Foreign Correspondent

Composite Score: 86.4

Starring: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann, Robert Benchley, Edmund Gwenn, Eduardo Ciannelli, and Harry Davenport

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison

Genres: Action, Romance, Thriller, War

MPAA Rating: Approved

Box Office: $782 worldwide

My take on Watching This Film:

                Foreign Correspondent is Alfred Hitchcock’s film about an American crime reporter who finds himself stationed in Europe as his paper’s new war correspondent in the late 1930s when his editor becomes tired of hearing no real news from Europe. The film follows John Jones (Joel McCrea) as he goes to Europe and becomes embroiled in a plot to pry information from an aging peace advocate, Van Meer (Albert Bassermann), and trade it to the highest bidder. Others involved in the plot include Herbert Marshal’s Stephen Fisher, the head of the Universal Peace Party, George Sanders’s Scott ffolliott, a British reporter, Eduardo Ciannelli’s Mr. Krug, a foreign operative, and the Laraine Day’s seemingly innocent Carol Fisher, daughter of Stephen Fisher. As the plot thickens and allegiances become clearer, the film starts to feel more like a modern spy thriller with so many double crosses, dramatic reveals, and daring chases that even Tom Cruise would be pleased. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Bassermann), and Best Picture, and is considered one of Hitchcock’s best films.

                The action, intrigue, romance, characters, and set pieces all work really well and still look great in this 1940 film. The only real drawback is that it comes directly from the outset of World War II and, as such, steers right into the propagandization that so many films from that era tend toward. In this case, it breaks down the film’s final act and leaves you somewhat underfulfilled at the conclusion of everything. The first two acts brilliantly set up this game of lies, questions, and intrigue only for it all to become overshadowed by the crisis of World War II and German ships firing on anything not German on the Atlantic. While I recognize that that’s pretty indicative of how many people, especially the British, would have perceived events of the day, it gives the film an oddly disjointed conclusion that only somewhat gives any closure to what had the potential to be a top-tier spy thriller. As it stands it’s still a solid spy thriller with plenty of memorable characters and moments, but the conclusion suffers from something that many of Hitchcock’s films do – unearned plot twists that totally derail the rest of the film’s themes and messages. Other than that, though, there’s really nothing to complain about here, and the first two acts more than deliver on the hype, giving you enough to overcome the film’s somewhat lackluster ending.

                Strong espionage story, action, and characters elevate the screenplay and story of Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent to a place of cinematic greatness. Even if the final act suffers some from the influences of its era, the overall story and suspense hold up well under modern scrutiny, and it’s definitely a film worth checking out. If you’d like to watch it, you can currently stream it on Max or the Criterion Channel in the coming days.