Foreign Correspondent (film)

Foreign Correspondent

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by Walter Wanger
Written by
Screenplay by
Based on Personal History
1935 novel 
by Vincent Sheean
Starring
Music by Alfred Newman
Cinematography Rudolph Maté
Edited by Dorothy Spencer
Production
company
Walter Wanger Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Release dates
  • August 16, 1940 (1940-08-16) (USA)
Running time
 120 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,484,167[1]
Box office $1,598,435[1]

Foreign Correspondent is a 1940 American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It tells the story of an American reporter who tries to expose enemy spies in Britain who are involved a fictional continent-wide conspiracy in the prelude to World War II. It stars Joel McCrea and features Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann, and Robert Benchley, along with Edmund Gwenn.

The film was Hitchcock's second Hollywood production after leaving the United Kingdom in 1939 (the first was Rebecca) and had an unusually large number of writers: Robert Benchley, Charles Bennett, Harold Clurman, Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht, James Hilton, John Howard Lawson, John Lee Mahin, Richard Maibaum, and Budd Schulberg, with Bennett, Benchley, Harrison, and Hilton the only writers credited in the finished film. It was based on Vincent Sheean's political memoir Personal History (1935),[2] the rights to which were purchased by producer Walter Wanger for $10,000.

The film was one of two Hitchcock films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941, the other being Rebecca, which went on to win the award. Foreign Correspondent was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Albert Bassermann for Best Supporting Actor, but did not win any.

Plot

The setting is mid-August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II. The editor of the New York Globe, Mr. Powers (Harry Davenport), is concerned about the crisis in Europe, the growing power of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and the inability of celebrated foreign correspondents to get answers about whether or not war will ensue. After searching for a good, tough crime reporter for a fresh viewpoint, he appoints Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) as a foreign correspondent, under the pen name Huntley Haverstock.

Joel McCrea as "Huntley Haverstock", foreign correspondent

The reporter's first assignment is Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall), leader of the Universal Peace Party, at an event held by Fisher in honour of a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer (Albert Bassermann). On the way to the party, Haverstock sees Van Meer entering the car that is to take him to the party, and runs to interview him; Van Meer invites him to ride along, but diplomatically evades his questioning. At the party, Haverstock meets Fisher's daughter, Carol (Laraine Day). Van Meer disappears mysteriously. Later, Fisher informs the guests that Van Meer, who was supposed to be the guest of honor, will not be attending the party; instead he will be at a political conference in Amsterdam.

At the conference, Van Meer is shot in front of a large crowd by a man disguised as a photographer. Haverstock commandeers a car to follow the assassin's getaway car. The car he jumps into happens to have in it Carol and Scott ffolliott (George Sanders), another reporter, who explains that the capital letter in his surname was dropped in memory of an executed ancestor. The group follows the assassin to a windmill in the countryside.

While Carol and ffolliott go for help, Haverstock searches the windmill and finds a live Van Meer; the man who was killed was an impostor substituted to make the world believe Van Meer was killed.. The old man has been drugged and is unable to tell Haverstock anything. Haverstock is forced to flee when the kidnappers become aware of him. By the time the police arrive, the villains have escaped with Van Meer in an airplane.

Later, back at Haverstock's hotel room, two spies dressed as policemen arrive to kidnap him. When he suspects who they really are, he escapes out the window and into Carol Fisher's room.

Haverstock and Carol board a British boat to England, and while a furious storm thunders overhead, he proposes to her. In England, they go to Carol's father's house, where Haverstock sees a man whom he recognizes as one of the men at the windmill. He informs Fisher and Fisher promises that he will send a bodyguard to protect him. The bodyguard, Rowley (Edmund Gwenn), repeatedly tries to kill Haverstock. When the assassin tries to push him off the top of the Westminster Cathedral tower, Haverstock steps aside and Rowley plunges to his death.

George Sanders as "Scott ffolliott" [sic]

Haverstock and ffolliott are convinced that Fisher is a traitor, so they come up with a plan: Haverstock will take Carol to the countryside, and ffolliott will pretend she has been kidnapped to force Fisher to divulge Van Meer's location. After a misunderstanding with Haverstock, Carol returns to London. Just as Fisher is about to fall for ffolliott's bluff, he hears her car pull up.

Fisher heads to a hotel where Van Meer is being held with ffolliott on his tail. Van Meer is being interrogated using sleep deprivation to discover a secret clause in a treaty he signed. Just as he is being forced to divulge the information the organization wants, ffolliott distracts the interrogators. When Haverstock arrives, Fisher and his bodyguards escape, leaving Van Meer behind. Van Meer is rushed to the hospital in a coma.

England and France declare war on Germany. While Haverstock, ffoliott and the Fishers are on a Short Empire plane to America, Fisher confesses his misdeeds to his daughter. Carol believes Haverstock does not really love her but only used her to pursue her father. Haverstock protests that he was just doing his job as a reporter. Seconds later, the plane is shelled by a German destroyer and crashes into the ocean. The survivors perch on the floating wing of the downed plane. Realizing that it cannot support everyone, Fisher sacrifices himself by allowing himself to drown. Jones and ffolliott attempt to save him, but are unsuccessful. They are rescued by an American ship, the Mohican. The captain refuses to allow the reporters to file their story using the ship's communications citing American neutrality, but Jones, ffoliott, and Carol surreptitiously communicate the story by radio-telephone to Mr. Powers. Later, back in London and now a successful war correspondent, Haversack, with Carol at his side, describes London being bombed in a live radio broadcast to the United States, urging Americans to fortify their country and "keep the lights on" as they go dark in the studio.

Cast

Alfred Hitchcock can be seen when Joel McCrea first spots Van Meer on the street in London; Hitchcock walks past reading a newspaper. Albert Bassermann, who plays Van Meer, was German and did not speak English, so he had to learn all his lines phonetically. Likewise, one supposedly Dutch girl in the film speaks Dutch phonetically, though less convincingly.[3]

Production

George Sanders, Laraine Day and Joel McCrea in pursuit of an assassin

Producer Walter Wanger bought the rights to journalist Vincent Sheean's memoir Personal History in 1935, but after several adaptations proved unsatisfactory, Wanger allowed the story to stray significantly from the book.[4] It took numerous writers and five years before Wanger had a script he was satisfied with, by which time Hitchcock was in the United States under contract with David O. Selznick and available to direct this film on a loan-out. Hitchcock, who enjoyed not working under the usual close scrutiny of Selznick, originally wanted Gary Cooper and Joan Fontaine for the lead roles, but Cooper was not interested in doing a thriller at the time,[3][5] and Selznick would not loan out Fontaine.[6] Later, Cooper admitted to Hitchcock that he had made a mistake in turning down the film.[6]

Working titles for the film, which began production on 18 March 1940 and initially finished on 5 June, were "Personal History" and "Imposter".[7] Shooting took place at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio in West Hollywood, and on location around Los Angeles and Long Beach.[8]

After the film wrapped, Hitchcock visited his native England, and returned on 3 July to report that it was expected there that the Germans would begin bombing London at any time. To accommodate this, Ben Hecht was called in to write the epilogue of the film, the scene in the radio station, which replaced the original end sequence in which two of the characters discussed the events of the film on a transatlantic seaplane trip. The new ending was filmed on 5 July, presciently foreshadowing the celebrated radio broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow.[3]

Although many critics and film historians claim that neither Germany nor Hitler are named specifically in the film, both the man and the nation are indeed mentioned, including a scene where the name Germany is spelled out in the headline of a newspaper being hawked in the street and, while being given his assignment, Joel McCrea suggests an interview with Hitler, to get his views on the possibility of war. A fictional nation is mentioned numerous times however, possibly indicating that it was briefly considered as a potential proxy aggressor European country rather than an actual Axis nation.

The plane crash

One of the sequences in the film that continues to have a strong effect on viewers is the mid-ocean crash of the Empire airplane after it is shot down by a German cruiser. In 1972, in an interview with Dick Cavett, Hitchcock discussed some details of how the scene was created. Footage taken from a stunt plane diving over the ocean was rear-projected on rice paper in front of the cockpit set, while behind the rice paper were two chutes connected to large water tanks. The chutes were aimed at the windshield of the cockpit so that water would break through the rice paper at the right moment, simulating the crash of the plane into the ocean.[6] However, during the crash sequence, studio lights can briefly be seen.

Hitchcock's eccentric marriage proposal to his wife Alma was written for this film, for the scene when Haverstock proposes to Carol.[6]

Hitchcock frequently used visual imagery to underscore the dramatic action. When McCrea flees his hotel room and touches the letter "E" of the neon "HOTEL" sign, he burns himself and the letters "E" and "L" die, leaving the word "HOT" and leaving the sign reading "HOT EUROPE", underscoring the film's theme of war in Europe.

Reception

Foreign Correspondent opened on 16 August 1940 in the United States and on 11 October of that year in the United Kingdom. The film, which ends with London being bombed, opened in the United States at the dawn of the Battle of Britain, just three days after the Luftwaffe began bombing British coastal airfields in the early Adlerangriff phase of the Battle of Britain, and a week before Germany actually began bombing London on 24 August.[9]

The film did well at the box office, but its high cost meant it incurred a loss of $369,973.[1] It was generally praised by the critics, although some saw it as a glorified B movie.[5] It also attracted attention from at least one professional propagandist, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who called Foreign Correspondent

A masterpiece of propaganda, a first-class production which no doubt will make a certain impression upon the broad masses of the people in enemy countries.[10]

The film has a 93% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[11]

Awards and honors

Albert Bassermann (as the imposter "Van Meer") was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In 1941, Foreign Correspondent was nominated for six Academy Awards, but did not win any.[12]

The film was named one of the 10 Best Films of 1940 by Film Daily, and was nominated for Best Picture of 1940 by the National Board of Review.[13]

Adaptations

Foreign Correspondent was adapted to the radio program Academy Award Theater on July 24, 1946, with Joseph Cotten starring.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Matthew Bernstein, Walter Wagner: Hollywood Independent, Minnesota Press, 2000 p440
  2. ↑ New York: Doubleday, 1935
  3. 1 2 3 TCM Trivia
  4. ↑ TCM Notes
  5. 1 2 Stafford, Jeff and Miller, John M. "Foreign Correspondent" (TCM article)
  6. 1 2 3 4 Foreign Correspondent at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ↑ TCM Overview
  8. ↑ IMDB Filming locations
  9. ↑ Legrand, Catherine; Karney, Robyn (1 May 1995). Chronicle of the cinema. Dorling Kindersley. p. 311. ISBN 978-0-7894-0123-6. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  10. ↑ Humphries, Patrick (September 1994). The Films of Alfred Hitchcock. Crescent Books. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-517-10292-3. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  11. ↑ Foreign Correspondent at Rotten Tomatoes
  12. ↑ "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  13. ↑ Allmovie Awards
  14. ↑ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest 38 (3): 40–41. Summer 2012.

External links

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