-and-mouse ending is pure suspense.
Watch it if you like post-war thrillers, Orson Welles, or Hitchcock-style suspense.
Why is it free?
Its US copyright lapsed: US law at the time required a copyright notice on release and a renewal after 28 years, and the owners didn't keep it up, so it entered the public domain.
Copied from the Internet Archive, a non-profit library. Verified 2026-11-01 and re-verified every week. Rights enquiries: hello@movietrailer.channel.
The Stranger: your questions
How long is The Stranger?
1h 35m: a standard movie-night length.
Is it legal to watch The Stranger free?
Yes, in the United States. Its US copyright lapsed: US law at the time required a copyright notice on release and a renewal after 28 years, and the owners didn't keep it up, so it entered the public domain. We only play it to US visitors because copyright rules differ between countries, and we show the plain original, never a restored or re-scored version.
Where can I stream The Stranger?
Right here, free, if you're in the US (player above). For a sharper restored copy, rent or buy it on Prime Video or Blu-ray.
- Released
- 1946
- Runtime
- 1h 35m
- Directed by
- Orson Welles
- Starring
- Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Orson Welles
- Genre
- Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
- Sound
- Original soundtrack
- Subtitles
- English (auto-generated)
