G-man Edward G. Robinson has the unholy task of wiping the smile off the face of small-town America in this dark thriller, Orson Welles' much overlooked contribution to the rural-noir subgenre. "There's nothing to be afraid of in Harper," says one deluded denizen of this New England village. Like any self-respecting American town, Harper is centered around its eccentric ancients-a tower whose clock runs backwards when it runs at all, and a merchant-savant (Billy House in a steal of a character role) who cheats at chess. Nothing to be afraid of, but at the same time, everything's just a little bit off. Probably best that newlywed Loretta Young hang those curtains as she begins life with hubby Orson Welles, college professor and escaped Nazi war criminal. Like Hitchcock's Uncle Charles, Welles tamps down monstrous cynicism with weird charm while the ever-wry Robinson tries to disarm his man-and spare the bride her Shadow of a Doubt. Welles, like Hitchcock, was a Hollywood outsider gleefully exposing the stranger in us all; as in Shadow's Santa Rosa, what is at stake in Harper is innocence itself.