Rachel and the Stranger is a 1948 film directed by Norman Foster.
The time setting is vague, but references to the "Northwest Territory" and the Shawnee being on the warpath suggest the 1820s. David Harvey (William Holden) is a frontier farmer, who at the beginning of the film has lost his wife Susan to "fever", leaving David a widower with a 12-year-old son, Davey.
David feels that their rustic home needs a woman for housekeeping and to give Davey lessons, so he goes to the local settlement to find a wife. The only likely candidate is a "bondwoman" (indentured servant) named Rachel (Loretta Young). David pays $22 ($18 down and "four owing") to liberate Rachel from indentured servitude, and makes her his wife.
Only it's not quite clear whether or not Rachel is liberated from servitude. In fact, she continues to act as a servant to the Harveys, with David making no effort to be friendly or warm with her at all. Rachel grows to be quite unhappy in an In Name Only marriage. Enter David's old friend, Jim Fairways (Robert Mitchum), an itinerant woodsman and hunter, who courted Susan back in the day. Jim quickly picks up on the strained nature of Rachel and David's marriage, and makes a play for Rachel—which leads David to admit to his own feelings.
Tropes:
- Arc Symbol: Susan ordered a metronome, which came all the way from France, and which David does not collect from the post office until he goes to the fort, moths after Susan died. The metronome continues to be a symbol of Susan, as both David and Davey pick it up and sometimes start it ticking when thinking of her. At the end of the film, the metronome is shown to have been destroyed in the fire, symbolizing the moment when David mentally put his first wife to rest and moved forward to a new life with Rachel.
- Determined Homesteader: The film ends with the farm burned to the ground and David and Rachel having basically nothing but the spinet (a sort of mini-piano), which miraculously survived. But they'll keep going, and the villagers promise to help David rebuild.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first shot of the movie has Jim riding over a hill singing cheerfully and strumming on a guitar, establishing him as a friendly, laid-back fellow.
- Foreshadowing: As David and Davey approach the fort, one villager says "Any Injun signs?". Sure enough, the Shawnee attack at the end of the movie.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Rain beats against the window as Rachel bids David "Good night, Mr. Harvey" and closes the door to the bedroom. She breaks down sobbing, having obviously realized that she's basically still an indentured servant.
- Indentured Servitude: Rachel. It turns out that her father was a music teacher who got deeply in debt, and Rachel got sold into indentured servitude to pay her father's debts.
- Injun Country: The Shawnee attack David's farm at the end. David, Rachel, and Jim huddle in the cellar while the Shawnee burn everything to the ground.
- Love Triangle: One blooms when Jim comes back to the area and starts courting Rachel, only for David, who is falling in love with Rachel even though they've never even kissed, to realize his feelings.
- Marriage Before Romance: Rachel and David are total strangers when they get married and their relationship is stiffly formal for some time afterwards. Naturally, they fall in love by the end.
- Midword Rhyme: One of the lyrics in one of the songs that Jim sings.Greying beard and long her tresses
Knowing not what happiness is - Moment Killer: Davey does this deliberately, twice interrupting when a quiet conversation between David and Rachel starts getting emotional. He doesn't want Rachel to replace his dead mother.
- Name and Name: Rachel and the Stranger
- Seasonal Baggage: The months after Susan's death are shown with a montage of snow on the hill, then an icicle melting, then a blooming tree, then father and son Harveys plowing and sowing.
- Stealth Insult: As the Harveys go to the fort to find a bride, Davey says "We gotta take whoever we can get to take you, pa!"
- You're Not My Father: A rebellious Davey eventually refuses to take lessons from Rachel, saying she's "just a bondwoman." Rachel basically gives up trying to teach Davey after this.
