Introduction
I've had this film on my shelf for a few years now and much as I love Hitchcock films, have always been put off by the title - somehow it seems very staid and uninteresting. I couldn't have been more wrong. Those are the last adjectives that should be used to describe this film. ... Read review
In 1939, the editor of the New York Daily Globe sends Haverstock, a crime reporter, into ... more
Europe in the hope of getting a fresh angle. Naive and wholly ignorant of international affairs, Haverstock launches himself eagerly onto the London scene, where h...
In 1939 the Editor of the New York Daily Globe sends Haverstock (Joel McCrea) a crime ... more
reporter into Europe in the hope of getting a fresh angle. Naive and wholly ignorant of international affairs Haverstock launches himself eagerly onto the London ...
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The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features,Foreign Correspondentwas completed ... more
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 dispa...
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The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features,Foreign Correspondentwas completed ... more
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 dispa...
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By 1939 thousands of Italian intellectuals teachers and lawyers journalists and ... more
scientists had fled Mussolini's fascist government and found refuge in Paris. There amidst the poverty and difficulty of emigre life they joined the Italian resistance founding an underground press that smuggled news and encouragement back to their lost homeland. In Paris in the winter of 1939 a murder/suicide at a lovers' hotel hits the tabloid press. But this is not a romantic tragedy it is the work of OVRA Mussolini's fascist secret police and meant to eliminate the editor of Liberazione a clandestine newspaper published by Italian emigres. Carlo Weisz who has fled from Trieste and found work as a foreign correspondent for the Reuters bureau becomes the new editor. Weisz is at that moment in Spain reporting on the tragic end of the Spanish civil war but as soon as he returns to Paris he is pursued by the French Surete by agents of OVRA and by officers of the British Secret Intelligence Service. In the desperate politics of Europe on the edge of war a foreign correspondent is a pawn worth surveillance or blackmail or murder.The Foreign Correspondent is the story of Carlo Weisz and a handful of anti-fascists -- the army officer known as Colonel Ferrara who fights for a lost cause in Spain Arturo Salamone the shrewd leader of a resistance group in Paris and the woman who becomes the love of his Weisz's life herself involved in a doomed resistance underground in Berlin at the heart of Hitler's Nazi empire.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features,Foreign Correspondentwas completed ... more
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 de 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 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 makesForeign Correspondenta 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
Postage & Packaging:£2.69 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features,Foreign Correspondentwas completed ... more
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 dubiousnom du plumeHadley 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 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 makesForeign Correspondenta 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
Postage & Packaging:£2.69 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Advantages: Great cinematography Disadvantages: Somewhat old-fashioned
...lack of news that his foreign correspondents in Europe are provided. He randomly picks a journalist, Johnny Jones, from his office to cover Europe from London. Jones becomes known as Huntley Haverstock and is told to track down Mr Van Meer, the leader of the Universal Peace Party at a lunch held in his honour. He meets Mr Van Meer outside the lunch venue, but somewhere in between there and the lunch, Mr Van Meer is 'called away on urgent business'. ...at another meeting in Holland and witnesses his murder. He chases his killer, accompanied by Carol, the daughter of one of the leading lights of the Peace Party and a journalist, Scott ffoliot. They don't manage to catch the murderer, but Haverstock finds out a lot more than he expected, something that could threaten the roots of society.
Actors/characters
Joel McCrea and Larraine Day as Haverstock and Carol Fisher do an adequate ... more
Introduction I've had this film on my shelf for a few years now and much as I love Hitchcock films, have always been put off by the title - somehow it seems very staid and uninteresting. I couldn't have been more wrong. Those are the last adjectives that should be used to describe this film. Made in 1940 not long after Hitchcock had moved to Hollywood, his second American film, it was nominated for 6 Oscars.
The director Alfred Hitchcock, AKA the Master of Suspense, was born in the East End of London and started his film career as a title writer in London. He began his directing career when one of the directors from the film studio for which he worked fell ill and Hitchcock was asked to take over. By 1940, he had moved to Hollywood, where he made his most famous films, including Psycho. His last film before his death was family plot.
The plot With the Second World War imminent, the chief editor of the Globe becomes frustrated with the lack of news that his foreign correspondents in Europe are provided. He randomly picks a journalist, Johnny Jones, from his office to cover Europe from London. Jones becomes known as Huntley Haverstock and is told to track down Mr Van Meer, the leader of the Universal Peace Party at a lunch held in his honour. He meets Mr Van Meer outside the lunch venue, but somewhere in between there and the lunch, Mr Van Meer is 'called away on urgent business'.
He catches up with Mr Van Meer at another meeting in Holland and witnesses his murder. He chases his killer, accompanied by Carol, the daughter of one of the leading lights of the Peace Party and a journalist, Scott ffoliot. They don't manage to catch the murderer, but Haverstock finds out a lot more than he expected, something that could threaten the roots of society.
Actors/characters Joel McCrea and Larraine Day as Haverstock and Carol Fisher do an adequate job, but are not outstanding. This film is about the special effects and the suspense rather than any role that the characters play. I did really enjoy George Sanders as Scott ffoliot though. I was not quite sure until very close to the end which side he was on and he did the combination of good and evil very well. As an actor, George Sanders frequently appears in films of this era, but always as a secondary character - I have seen him most recently in Rebecca, also directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I think he is a sadly under-estimated actor. Also worth mentioning is Herbert Marshall, who plays Carol's father in a very believable role.
Technical bits I didn't see the DVD version and so cannot comment on the special features. The film is in black and white and is 2 hours in length. Classification is PG.
Conclusion I was very impressed by this film. As mentioned above, the main emphasis of the film is the suspense and this is admirably portrayed by the cinematography. Not that I'm an expert, but for the time, this must have been quite special. Three things stood out for me: One is the scene where Jones chases Van Meer's murderer - it is raining and all that can be seen is a sea of umbrellas that occasionally break apart to show the chase. The second is the scene shot at a windmill - this is from all angles and was so well done, it was stomach churning. Finally, a plane crashes into the sea and we see the survivors fighting their way out of the plane that is fast sinking and struggling to survive on a stormy sea. Fabulous.
The plot is also very strong, with a number of surprises - nothing is quite as it seems.
The only disadvantages that I can see are the lack of in depth characterisation (although I think this is a common occurrence in action films such as these) and the fact that it is made in 1940 and is in black and white, which some people may not like. Personally, neither of these factors affected my enjoyment of this film.
The DVD is available on Amazon for £19.99 for a new version or from £4.11 for a used version.
It is 1939 and Johnny Jones, a naive police reporter, is sent by his even more naive boss to cover a "crime" story that's unfolding in Europe: the potential outbreak of a second world war. Unprepared for the dangerous political landscape he's entering, Johnny manages to land smack in the middle of a spy ring that is masquerading as a peace organization.
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