The Cool Channel DVD Review: Foreign Correspondent Posted by J.D. Dunn on 10.12.2006
Solid suspense film? Plea for American help in the war? Both?
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
D:Alfred Hitchcock W:Charles Bennett & Joan Harrison Starring:Joel McCrae, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders and Albert Bassermann MPAA: NR Runtime: 120m.
The Film:
Although America had adopted a tentative policy of remaining neutral about "the European War," Alfred Hitchcock had a personal investment in it. His home country was falling victim to the blitzkrieg and he, along with many foreign policy experts, agreed that Adolph Hitler would eventually turn his eye west once Europe was in his iron grasp.
Hitchcock's first pro-war film, "The Lady Vanishes" fell on the deaf, appeasing ears of Neville Chamberlain, and by then it was too late. Now living in a new country, Hitchcock knew he needed to try again with a pro-war propaganda film wrapped inside an entertaining story. Although it probably had very little to do with the U.S. entering the war a year later, it still remains one of the many films that serve as a "call to arms" against the tyranny of fascism.
“ Although Hitchcock didn't like to get involved in propaganda quite the way that William Wyler or Michael Curtiz did, "Foreign Correspondent" is still a message wrapped in an entertainment film. ”
Joel McCrae is Johnny Jones, a hapless crime reporter for "The Globe" assigned to play foreign correspondent in Europe. The editor is convinced something big is going on in Europe, but his current correspondent (played by Robert Benchley, grandfather of writer Peter ["Jaws"] and actor/writer Nat Benchley) is so entrenched with the governments that he's not bothering to get the news, he just recycles their press releases. Sound familiar? His editor wants Jones to go over there as a person completely ignorant of world affairs and see what he can dig up. In a fun little moment that is precisely Hitchcock, his editor tells him that he can't use the name Johnny Jones because it sounds made up, so they rechristen him "Huntley Haverstock."
"Haverstock" worms his way into a ride with peace activist Van Meer (Van Meer) in order to get his comments on the possibility of European war. "I feel very old and sad…and helpless," the old man responds. Van Meer also voices his admiration for Stephen Fisher (Marshall) and his daughter Carol (Day), who handles the publicity for their peace organization. Of course, Carol is very beautiful, and Haverstock puts his foot in his mouth off the bat.
The gears of peace grind Haverstock all the way to Amsterdam where he finds Van Meer again, only this time, Van Meer doesn't recognize him. Haverstock doesn't have much time to be offended because Van Meer is assassinated right in front of our correspondent. This leads to one of the more memorable Hitchcockian car chases as Haverstock gives chase to the assassin and winds up in a car with Carol and rival correspondent Scott ffolliott ("Rebecca's" heel George Saunders). Haverstock spends most of the chase debating about the two small "ff's" at the beginning of ffolliott's name.
The chase pulls Haverstock into a web of intrigue similar to Hitchcock's penultimate spy thriller North by Northwest. Windmills that turn against the wind, planes landing in fields, drugged politicos, and a Van Meer doppelganger all figure into this plot to thwart world peace.
Foreign Correspondent: The Entertainment Film
Hitchcock always put the emphasis on entertaining the audience first and educating them second. On that count, "Foreign Correspondent" succeeds in spades. It's a chase movie, a detective movie, a spy thriller, and a romance all wrapped into one film.
Four major set pieces highlight the film. The first comes when Haverstock sneaks into a windmill that is rotating against the wind. While there, he overhears the plot and finds Van Meer, but he carelessly lets the sleeve of his jacket fall into the gears and nearly gets ground up! The final, and most amazing, is the climax of the film aboard an airplane bound for America in which our major players are shot down by a German destroyer. Even with the bombastic stunts of "Die Hard" and "Mission: Impossible," the crashing of the airplane holds up quite well thanks to high-quality editing and pacing.
Foreign Correspondent: The Political Film
Although Hitchcock didn't like to get involved in propaganda quite the way that William Wyler or Michael Curtiz did, "Foreign Correspondent" is still a message wrapped in an entertainment film. "These people are criminals…They're fanatics. They combine a mad love of country with an equally mad indifference to life, their own, as well as others'. They're cunning, unscrupulous, and inspired," Stephen Fisher says at one point.
McCrea plays the role of ugly American, so self-absorbed in the beginning that he doesn't realize what's going on in the world around him. "This isn't my country," he says when ffolliott posits a plan to outwit the enemy. Like most Americans, he wants to tackle things straight on. At one point, he is told he's being followed by the assassins, and he asks why they just can't let the assassins catch up and have it out with them — or, in the immortal words of one famous American, "Bring 'em on!"
Unlike virtually every other Hitchcock film to this point (save "The Skin Game"), "Foreign Correspondent" doesn't have a happy ending. Instead, we find Haverstock and Carol standing alone in a London radio broadcast station delivering a message to America as air raid sirens are ringing out and the German blitzkrieg swarms down upon them:
"It's too late to do anything here except stand in the dark, let them come. It's as if the lights were out everywhere except in America. Keep those lights burning. Cover them with steel, ring them with gun, build a canopy of battleships and bombing planes around them. Hello, America, hang onto your lights. They're the only lights left in the world."
And as if that wasn't enough of a call to action, the film ends not with a score by Franz Waxman or Bernard Hermann, but with the Star-Spangled Banner. It's a coda, a plea, and a voice off American admiration all in one moment.
Extras
Personal History: Foreign Hitchcock - A documentary about the origins of the screenplay and story featuring interviews with Pat Hitchcock (Alfred's daughter), Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osborne, and Charles Bennett collaborator Stuart Birnbaum. It features several Hitchcock home movies as well.
"Foreign Correspondent" theatrical trailer in the form of a newsreel.
The 411: While "Foreign Correspondent" is comparatively workmanlike given Hitchcock's later films, it's still a nearly flawless film in terms of suspense and, despite its subject matter, it has aged quite well. To this day, it's hard not to get a little misty eyed seeing the lights go out on McCrea and Day while the Star-Spangled Banner cues up in the background. A-
