What is Charles Rankin's real full name?
Mr. Wilson of the United Nations War Crimes Commission is hunting for Nazi fugitive Franz Kindler, a war criminal who has erased all evidence which might identify him, with no clue left to his identity except "a hobby that almost amounts to a mania—clocks."
Wilson releases Kindler's former associate Meinike, hoping the man will lead him to Kindler. Wilson follows Meinike to the United States, to the town of Harper, Connecticut, but loses him before he meets with Kindler. Kindler has assumed a new identity and is known locally as "Charles Rankin," and has become a prep school teacher. He is about to marry Mary Longstreet, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Adam Longstreet, and is involved in repairing the town's 400-year-old Habrecht-style clock mechanism with religious automata that crowns the belfry of a church in the town square.
When Kindler and Meinike do meet, Meinike, who is repentant, begs Kindler to confess his crimes. Instead, Kindler strangles Meinike, who might expose him. Eventually, Wilson deduces that Rankin is Kindler, but not having witnessed the meeting with Meinike, he has no proof. Only Mary knows that Meinike came to meet her husband. To get her to admit this, Wilson must convince her that her husband is a criminal—before Rankin decides to eliminate the threat to him by killing her. Kindler's pose begins to unravel when Red, the family dog, discovers Meinike's body. To further protect his secret, Kindler poisons Red.
Franz Kindler