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Movies that feel like The Stranger (1946)

If you loved The Stranger, the closest films we have are Touch of Evil (1958), The Big Clock (1948) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947). All three share The Stranger's tense and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 5 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Criterion Channel and MUBI and others, checked against today's data.

An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi, who may be hiding out in a small town in the guise of a distinguished professor engaged to the Supreme Court Justice’s daughter.

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Orson Wellestensegrittyatmospheric
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If The Stranger hit the spot, these will too

Touch of Evil poster
Touch of Evil
1958 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 96%8crime · thriller · drama

The same hand behind both of them: Orson Welles

The difference: Sits closer to drama than The Stranger does

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

Feels alike?
The Big Clock poster
The Big Clock
1948 · dir. John Farrow
🍅 100%7.6crime · thriller

Both are working the same pair: clock, film noir

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

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The Lady from Shanghai poster
The Lady from Shanghai
1947 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 86%7.5mystery · crime · thriller

Orson Welles directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Leans harder into mystery than The Stranger does

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

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Odd Man Out poster
Odd Man Out
1947 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 100%7.6crime · drama · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: black and white

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

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Out of the Past poster
Out of the Past
1947 · dir. Jacques Tourneur
🍅 87%8crime · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: film noir

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

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Criss Cross poster
Criss Cross
1949 · dir. Robert Siodmak
🍅 86%7.4crime · thriller

Tense and gritty in the same breath

An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

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Key Largo poster
Key Largo
1948 · dir. John Huston
🍅 97%7.7crime · thriller

Atmospheric thriller in both cases

A hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner James Temple, his widowed daughter-in-law Nora, and ex-GI Frank McCloud.

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The Narrow Margin poster
The Narrow Margin
1952 · dir. Richard Fleischer
🍅 100%7.6thriller · crime

Tense crime, and it commits to that

A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.

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The Woman in the Window poster
The Woman in the Window
1944 · dir. Fritz Lang
🍅 83%7.6crime · drama · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: professor

A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.

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Killer's Kiss poster
Killer's Kiss
1955 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 83%6.5thriller · crime · drama

Thriller built on grit, twice over

Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.

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Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%7.4crime · drama · thriller

Crime with a pulse of atmosphere, in both cases

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

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Double Indemnity poster
Double Indemnity
1944 · dir. Billy Wilder
🍅 97%8.3crime · thriller

One thread runs through both: black and white

An insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.

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In the mood for more tense?

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The best-reviewed films that share The Stranger’s defining feeling.