Foreign Correspondent

This fun and exciting film from Walter Wanger and Alfred Hitchcock offers romance, suspense, and a dash of patriotism for 120 minutes of sheer entertainment. A terrific cast in front of the camera and loads of talent behind it make for one of Hitchcock’s best films. “Foreign Correspondent” very much has the feel of the director’s best efforts across the pond, augmented by a bigger budget and better production values.

Author James Hilton and Robert Benchley contributed some dialog to the screenplay written by Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison. Music by Alfred Newman and photography from Rudolph Mate help create a mood that is suspenseful and, at times, romantic. William Cameron Menzies helped create some of the effects, adding to the suspense. A list of players that includes Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, Edmund Gwenn, Harry Davenport, Albert Basserman and Eduardo Ciannelli make for a topflight film.

Joel McCrea is John Jones, a crime reporter for the “New York Globe” newspaper who gets a big break when his boss Mr. Powers (Harry Davenport) picks him to be a reporter in Europe, and wants him to get the real story of a world heading for war. Powers doesn’t want correspondence, but news! After changing John’s bland sounding name to Huntley Haverstock, he sends him to London to cover a peace conference and get an interview with Van Meer (Albert Basserman), a key man in a treaty between the Dutch and Belgians.

By happenstance, Huntley meets Van Meer but loses track of him in short order. Van Meer then disappears, and Huntley is left holding the bag at the conference. It is there, however, that he meets the daughter of Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall), Carol (Laraine Day). He is immediately taken with her and flusters her during her big speach about peace by sending notes to her table, with mesages like: “Can we have lunch?” and “Do you believe in large families?”

When they meet again, it is at the next conference in rainy Amsterdam. A man looking like Van Meer is assisinated right in front of Huntley, in Hitchcock’s famous umbrella scene. Huntley, Carol, and fellow reporter Scott ffolliott (George Sanders), whose family history has taken the capitals out of his last name, chase the assasin by car with the police not far behind. Their pursuit, however, ends in a windy and lonely field full of old windmills, which look like lighthouses with big propellers.

Huntley realizes, too late, that one of the windmills is turning against the wind as a signal to the plane overhead. He sends Carol and Scott back to get the police while he investigates on his own. Some tense and exciting moments follow as Huntly very nearly gets caught by Mr. Krug (Eduardo Ciannelli) when he discovers Van Meer has been kidnapped and is being held hostage in the windmill. Espionage agents want to know a secret clause in the treaty not written down, but only in Van Meer’s head. Huntly makes a daring escape, but when the police arrive only a tramp inhabits the windmill and Van Meer has been moved.

Back at Hotel Europe, Huntley must make another daring escape as the spies are onto the reporter now. Hitchcock adds a nice touch as Huntley blows out the “e” and “l” in the Hotel Europe sign as he walks the ledge outside his room; the sign now reading, “Hot Europe.” One must remember this was only 1940. Huntley’s sincerity about his chances of surviving the international intrigue he has thrown a monkey wrench into will win over Carol’s heart and the two flee for their lives, booking passage to London by sea.

The most romantic scene in the film takes place on the rainy deck of the ship as Huntley tells Carol of his love for her and she responds in kind. Laraine Day had some nice moments in films of this era and was quite charming and very pretty in this one. She and McCrea are a nice fit and their romance has the charm of Hitchcock’s British films also. The romantic innocence of booking an extra room that happens later in the film is a perfect example.

When they arrive at her father Stephen’s house, Huntley discovers he is in with the spies, and must reluctantly lure Carol away so that Scott can trick Stephen into revealing where Van Meer is being detained. It backfires, of course, but Carol has realized by now that she is in love with the man who is going to help hang her father. Her father loves her dearly, despite his politics. and when the plane they are all aboard is shot down over the sea, he will scarifice himself for her happiness.

George Sanders has a rare good-guy role here and there are many memorable Hitchcock moments to this one. A patriotic call to Americans at the end, as Jones and his sweetheart, Carol, keep talking to the world over the radio while London is bombed, seems real and not hokey at all. Edmund Gwenn has a fine moment as the droll killer, Rowley, Stephen sends to get rid of Huntley. And Harry Davenport also shines as the newspaper editor who realizes the world is about to change forever.

This is great entertainment from the master, Alfred Hitchcock, and if you haven’t seen this one, you’re in for a real treat.

good Hitchcock film, one thing I regret there was no subtitles for the hearing impaired

　ブルーレイ１枚ものです。同じジャケットで、DVDとセットになっている３枚組のバージョンもあるようです。７０年代の日本初公開時に劇場で観ました。大好きな映画です。有名な雨の議事堂？前での殺人（イラストで描かれたジャケットのシーン）、風車小屋、ロンドンの高層ビル、ホテルヨーロッパ、飛行機の海中落下など、見せ場の連続という活劇イメージが強かったので、字幕なしでもOKだと思っていたのですが、思いのほか会話シーンが多くて、日本語字幕が欲しいなあと思ってしまいました。だいたいのストーリーは頭に入っているつもりだったのですが、意外に細かい部分が重要な感じで、ここは何を話し合っているのかなあとか気になって、思わず廉価盤の国内DVDを注文してしまいました。画質は、黒白の陰影に富んだ映像が美しく、大満足です。特典映像は、①第二次大戦中のプロパガンダ映画について語られいるもの（若い評論家？）②特撮の解説（飛行機が海中に突っ込む場面をどう撮ったかCGで再現されています③72年フレンジー公開時にテレビに出たときのインタビュー。ジョニー・カースン・ショーみたいな対談番組で１時間ほど。スタジオの観客にはバカうけという感じなのですが、私には映画について話しているところ以外は、内容がよく分からなかった。この作品の飛行機落下シーンについても話しています。④ラジオ向けにサウンドトラックを番組化したものか（音声のみ）⑤ヒチコックによるプロパガンダフィルム？（スチール写真と字幕で構成）⑥予告編。戦時中の時代背景に着目したものについては、作品自体とは直接関係ないので、あまり興味を惹かれませんでした。このソフトを購入するならやはりクライテリオンならではの画質でしょう。特典に惹かれるとしたら、あまりおススメはしません。

I have to say this is my favorite Hitchcock movie. Classic, thrilling, set design, acting, blu ray transfer, extra’s, booklet, essays. No brainer when on sale.

This is my most favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. This is a Romantic – Thriller – Mystery movie.

This isn’t a scary movie, or a horror movie, as are several of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies.

One of the best aspects of “Foreign Correspondent” is the use of light and the cinematography in general. This is a pre-war black and white film.
“Foreign Correspondent” is a very artistic and evocative film; it often seems surreal. The sound also is crafted to pull the viewer into the scene, usually with great subtlety.

“Foreign Correspondent” is a wonderful thriller. The story follows a young and brave, first time abroad, first time “Foreign Correspondent” for a New York newspaper. This occupation being that of a “news” agent in a distant place to get the story “first hand” instead of relying on reports published by other news agencies in that country or region.

The hero gets his name changed by his bosses, has to wear silly hats to be “in fashion” with the European crowd, is confronted by persons speaking un-recognizable languages, lands in the middle of a complex and rapidly changing political environment, within a couple of days is targeted for assassination, has no idea who or what or why; and while dealing with all that, falls for a girl who the circumstances forbid him to be in love with. Wow!

There are very solid and intransient reasons for the continuing popularity of the movies of Alfred Hitchcock.

My favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies:
1 Foreign Correspondent (1940) Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, George Sanders (Notice the amazing use of ‘light’ in this film.)
2 Lifeboat (1944) (Many top stars, super movie entertainment.)
3 Saboteur (1942) Bob Cummings, Priscilla Lane (Glendale, CA – Boulder Dam – Rockefeller Center – Statue of Liberty; Wow!)
4 The Trouble with Harry (1955) (A wonderful, quirky, dark & intriguingly romantic comedy, with a very young Shirley MacLaine)
5 To Catch a Thief (1955) Cary Grant, Grace Kelly (Wonderful ‘cat burglar’ romance & thrills on the French Rivera)
6 North by Northwest (1959) Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint (They have the wrong man, but they won’t believe it.)
7 The Birds (1963) (Amazing story! Tippi Hedren is gorgeous! And how’d they get those birds to do that in 1963?)
8 The Wrong Man (1956) Henry Fonda (Wow, what this guy goes through. The legal system isn’t much better today.)
9 Notorious (1946) Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman (Can he rescue her, get out of so much trouble, she & the bad guy; How is this going to end?)

Others I like:
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) Jimmy Stewart, Doris Day (What a terrible vacation.)
The Paradine Case (1947) Gregory Peck (Did Anna poison her rich older husband? Or was it the butler?)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery (A screwball romantic comedy.)
Torn Curtain (1966) Paul Newman, Julie Andrews (Keep in mind how extreme things were after the “Iron Curtain” fell.)

Other Hitchcock Movies that I Hate! (Sorry):
Psycho (Yuck! Creepy factor a mile high!)
Strangers on a Train (A terrible, disgusting, “thing.”)
Vertigo
Marnie
Frenzy

I’d also recommend:
Witness for the Prosecution (1957) by Billy Wilder. (This Hitchcock ‘like’ film is intriguing, suspenseful, full of twists and irony.)

“All the best movies, have already been made!”