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DVD Foreign Correspondent
The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features, Foreign Correspondent was completed in 1940, as the European war was only beginning to erupt across national borders. Its titular hero, Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea), is an American crime reporter dispatched by his New York publisher to put a fresh spin on the drowsy dispatches emanating from overseas, his nose for a good story (and, of course, some fortuitous timing) promptly leading him to the "crime" of fascism and Nazi Germany's designs on European conquest.
In attempting to learn more about a seemingly noble peace effort, Jones (who's been saddled with the dubious nom du plume Hadley Haverstock) walks into the middle of an assassination, uncovers a spy ring, and, not entirely coincidentally, falls in love--a pattern familiar to admirers of Hitchcock's espionage thrillers, of which this is a thoroughly entertaining example. McCrea's hardy Yankee charms are neatly contrasted with the droll, veddy English charm of colleague George Sanders; Herbert Marshall provides a plummy variation on the requisite, ambiguous "good-or-is-he-really-bad" guy; Laraine Day affords a lovely heroine; and Robert Benchley (who contributed to the script) pops up, albeit too briefly, for comic relief.
As good as the cast is, however, it's Hitchcock's staging of key action sequences that makes Foreign Correspondent a textbook example of the director's visual energy: an assassin's escape through a rain-soaked crowd is registered by rippling umbrellas, a nest of spies is detected by the improbable direction of a windmill's spinning sails, and Jones's nocturnal flight across a pitched city rooftop produces its own contextual comment when broken neon tubes convert the Hotel Europe into "Hot Europe." --Sam Sutherland
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.
An intriguing movie and very relevant for its time in history.
This review is for the 2004 Warner Brothers DVD.
The story takes place in the late 1930's where an American newspaper reporter named Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) is assigned to go to Europe to report on the possibility of a pending global war. His editor emphasizes that he doesn't want correspondence - he wants news. So Jones goes first to England and later to Holland where he witnesses an apparent assassination of a Dutch diplomat. This starts the beginning of a wild and dangerous investigation where Jones tries to uncover all the details and people responsible for this incident.
There are several things that I liked about this movie. The settings in Europe, especially the windmills in Holland, made a great backdrop to a very good plot. The underlying theme of foreign espionage with several surprising twists was also a major asset to the film. The acting was excellent and so was the cinematography. My only minor turnoff with the film was the noticeable complacency of the characters in very life threatening situations. Overall, it was an extremely relevant film, especially considering it was released shortly before America entered World War II. For me it was a very good movie but not a great one.
The B&W picture quality of this DVD is sharp and crisp but the film was clearly un-restored due to tiny specs of film deterioration showing up sporadically throughout the movie. The sound was very satisfactory. The only bonuses on the DVD include a trailer and a short feature entitled "Foreign Hitchcock".
Movie: B+
DVD Quality: B
Even more gripping than 39 steps
Having seen many of Hitchcock's movies, especially the well known ones, I rate Foreign Correspondent among the top of his work for its outstanding cinematography, story line and acting.
Its B&W cinematography was impressive with lots of on site shooting. The assassination in the pouring rain at the beginning of the movie took me by surprise and was superbly mastered. The commotion under the umbrellas caused by the murderer's escape, shot from the top, was unconventional. It was not what was seen but the unseen that provoked viewers' imagination. The old windmills scene that followed added danger and terror to the atmosphere. And the last scene of survivors at the sea reminded me of Lifeboat (another Hitchcock film) which gave a perfect ending to the "villain" (Herbert Marshall) who had been true to his country and his family up till the end.
The story was rich in details - Murder, espionage, war, romance, cruise, airplane, survival in the raging sea and navy rescue were some of the ingredients. The facts that the movie was an earlier piece and not among the most talked Hitchcock's work has allowed viewers to enjoy the movie on its own and not distracted by previous comments and familiar faces.
Joel McCrea (Sullivan's travels, Dangerous) was the upright foreign correspondent who persisted in finding the truth and thus pursued by the killers ever since. Herbert Marshall (The Little Foxes) was the key person to the story, the wolf under sheep's skin. Laraine Day played the faithful daughter and a peace advocate and George Sanders was in the secret service. All played their parts well and gave the movie a consistency from beginning to end.
It was exactly the relative unfamiliarity with the movie that makes it like a breath of fresh air. This is another Hitchcock classic not to be missed.
Repeated viewings can't dispel the shock of the final scene in this classic 1941 romantic mystery--a brief but disorienting confrontation that suddenly inverts the heroine's mounting conviction that she's married a murderer, forcing us to reconsider virtually every scene and line of dialogue that's preceded it. It's a masterful coup de grace for director Alfred Hitchcock, who has built a puzzle around the corrosive power of suspicion, threaded with deft ambiguities that toy with dramatic conventions and character archetypes in nearly every frame.
As embodied by Joan Fontaine, who nabbed an Oscar in this second outing with the director, Lina McLaidlaw is a buttoned-up, bookish heiress whose prim exterior conceals longings for a more engaged emotional life. Her solution materializes in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Joan Fontaine - Cary Grant Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A suave tennis player (Ray Milland) plots the perfect murder, the dispatching of his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly), who is having an affair with a writer (Robert Cummings). Amazingly, the wife manages to stave off her attacker, a twist of fate that challenges the hubby's talent for improvisation. Alfred Hitchcock wisely stuck to the stage origins of Dial M for Murder, ignoring the temptation to "open up" the material from the home of the unhappy couple. The result may not be one of Hitchcock's deepest films, but it's a thoroughly engaging chamber movie. It also features Grace Kelly at her loveliest, the same year she made Rear Window with Hitchcock. Dial M for Murder was filmed in the briefly trendy 3-D process, and Hitchcock shot some scenes to bring out the depth of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ray Milland - Grace Kelly Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 6 to 7 days
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I love all of Hitchcock's movies, so it's hard to pick a favorite, but this one would be near the top. The plot is full of suspense and humor, the actors are perfect in their respective parts, especially Marlene Dietrich and Jane Wyman. Any movie where Marlene sings is a must-see anyway, much less in a Hitchcock movie! Lots of comic bits sprinkled throughout the movie offset the suspense and deadly points perfectly. When I first saw the movie years ago, I was completely fooled right up to the point with Wyman and Richard Todd hiding beneath the stage. But I still watch the movie about once a year and thoroughly enjoy it every time. A must for any Hitchcock fan who may have never seen this true gem. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jane Wyman - Marlene Dietrich - Richard Todd Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Alfred Hitchcock was fond of telling the story about how his father discouraged his son from even the slightest criminal impulse by having young Alfred locked in a police holding cell for a brief period--a terrifying experience Hitchcock never forgot. Much of the fear from that childhood incident resonates through The Wrong Man, which is unique among Hitchcock's films in that it is based entirely on a factual case that occurred in New York City in January 1953. As Hitchcock states in a shadowy prologue, authenticity was his primary goal--including the use of actual names and locations from the case--and the film gains considerable power from Hitchcock's semi-documentary approach (a film noir style that was still in vogue when Hitchcock shot this film in 1957).
