Synopsis
Lucas Marsh, an intern bent upon becoming a first-class doctor, not merely a successful one. He courts and marries the warm-hearted Kristina, not out of love but because she is highly knowledgeable in the skills of the operating room and because she has frugally put aside her savings through the years. She will be, as he shrewdly knows, a supportive wife in every way. She helps make him the success he wants to be and cheerfully moves with him to the small town in which he starts his practice. But as much as he tries to be a good husband to the undemanding Kristina, Marsh easily falls into the arms of a local siren and the patience of the long-sorrowing Kristina wears thin.
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Cast
- Robert MitchumLucas Marsh
- Olivia de HavillandKristina Hedvigson / Kristina Marsh
- Frank SinatraAlfred Boone
- Gloria GrahameHarriet Lang
- Broderick CrawfordDr. Aarons
- Charles BickfordDr. Dave W. Runkleman
- Myron McCormickDr. Clem Snider
- Lon Chaney Jr.Job Marsh
- Jesse WhiteBen Cosgrove
- Harry MorganOley
Recommendations
- 83
The A.V. Club
Not As A Stranger taps into the raging fury and animal sexuality lurking underneath Mitchum’s quiet-storm demeanor; the film’s redemptive arc requires him to realize what he has in a good, wholesome woman like de Havilland, but Mitchum’s bedroom eyes and leering swagger suggest that he really belongs to a femme fatale like Grahame, who undoubtedly tumbled out of the womb clutching a cigarette in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other. - 60
Time Out
The exceptional cast helps to while away the platitudes and pieties, provided you can accept the likes of Mitchum, Sinatra and Marvin as somewhat wrinkly students. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
The book featured lots of sexy scenes, but the film adaptation is, at best, cool and dispassionate. Mitchum's facial expressions seem to fall into two categories: sullen and sour. - 50
Variety
Though some scenes come off fairly well, Mitchum is poker-faced from start to finish. - 40
The New York Times
It is loaded with hospital lore, coldly realistic and compelling, but also it is creeping with ponderous characters. With so much dissecting in his picture—and so much of it being good—it is too bad that Mr. Kramer couldn't have done a little on his characters.
