Not As A Stranger

Not A Stranger (1955) seems to have all the proper elements for a classic film noir: director cast and story. It is director Stanley Kramer's first film, he would go to direct classics like Inherit the Wind and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. It boasts an all-star cast: Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Lee Marvin and Olivia De Havilland. This is where the wheels start to come off, those first three actors, as the picture suggests, are medical students-they all look too old for the role and too tough to be doctors. De Havilland plays a Swedish nurse with an accent as well. The believability factor has been breached. Mitchum as a benevolent doctor is too much to swallow all in all.