Purely Joyful Movie!

Please don't spend money on this.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Right from the start I knew I loved this movie. It's truly a Hitchcock classic, miles ahead of the last fluffy outing I saw from the director – STAGE FRIGHT – and a film with all the elements: mystery, suspense, romance, thrills, chills, and more besides. The globetrotting story sees our innocuous hero – Joel McCrea, playing one of Hitchcock's most appealing leading men – travelling to Holland and becoming involved with spies and conspirators. This is a film where nobody is who they seem to be and the action is thoroughly engaging. In some ways it reminds me of an early predecessor to the Bourne films: our hero's always on the move, outwitting sinister agents at every angle and narrowly avoiding death along the way too.The film is punctuated with vivid set-pieces. The early assassination sequence is shocking and gruesome, and it leads into a thrilling car chase. Then there's an extraordinarily suspenseful sequence inside a creaking windmill where our hero tries not to get caught – brilliant stuff indeed that defines the very word 'suspense'. Then there's the escape from the hotel room, the wonderful interlude in which our hero is accompanied by a bodyguard who's secretly out to kill him (one of the funniest things I've ever seen and the perfect mixture of laughs and thrills), a grisly torture scene, and even a major plane crash thrown in at the climax. Of course, all these moments are directed to the hilt by Hitchcock and among his best work.The cast is assured and indeed there isn't a bum performance among them. Particularly noteworthy are Herbert Marshall in a difficult role and a cocky George Sanders as a fellow reporter. I have to say, though, that Edmund Gwenn is the scene-stealer here as the immensely likable assassin. He's only in the film ten minutes but those ten minutes help to make the movie. Brilliant stuff indeed.

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Alfred Hitchcock was in the forefront of fingering the Nazi threat. The basic message of his flicks tended to be, "See something, say something." His 39-STEPPERS were abusing local livestock. His SABOTAGE meanies were blowing up little boys on buses. His SABOTEUR was going after war plane plants, dams, and battle ships. Hitchcock's films of this nature are too numerous to itemize here, but FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT fits neatly into the category. However, with its constant Switcheroos of the Real McCoy for fakes and phonies, the good guys here often are left jousting with the windmills which make up much of the FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT landscape. Many of these scenes play more like a farce than the serious subject matter warrants. Perhaps this is not surprising, when you know that the dialog was penned by HOW TO SLEEP comedian Robert Benchley (who plays reporter #3, Stebbins) and Ben Hecht, the brains behind the screwball comedy HIS GIRL FR1DAY. However, as the late Peter O'Toole used to say, any flick with windmills cannot be all bad.

Alfred Hitchcock directed this exciting espionage tale that stars Joel McCrea as New York newspaper reporter Johnny Jones, who, on the eve of WWII, is sent on a mission to get the inside story on a British diplomat named Van Meer(Albert Bassermann) who is supposed to sign a secret treaty between European nations. He is abruptly assassinated, and Johnny seeks the help of a woman he met at the conference named Carol Fisher(played by Larraine Day) and her father Stephen Fisher(played by Herbert Marshall) Johnny later learns that Van Meer is still alive, and being held captive by enemy agents for their own purposes. George Sanders plays a friend trying to help, and get to the bottom of the plot, which involves treachery in unexpected places...Highly entertaining thriller creates a good balance between humor and suspense, with many fine action sequences and memorable characters, especially in the windmill and climatic plane crash. Would have been most stirring in those Pre-U.S. WWII involvement days.

It wasn't until very recently when I watched Foreign Correspondent for the first time, only two days in fact. And even now I am kicking myself for not having seen it before. Foreign Correspondent is a real gem, and as of now in my top 10 Hitchcock films, it is also one of his most overlooked. It is a splendidly made and directed film, the plane crash was superbly shot and one of my favourite Hitchcock set pieces in this regard. The music is both jaunty and haunting, and the script is one of the wittiest and most playful of any of Hitchcock's films in my view. The story has never a dull moment and is always clever, suspenseful and compelling, I didn't see anything that leapt out as dated or propaganda at all. There are some terrifically tense set pieces too, especially the ones with the Dutch windmill, Westminster Cathedral and the plane crash, and the romance between McCrea and Day is a little too abruptly introduced but is still very sweet and touching. I also loved the cast, Joel McCrea is effectively smooth, compared to other Hitchcock heroes he is rather lightweight but this is in comparison we're talking about(and he isn't even distractingly so). Larraine Day could have had more to work with but is instantly appealing in her roles and works very well with McCrea. The supporting cast fare even better though, especially George Sanders who is deliciously suave and dour(and in a way that few actors have equalled him in), Edmund Gwenn who is both menacingly untrustworthy and offbeat and Albert Basserman who is quite touching in his role. Herbert Marshall also acquits himself beautifully as does Robert Benchley. All in all, one of my personal favourites as of now from the Master of Suspense and also one that deserves more attention. Out of the Hitchcock films that I've seen for the first time as well Foreign Correspondent has also been the best one. 10/10 Bethany Cox