Sunday, October 23, 2022

Foreign Correspondent - Alfred Hitchcock

Now for a very different film, one that goes back to being pure Hitchcock. Foreign Correspondent, Hitchcock's 1940 film starts out with a dedication of the film to all Foreign Correspondents, as well as some great model shots. The story starts with the owner of a newspaper getting no information from his foreign correspeondents about  the impending war, or possibility of a war. He decides to hire a crime writer to be out there and get the information. This is the start of the McGuffin - it is a crisis in Europe with no mention of Hitler. What the focus is on is a peace treaty between Holland and Belgium that has a secret clause that only two people know. One of those men is Mr. Van de Meer. The crime writer has his name changed from John Jones to Huntley Haverstock (played by Joel McCrea) though everyone seems to know him as Jones. He heads off to London to hear de Meer speak, and hopefully meet and talk to him. While he does get that chance by random, he also meets Miss Fisher (Laraine Day), and you know right away that there will be a budding romance between the two. Something happens and de Meer is not able to make the London conference and so everyone seems to head to Amsterdam for another Peace and Understanding conference where de Meer is going to speak. It is a rainy day in Amsterdam and as Haverstock tries to get out of an awkward social situation, he turns and sees de Meer coming up the steps to the entrance to the conference. He steps out to greet him, de Meer is asked if a photo can be taken, and while the flash of the camera goes off - so does a clearly seen gun the photographer is holding. The photographer runs through the crowd with Haverstock following him - but what you see are black umbrellas being pushed out of the way, bobbing as the photographer pushes his way through the crowd, and then followed by Haverstock. It is a brilliant visual, enough that the Criterion Collection edition, spine 696, selected it as their cover art.

From there we get a car chase that Haverstock happens to jump into and who should be in the car but Miss Fisher, and her friend Scott ffolliott (the fantastic George Sanders). There is comedy regarding Scott's name, witty conversation, all while ffolliott drives the car further out into a village and suddenly windmill territory. The car they have been following disappears.

The film continues in this way - double crossing, people pretending to be something they are not (theme of theatricality), all the trademarks of a Hitchcock suspense film. And that is exactly what this turns out to be. It is a great film, with an exciting ending that keeps you on your toes the whole time. There is an added message at the end that was added by the producer which makes the film feel very propagandistic but that was not Hitchcock's idea. Still, the film does follow an American reporter, and it ends on a very pro-America note. Which to me makes sense as it was the start of war, and Hitchcock was in America doing his second film here. It was also the second film that was nominated for the Academy Awards, in six different categories. The film has a cameo, and a couple different editions out there. I have the Criterion edition, but also have the film as part of a box set - the Signature Collection. The Signature edition has a making of documentary as a bonus feature, along with the trailer. In standard Criterion style, it has more supplemental features - New piece on the films special effects, a new interview with writer Mark Harris entitled "Hollywood Propaganda and World War II," a 1972 Dick Cavett interview, a radio adaptation from 1946 starring Joseph Cotten (who you will see in upcoming Hitchcock films), a 1942 Life magazine 'photo-drama' by Hitchcock named "Have You Heard? The Story of Wartime Rumors" and an essay in the booklet. 

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