Directed by Joseph Losey.
Of all the blacklisted exiles’ European films, The Intimate Stranger provides the most direct allegory of their experience. Richard Basehart plays Reggie Wilson, a Hollywood director now working in England on account of an undisclosed scandal. Howard Koch’s (as Peter Howard) screenplay abounds in noir tropes that resonate with the insecurities caused by blacklist and exile: Reggie is haunted by his past, is threatened by an informer, and blackmailed by a femme fatale. Director Joseph Losey’s noir visuals add to the sense of entrapment.
Anglo-Guild Productions. Producer: Alec C. Snowden. Screenwriter: Howard Koch. Cinematographer: Gerald Gibbs. Editor: Geoffrey Muller. Cast: Richard Basehart, Mary Murphy, Constance Cummings, Roger Livesey, Faith Brook.
35mm, b/w, 95 min.
