The Stranger was the only film made by Welles to have been a bona fide box office success upon its release.
Its cost was $1.034 million; it earned $2.25 million in U.S. rentals in its first six months, and 15 months after its release it had grossed $3.216 million.

"The Stranger exists as an answer to the critics who complained that Welles could not make a 'program' picture," wrote film noir scholar Carl Macek. "
He did, and it has found a niche in the canon of the film noir."

At the 19th Academy Awards, Victor Trivas received an Oscar nomination for  Writing (Original Motion Picture Story).
The award went to Clemence Dane, for Vacation from Marriage.

The Stranger holds an aggregate 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 critic reviews, including two contemporaneous reviews.
The sole "rotten" review is that of New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, published in July 1946.
Crowther called the film a "bloodless, manufactured show" in which Welles "gave no illusion of the sort of depraved and heartless creatures that the Nazi mass-murderers were.
He is just Mr. Welles, a young actor, doing a boyishly bad acting job in a role which is highly incredible—another weak feature of the film.
As a matter of fact, the writing of The Stranger, by Anthony Veiller, is the weakest thing about it—and that estimation includes another silly performance by Loretta Young as the killer's wife.
For the premise is not only farfetched, but the whole construction of the tale relieves very soon all the mystery and suspense that such a story should have."

More favorable coverage was found in Variety, which called the film "a socko melodrama, spinning an intriguing web of thrills and chills.
Director Orson Welles gives the production a fast, suspenseful development, drawing every advantage from the hard-hitting script from the Victor Trivas story. …
A uniformly excellent cast gives reality to events that transpire.
The three stars, Robinson, Young and Welles, turn in some of their best work, the actress being particularly effective as the misled bride."

Life magazine featured The Stranger as Movie of the Week in its issue dated June 3, 1946.

On its release, The Stranger was unfavorably compared to Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). "
One reason for the similarities is the recutting, supervised by Ernest Nims," wrote film historian Bret Wood. "
By removing the Latin American sequence and many of the political elements (such as the clock/fascist analogy),The Stranger is transformed from a socially relevant drama to a small town murder story, with the villain more a psychopath than a political fugitive.
Nims cut the film to play like a conventional thriller with little regard to Welles's subtextual purposes."

In his audio commentary for the 2013 Blu-ray release of The Stranger, Wood calls it "an undervalued film" due to the absence of the "stylistic swagger" of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.
He regards Welles's third completed film as "deceptive and much more complex stylistically and thematically" than has so far been appreciated.
The Stranger was the only film made by Welles to have been a bona fide box office success upon its release. Its cost was $1.034 million; it earned $2.25 million in U.S. rentals in its first six months, and 15 months after its release it had grossed $3.216 million. 
"The Stranger exists as an answer to the critics who complained that Welles could not make a 'program' picture," wrote film noir scholar Carl Macek. "He did, and it has found a niche in the canon of the film noir."
At the 19th Academy Awards, Victor Trivas received an Oscar nomination for  Writing (Original Motion Picture Story). The award went to Clemence Dane, for Vacation from Marriage.
The Stranger holds an aggregate 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 critic reviews, including two contemporaneous reviews. The sole "rotten" review is that of New York Times critic Bosley Crowther, published in July 1946. Crowther called the film a "bloodless, manufactured show" in which Welles "gave no illusion of the sort of depraved and heartless creatures that the Nazi mass-murderers were. He is just Mr. Welles, a young actor, doing a boyishly bad acting job in a role which is highly incredible—another weak feature of the film. As a matter of fact, the writing of The Stranger, by Anthony Veiller, is the weakest thing about it—and that estimation includes another silly performance by Loretta Young as the killer's wife. For the premise is not only farfetched, but the whole construction of the tale relieves very soon all the mystery and suspense that such a story should have."
More favorable coverage was found in Variety, which called the film "a socko melodrama, spinning an intriguing web of thrills and chills. Director Orson Welles gives the production a fast, suspenseful development, drawing every advantage from the hard-hitting script from the Victor Trivas story. … A uniformly excellent cast gives reality to events that transpire. The three stars, Robinson, Young and Welles, turn in some of their best work, the actress being particularly effective as the misled bride."
Life magazine featured The Stranger as Movie of the Week in its issue dated June 3, 1946.
On its release, The Stranger was unfavorably compared to Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). "One reason for the similarities is the recutting, supervised by Ernest Nims," wrote film historian Bret Wood. "By removing the Latin American sequence and many of the political elements (such as the clock/fascist analogy),The Stranger is transformed from a socially relevant drama to a small town murder story, with the villain more a psychopath than a political fugitive. Nims cut the film to play like a conventional thriller with little regard to Welles's subtextual purposes."
In his audio commentary for the 2013 Blu-ray release of The Stranger, Wood calls it "an undervalued film" due to the absence of the "stylistic swagger" of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. He regards Welles's third completed film as "deceptive and much more complex stylistically and thematically" than has so far been appreciated.
The Stranger (1946 film)