“ The Stranger is a 1946 American thriller film noir directed and (although uncredited) co-written by Orson Welles , starring himself along with Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young . Welles' third completed feature film as director and his first film noir, it centers on war crimes investigator Wilson tracking high-ranking Nazi fugitive Franz Kindler to a Connecticut town. It is the first Hollywood film to present documentary footage of the Holocaust.