Foreign Correspondent (1940)

August 16, 1940 (US) • Thriller, Mystery, Action • 120m

Overview

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks help from a beautiful politician’s daughter and an urbane English journalist to uncover the truth.

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers

Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison, Richard Maibaum

Top Billed

Joel McCrea

Keywords

diplomat assassination chase parent child relationship world war ii windmill conspiracy reporter black and white crash captive bell tower editor

Where to watch

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Top Billed Cast

Joel McCrea

John Jones

Laraine Day

Carol Fisher

Herbert Marshall

Stephen Fisher

George Sanders

Scott ffolliott

Albert Bassermann

Van Meer

Robert Benchley

Stebbins

Edmund Gwenn

Rowley

Eduardo Ciannelli

Mr. Krug

Harry Davenport

Mr. Powers

Martin Kosleck

Tramp

Frances Carson

Mrs. Sprague

Ian Wolfe

Stiles

Charles Wagenheim

Assassin

Eddie Conrad

Latvian

Charles Halton

Bradley

Barbara Pepper

Dorine

Emory Parnell

'Mohican' Captain

Roy Gordon

Mr. Brood

Gertrude Hoffmann

Mrs. Benson

Marten Lamont

Captain

Barry Bernard

Steward

Holmes Herbert

Asst. Commissioner

Leonard Mudie

McKenna

John Burton

English Announcer

Samuel Adams

Van Meer's Impersonator (uncredited)

Meeka Aldrich

Donald's Wife (uncredited)

Jack Alfred

Man (uncredited)

Bunny Beatty

Man (uncredited)

Frank Benson

Man (uncredited)

Billy Bester

Man (uncredited)

Henry Blair

Man (uncredited)

Becky Bohanon

Sophie (uncredited)

Louis Borel

Capt. Lawson (uncredited)

Barbara Boudwin

Woman (uncredited)

Betty Bradley

Cousin Mary (uncredited)

Louise Brien

Woman (uncredited)

Ronald Brown

Man (uncredited)

Horace B. Carpenter

Man (uncredited)

Willy Castello

Krug's Henchman at Windmill (uncredited)

George Cathrey

Man (uncredited)

Wheaton Chambers

Committeeman (uncredited)

Ken Christy

Fake Dutch Detective (uncredited)

E. E. Clive

Mr. Naismith (uncredited)

Gino Corrado

Luncheon Waiter (uncredited)

Maurice Costello

Man (uncredited)

John Dawson

Minor Role (uncredited)

Harry Depp

Uncle Buren (uncredited)

Elspeth Dudgeon

Woman (uncredited)

Carl Ekberg

Man (uncredited)

Helena Phillips Evans

Mrs. Stiles (uncredited)

Herbert Evans

Parking Valet (uncredited)

James Finlayson

Dutch Peasant (uncredited)

Robert Fischer

Man (uncredited)

George B. French

Man (uncredited)

Bill Gavier

Man (uncredited)

Jack George

Hotel Waiter (uncredited)

Douglas Gordon

Man (uncredited)

Alexander Granach

Hotel Valet (uncredited)

Richard Hammond

Man (uncredited)

Sam Harris

Luncheon Guest (uncredited)

Alfred Hitchcock

Man with Newspaper on Street (uncredited)

Otto Hoffman

New York Globe Teletype Operator (uncredited)

Billy Horn

Man (uncredited)

Paul Irving

Dr. Williamson (uncredited)

Colin Kenny

Doctor (uncredited)

Crauford Kent

Toastmaster (uncredited)

Joan Leslie

Jones' Sister (uncredited)

Gwendolyn Logan

Woman (uncredited)

Eily Malyon

College Arms Hotel Cashier (uncredited)

Eric Mayne

Luncheon Guest (uncredited)

Jackie McGee

Man (uncredited)

John Meredith

Man (uncredited)

Thomas Mizer

Man (uncredited)

Edmund Mortimer

Luncheon Guest (uncredited)

John T. Murray

Clark (Jones Family Member) (uncredited)

Henry Norton

Luncheon Guest (uncredited)

Jane Novak

Miss Benson (uncredited)

George Offerman, Jr.

New York Globe Copy Boy (uncredited)

Lawrence Osman

Boy (uncredited)

Hilda Plowright

Miss Pimm (uncredited)

Thomas Pogue

Airplane Passenger (uncredited)

Jack Rice

Donald (uncredited)

Ronald R. Rondell

Waiter (uncredited)

Loulette Sablon

Woman (uncredited)

Harry Semels

Sidewalk Crowd Extra (uncredited)

Raymond Severn

Boy (uncredited)

Frederick Sewell

Man (uncredited)

Ernie Stanton

Newsmen at table (uncredited)

William Stelling

Man (uncredited)

Donald Stuart

Eric (uncredited)

Paul Sutton

Man (uncredited)

Ferris Taylor

Jones' Father (uncredited)

Dorothy Vaughan

Jones' Mother (uncredited)

Jack Voglin

Man (uncredited)

Hans von Morhart

Dutch Policeman (uncredited)

Larry Wheat

Luncheon Guest (uncredited)

Bert White

Man (uncredited)

William Yetter Sr.

Dutch Motor Policeman (uncredited)

Mary Young

Auntie Maude (uncredited)

Herschel Graham

Luncheon Guest (uncredited)

Crew

Rudolph Maté

Director of Photography

Alfred Newman

Original Music Composer

Charles Bennett

Screenplay

Dorothy Spencer

Editor

Alfred Hitchcock

Director

Joan Harrison

Screenplay

Richard Irvine

Assistant Art Director

Edmond F. Bernoudy

Assistant Director

Paul Eagler

Special Effects

Julia Heron

Interior Designer

Frank Maher

Sound

Otho Lovering

Supervising Editor

Alexander Golitzen

Art Direction

Richard Maibaum

Screenplay

Ben Hecht

Additional Writing

James Hilton

Dialogue

Robert Benchley

Dialogue

William Cameron Menzies

Special Effects

Walter Wanger

Producer

Reviews

barrymost

⭐ 10/10

February 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 exciting or action-packed. Foreign Correspondent is the more important of Hitchcock’s films, made at the start of WWII, and a clear call for American entry into the war at that time. Rebecca may have won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1940, but Foreign Correspondent was the more deserving film.

It’s 1939, and Europe is on the brink of war. An American reporter named Johnny Jones is sent to England as foreign correspondent for the New York paper he works for. He takes on the pseudonym Huntley Haverstock and is soon investigating the ostensible assassination of an important diplomat, uncovering a Nazi spy ring in the process.

Heading the cast are Joel McCrea and Laraine Day, two fine actors who are highly underrated today. The two of them maintain a good chemistry as the film progresses, and the supporting players are equally accomplished. George Sanders, that “dreadful man,” plays a wisecracking freelancer named Scott ffolliott, and gives a remarkable performance. Robert Benchley, as McCrea’s fellow foreign correspondent Stebbins, co-wrote the script, and is said to have written much of his own dialogue. There’s also Edmund Gwenn, cast against type as an affable Cockney hit man, and he makes the most of his short, but nonetheless important, role.

And, in his second film with Hitchcock, we have Herbert Marshall, in a truly great performance. I’ll have to leave it at that — because given half a chance, I could rattle on about the dear old chap for hours.

There are so many superbly crafted sequences in the movie, but I’ll mention just a few here. There’s the “umbrella scene,” where McCrea chases an assassin through a crowd of bystanders, getting lost amid the dozens of umbrellas. The windmill sequence, in which McCrea and his sidekicks find themselves alone in an open field, windmills softly turning with the breeze … or against the breeze, in the case of one such suspicious grinding mill, is marvelously shot. To add to the sense of urgency and danger, a single plane flies overhead. When McCrea sends Day and Sanders to fetch the police and enters the windmill himself, it’s one of the tensest parts of the film. Thirdly, when two men masquerading as police officers arrive at McCrea’s hotel room with malicious intent, he cleverly outwits them and escapes through the window, finding himself balanced precariously on a ledge far above the streets of London below … and dressed in his bathrobe. He proceeds to accidentally short circuit two of the letters in the hotel’s neon sign, reducing HOTEL EUROPE to HOT EUROPE, with a flourish that is purely Hitchcockian.

There’s also one brief but precious scene which for the most part probably goes unnoticed by audiences. During the car chase where McCrea meets Sanders, the assassin’s car rips around a corner, almost hitting a poor old man trying to cross the street. He steps back onto the curb just in time, and as he tries to cross again, our heroes go flying by, narrowly missing the man as well. As he tries to cross for a third time, a whole squad of policemen on motorcycles tear down the street, and the man, thwarted yet again, escapes back to the safety of the curb, turns around, and goes back inside his house. To the average viewer, it’s just one fleeting moment in the midst of an exciting, high-speed chase, but to be frank, the sequence had me in stitches; a glorious example of comic relief.

After a rollicking adventure across the continent of Europe, approaching two full delightful hours for the viewer, Foreign Correspondent reaches its climax in the form of a plane crash into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean … and one of the principal characters gives his life in a touching show of sacrifice.

So do yourself a favor, if, like me, you are a lover of great cinema, and enter this Hitchcockian world. Good triumphs over evil, witty banter abounds, romance blossoms, villains are heroes, and adventure awaits!

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CinemaSerf

⭐ 7/10

March 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 … read the rest.

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Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison, Richard Maibaum

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

barrymost

CinemaSerf

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