Foreign Correspondent

2/20/2021

If you enjoy this review, please check out my blog, Old Hat Cinema, at https://oldhatcinema.medium.com/ for more reviews and other cool content. Alfred Hitchcock’s second American picture, Foreign Correspondent (1940), has quite literally everything you could ask for in a great movie. To categorize it, one might say it’s an espionage thriller. But really, that covers merely the basics of what the film is all about. It’s got suspense, adventure, romance, humor, heroics, and a cast that couldn’t be improved upon if you tried! In contrast, Hitchcock’s first American picture was the well-done, if somewhat plodding, Gothic thriller Rebecca. While Rebecca is still an excellent film in its own right, boasting the talents of Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, and others, it isn’t nearly as exc

3/28/2022

Alfred Hitchcock presides over quite a fast paced jigsaw-puzzle of a film with this gripping WII espionage thriller. Joel McCrae is the American reporter "John Jones" who is despatched by his editor to get decent news coverage of what's going on in war-threatened Europe. No sooner has he landed than he becomes embroiled in the affairs of the mysterious "Peace Party" leader "Van Meer" (Albert Bassermann) who may (or may not) have been gunned down and who may (or may not) have been party to a treaty that could change or even avert the course of war. Together with fellow journo George Sanders ("ffolliot") they become more deeply involved in this complex and intriguing mystery having to avoid just about everyone as they struggle to get to the truth. Herbert Marshall "Fisher" and his daughter "