Foreign Correspondent
Johnny Jones is an action reporter on a New York newspaper. The editor appoints him European correspondent because he is fed up with the dry, reports he currently gets. Jones' first assignment is to get the inside story on a secret treaty agreed between two European countries by the famous diplomat, Mr. Van Meer. However things don't go to plan and Jones enlists the help of a young woman to help track down a group of spies.
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Starring
Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann
Genre
Action, Romance, Thriller
My Rating
8.0 / 10
Format & Location
Format: Blu-ray
Location: Shelf
Format: DVD
Location: 1.B4704
Date Added
May 25, 2024
Review
Somewhat a love letter to, ahem, foreign correspondents, this movie started off making me laugh a bit. They choose Johnny Jones as their guy to go to Europe because he beat up a cop (can we talk about how cops were clowned on a ton in this era?). Johnny keeps losing his hat. And Johnny gets a new name he hates--Huntley Haverstock. All this to set up what becomes a movie about a kidnapping of a famous diplomat in order to learn a secret contained in a recently-signed treaty.
Some things I keep noticing about Hitchcock films:
First, his use of miniatures is great. Maybe everyone did similar stuff back when he was making his movies, but I doubt they did it this well. It's not a huge piece in this movie, but it opens on a miniature of a spinning globe atop the newspaper building and pushes into a window. It's well done.
Second, he uses camera shots that had to be innovative in his day. The shot on the steps in Amsterdam as we await Van Meer is excellent and long. The boom used on that shot had to be huge. The shot of the airplane and the camera move to enter the plane midflight is a common thing you see today--and today they do it with computers. I was impressed with the shot.
This movie came together well. As a propaganda piece urging Americans to get on board with the fight against Germany, it lays out a decent spy thread and shows off with some great set pieces. Hitchcock's weird projection of himself in his male characters pursuing women, coupled with the fantasy that they'd be on board with it, is always a bit too in focus with his movies. I know it's who he was and these movies aren't changing, but that aspect is out of place in all that I've seen so far. That's minor in this movie, though, as the spy piece takes the helm. Good flick.
Some things I keep noticing about Hitchcock films:
First, his use of miniatures is great. Maybe everyone did similar stuff back when he was making his movies, but I doubt they did it this well. It's not a huge piece in this movie, but it opens on a miniature of a spinning globe atop the newspaper building and pushes into a window. It's well done.
Second, he uses camera shots that had to be innovative in his day. The shot on the steps in Amsterdam as we await Van Meer is excellent and long. The boom used on that shot had to be huge. The shot of the airplane and the camera move to enter the plane midflight is a common thing you see today--and today they do it with computers. I was impressed with the shot.
This movie came together well. As a propaganda piece urging Americans to get on board with the fight against Germany, it lays out a decent spy thread and shows off with some great set pieces. Hitchcock's weird projection of himself in his male characters pursuing women, coupled with the fantasy that they'd be on board with it, is always a bit too in focus with his movies. I know it's who he was and these movies aren't changing, but that aspect is out of place in all that I've seen so far. That's minor in this movie, though, as the spy piece takes the helm. Good flick.