Walk Softly, Stranger

Walk Softly, Stranger is directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Frank Fenton. It stars Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Spring Byington, Paul Stewart and Jack Paar. Music is by Frederick Hollander and cinematography by Harry J. Wild.

Chris Hale (Cotton) arrives in Ashton, Ohio, with manipulation and a robbery on his mind. But when he meets wheelchair bound Elaine Corelli (Valli), it alters the course of his future plans…

It's the other Cotton and Valli movie, the one that isn't The Third Man. It's also the movie hat marked the wind of change at RKO as Howard Hughes breezed into the studio and promptly set about putting his own stamp on things, badly as it happens. Walk Softly, Stranger on the shelf for two years and subsequently got released in 1950, no doubt due in part to the success of The Third Man the year previously.

It's a strange blend of romantic melodrama – cum thriller – with some film noir edginess, something which doesn't all together work. It's very slowly paced and settles into a mood approaching disquiet, a femme fatale of sorts is nicely set up, and the whole "just one last job" vibe keeps interest in the story high. Acting from Cotton and Valli is strong, Paul Stewart is as usual good value when playing a twitchy loser bad guy type, and Byington almost steals the film from the leads with an ebullient show as the widow Brentman.

Unfortunately, come the final third the picture fails to deliver on its moody promise, choosing instead to rely on one action set-piece and a waft of optimism for pic's closure. It's not the pay off required or hoped for, a shame because as a production in general it's of good quality. 6/10

Joseph Cotten stars in "Walk Softly, Stranger," a 1950 film also starring Valli, Paul Stewart and Spring Byington. Cotten plays Chris Hale, a con man who takes up residence in a small town under his new name. He has a sweet landlady (Byington) who loves him, a decent job and is enjoying a flirtation with the boss' wheelchair-bound daughter (Valli). However, he just can't resist one more opportunity to make a huge haul by stealing a gambler's money with a partner (Stewart). After they split the money, the two go their separate ways, but Stewart panics and tracks down Chris. Chris is afraid he's led the gambler's men right to his door.

This is a small, engrossing film with an excellent performance from Cotten. Someone on the board compared him here to Uncle Charle in "Shadow of a Doubt," but Charlie was a murderer, which Chris is not, and also a psychotic, again, which Chris is not. Cotten is extremely likable as Chris, a basically good man who has a fatal flaw of liking fast, easy money. Valli is okay as the boss' daughter - she's not quite as beautiful as she was in "The Paradine Case," but she's still soulful with that aura of misery. That quality made many think she could be a new Garbo. Despite doing some good, high profile films, she returned to Italy shortly after this film and worked steadily until a few years before her death. To say she seems out of place in this small town is an understatement.

You really pull for Chris all the way through the film. Maybe the ending was a bit of a stretch, but I was satisfied with it. Is it a noir or a romance? This movie really doesn't know, but it's a good watch.

Walk Softly, Stranger may not be the most memorable slice of classic cinema of all time, but even so; Robert Stevenson's film offers an interesting tale of redemption and retribution, despite not being at all innovative. The film stars Joseph Cotten as a man who travels to a town called Ashton. He quickly becomes friendly with the locals, and tells them that he once lived there as a boy. His friendship with a young wheelchair-bound lady named Elaine Corelli, daughter of a successful factory owner, proves his most fruitful. But people's pasts have a habit of catching up them, and the man's gambling exploits are his weakness. The fact that this film stars Joseph Cotten was my main reason for seeing it. The man has a great screen presence that blends excellently with film noir. His performance here isn't one of his best, but he does well at hinting at a sinister side to his character just below the surface. He is joined by classic actress Alida Valli, who is most notable to me for the fact that she was one of the leads of Dario Argento's masterpiece 'Suspiria'. The plot flows well throughout, and while it's never too full of surprises; and the ending doesn't live up to the beginning, the film still offers 80 minutes of decent entertainment.

This one features a typically restrained performance by Cotton, a strong depiction of his weasly partner and moral antithesis by Paul Stewart and, as always, good supporting work by the ebullient Spring Byington. The star, however, is Valli, who moves from a vulnerable cripple to a radiant smile as some kids sing a Christmas carol to her through the window of Cotton's wonderful Packard convertible. The film may end unconvincingly, as some auditors argue, but at least it ends in a minor key. The effective opening 3/4 may have earned that ending. But see it for Valli, who (as someone suggested) should have gotten an Oscar for this one.

A sad little film noir wrapped inside a sad little love story (or vice versa), Walk Softly, Stranger maintains a subdued integrity of tone throughout. You wish it would get a move on, or that the exchanges were snappier, or the rhythms quirkier. But, no, and at the end, you have to admit that, on its own modest terms, it succeeds.

Into the heartland of Ohio drifts grifter Joseph Cotten to settle down in one of those small cities that used to be famous for something – in this case, it's the headquarters of Corelli Shoes, where he wangles himself a job. Cotten lets on that he's returning to the home town he ran away from years before – even taking up room and board with Spring Byington, a widow who now owns what used to be his house. But it's all a lie (or at least seems to be; the script sends mixed messages on this point). He's researched the history of the house and the widow, and also that of the Corelli heiress (Valli; she had dropped the `Alida'), a lonely rich girl crippled in a skiing accident. He hopes to romance her so as to be sitting pretty for the rest of his days – his ultimate con job. But he ends up falling for her.

Cotten's Achilles heel, however, has always been his professional vanity, and he can't pass up one last job – robbing a mob boss of his casino's take. The job succeeds, but his certified loser of an accomplice (Paul Stewart), now down and out, tracks him down and blows both their covers. They're both marked men....

Walk Softly, Stranger, opts for a bittersweet, romantic ending rather than a terminal blow-out, and that's in keeping with all that goes before. But problems remain. Cotten's performance reminds us, in its watered-down way, of his Uncle Charlie in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, while Valli has little to do but stay tragically, enigmatically glamorous. (The most memorable performances come from Byington and Stewart, and the movie is notable for preserving one of the few appearances on film of Jack Paar, who was to imprint The Tonight Show with his particular personality in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s). It's a strange, flawed movie whose elegiac tone stays with you.