Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Stranger on the Prowl Blu-ray Movie Review

Joseph Losey, neorealist?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 31, 2014

Joseph Losey was actually relatively sanguine about having been blacklisted just when his film directing career was set to shoot into the stratosphere. Late in his life he expressed no regret, averring that had he not been blacklisted he no doubt would have been a millionaire many times over, but one without a soul. Losey was a self made exile for the vast bulk of his directing career, choosing to emigrate to Europe rather than face the hostile intrusions of the House Un- American Activities Committee. Interestingly, his proto-neorealist film Stranger on the Prowl (released in Italy as Imbarco a mezzanotte) was not made during his long period in England, but instead during a relatively brief stint in Italy, where Losey had gone to escape an impending HUAC subpoena. Losey actually returned to the United States after this film was released, only to find out his career in his native land was completely dead. Stranger on the Prowl traffics in a lot of the same cinematic vocabulary of better known neorealists like Roberto Rossellini or Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti. Like the best known works in this genre, Stranger on the Prowl depicts the travails of a poor vagrant stumbling through the ruins of post-World War II Italy, a landscape that in its destitute, bombed out state seems to echo a similar “geography” of the focal character’s psyche. Stranger on the Prowl also utilizes a trope that informed one of the best known neorealist films, De Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves, by pairing an older man with a younger child. However, despite a surface similarity to many iconic neorealist outings, Stranger on the Prowl never quite works up the emotional heft of some of its genre siblings. The film is notable for having provided the inestimable Paul Muni with a very rare appearance during this era, and it’s certainly never less than entertaining, but Stranger on the Prowl utilizes a few too many plot devices for its own good and ultimately seems a bit too contrived to warrant the “realism” label in neorealism.

Underneath the credits, a scuffle of some sort breaks out, though it’s not initially clear what’s going on. Paul Muni’s character is credited only as “The Man” (some online sources list the characters as The Stranger With a Gun—more about that in a moment). The Man, it soon becomes apparent, had been attempting to stowaway on an outbound ship when he was caught by some of the crew. When thrust before the ship’s Captain, The Man begs to be allowed to stay on the journey, and that he will pay for the privilege. A bit of tense negotiating ensues, with a cost of 25,000 lira finally being arrived at. The Man sets off to try to come up with that impossible sum before the boat leaves at midnight.

It turns out that The Man has one valuable asset—a gun (hence that other moniker for the character). As he wanders through a still war torn Italian countryside, he attempts to find someone who will purchase the pistol for enough money to get him his passage on the outbound ship. The Man meets with failure virtually everywhere he goes, and Muni’s large, doleful eyes (which Losey and his cinematographers Henri Alekan and Antonio Fiore repeatedly isolate with lighting effects) seem to convey that The Man is used to this kind of disappointment in life.

Meanwhile we’re introduced to an adorable young waif named Giacomo (Vittorio Manunta), a doe-eyed boy who plays (sometimes a bit roughly) with his friends amid the rubble, but whose fondest dream is to attend the carnival that’s in town. Giacomo’s mother (Luisa Rossi) is obviously an overworked and overstressed woman, one who does laundry for a variety of clients but who is barely able to scrape together enough cash to feed her children, let alone buy them tickets to a meaningless entertainment like a circus.

The final character in this story which ends up interweaving most of its threads together is Angela (Joan Lorring), a maid in an actually pretty well to do environment, though her physical comfort can’t disguise the fact that she feels isolated and afraid. When The Man’s continuing efforts to unload his pistol finally end in tragedy, a calamity that tangentially involves Giacomo, both the elderly vagrant and the young boy band together to go on the lam, a decision which ultimately brings them into contact with Angela, one of Giacomo’s mother’s clients.

Stranger on the Prowl is best when it details the sweetly affectionate bond that gorws between The Man and Giacomo. We get a little of The Man’s back story, something that at least helps to illuminate his character to Giacomo, if not to provide any really salient answers as to what exactly has gone so wrong for The Man for so long. The film however undercuts its authenticity with its reliance on a melodramatic plot device (the aforementioned crisis), as well as a few too many convenient coincidences as things tumble along to the predictable denouement.

Losey captures a lot of what made neorealism such an exciting force during this era of film, and a lot of what helps Stranger on the Prowl work—when it does work—is its gritty locations. It’s easier to believe in the plight of these downtrodden people when you’re confronted by their squalid living conditions, and the film also utilizes a lot of native villagers in bit parts, something which further aids the verisimilitude. There’s absolutely no denying that, despite its faults, Stranger on the Prowl offers a showcase both for Muni, who was almost inexplicably (and criminally) underutilized at this stage of his life, as well as for little Manunta, certainly one of the most adorable tots to populate early fifties’ films.

Stranger on the Prowl Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stranger on the Prowl is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is one of the more problematic catalog titles we've seen from Olive, one which is hampered by elements in pretty badly damaged shape some of the time. Along with quite a few (at times rather large) scratches, flecks, dirt and the like, the elements used for this transfer also suffer from frame misalignment and even a missing frame or two. There are inconsistencies in both contrast and sharpness as well. When the film looks good—which it does at least some of the time— it looks quite good, with nicely deep blacks and decently modulated gray scale, as well as some well above average fine detail, as can be seen in many of the screenshots accompanying this review. When it looks a bit shoddier—which, unfortunately, is quite a bit of the time—things are decidedly less pleasing. All of this said, there's nothing horrible about this release, and a film of such niche allure probably will never warrant the full scale restoration that would be needed to bring it back to its original glory.

Stranger on the Prowl Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track for Stranger on the Prowl is sadly in even worse shape than the video. Not only is there some overbearing hiss evident virtually throughout the film, there are speed fluctuations that repeatedly hamper both the dialogue and (especially) the music (those of you who are old enough to remember LPs might compare the sound of some of the cues here to listening to a warped record album). There are even a couple of brief moments of missing audio. All of this said, the bulk of the film is at least listenable, if never much more than that. Dialogue is generally well delivered, to the point that no serious lapses in continuity occur.

Stranger on the Prowl Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements of any kind are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Stranger on the Prowl Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Stranger on the Prowl is an interesting, at times quite moving, film, but it simply doesn't rise to the top levels of Italian neorealism. Part of this can be attributed to a too pat screenplay, one which relies on a few too many conventions to ever feel ostensibly "real", neo or otherwise. That said, the performances are exceptional, and this provides a rare late career field day for Muni, an actor who managed to triumph repeatedly during the studio system (he was one of a very few actors who could pretty much name his own tune during that era), only to see his later career improbably implode. Losey's direction is firm and assured, and the Italian locations are amazing—not necessarily in a "good" way, given the post-War setting. Unfortunately, though, this high definition presentation has significant deficits in both video and (especially) audio that keep me from being able to recommend it with any confidence. Those with an interest in either the genre or the cast who are willing to set their expectations accordingly may find this a worthwhile purchase, however.