From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
Adam H. Kerman <
ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
Talk About a Stranger (1952)
I would have said they killed Sam the dog in John Wayne’s HONDO, but this beat it by a few months.
Red scare allegory about an off-putting man named Matlock who moves into
the home no one has seen and drives a car that is registered to someone
else. It's Kurt Kasznar, not yet in the Land of the Giants. He wants
nothing to do with anyone and doesn't seem to be harvesting his oranges.
The little boy Robert Jr (Billy Gray, Bud on Father Knows Best) won't
leave him alone and keeps breaking things accidentally. He's adopted by
an incredibly well trained stray dog, and works for Wardlow (Lewis Stone), the local newspaper publisher.
One day, he has to leave his dog to go into town, and his parents
(George Murphy and Nancy Davis, who just married Ronald Reagan) promise
to watch the dog, who then escapes to find his master. Hours later, the
boy finds the dog dead, poisoned, on Matlock's grounds. Matlock denies
doing it but the boy's father doesn't believe him and the boy makes accusastions all over town to anyone who will listen.
TCM host Eddie Muller called it "kid noir".
--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.
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