and the lawbreaker seems obsessed by a sense of anguish and a feeling of guilt" (147).

Charles Rankin, however, is simply vicious. There are no signs of an inner struggle.

Although the names Kindler and Rankin certainly echo the monstrous geniuses, Kane,

Arkadin, and Kindler, in this film, nothing comes of those alliterative associations.

 In part, that is because the viewer knows too much. Although he plays the role of

Rankin, Franz Kindler never remains buried. While Wilson later tells Mary that it is

difficult to detect a Nazi because "they look like other people and act other people,"

Kindler/Rankin does not fit that mold. During a dinner at Judge Longstreet's, where he

comes face to face with Wilson for the first time, Rankin does not try too hard to keep

Kindler hidden. When the conversation turns to the German "problem," Rankin becomes

an authority on Nazi philosophy, claiming up front that he has "a way of making enemies

when [he's] on that subject." He says he believes that equality or democracy could never

take root in Germany. "Mankind is waiting for the messiah," he asserts, "but for the

German, the messiah is not the prince of peace-he's another Barbarossa, another

Hitler." When Noah cites Marx as a possibility that perhaps Germans might embrace

equality, Rankin immediately rebuffs the notion: "Marx wasn't a German, he was a Jew."

The others remain skeptical. Eventually, the judge wonders, "If we concede your

argument, there is no solution," to which Rankin responds: "annihilation." Yet, even

these overt references to the Final Solution that are right there on the surface do not raise

any suspicions around the table. With the exception of Wilson, everyone else has "a kind

of blind faith in the appearance of things" (Palmer 10). In fact, Rankin's words are

dismissed as the odd notions, even ramblings, of a delightful pedagogue.