Talk About a Stranger
1952 film by David Bradley
Talk About a Stranger is a 1952 American film noir directed by David Bradley and starring George Murphy, Nancy Davis and Billy Gray. It was shot by noted cinematographer John Alton, A.S.C. and was based on Charlotte Armstrong's short story "The Enemy". This had been published in the May 1951 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and was subsequently chosen for the top prize in the Mystery Magazine's yearly selection of best stories.
Plot
On Halloween night, Bud Fontaine Jr. and his friends break a window at a seemingly abandoned house. They run when an older man who steps outside the door and glares at them. Bud explains to his father Robert what had happened. Bud's father explains their new neighbor is Dr. Paul Mahler, whom he hasn't met. He goes over and offers to repair the damage.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Talk About a Stranger” as 1952 film by David Bradley. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1952 film by David Bradley. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7679638. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952 and 1951.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Talk About a Stranger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.