Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)

News Caper

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Foreign Correspondent on DVD

Alfred Hitchcock wanted Gary Cooper for this superior espionage thriller, but Hitch was still a Hollywood amateur and hadn't yet developed his reputation (Cooper thought it would be "beneath" him to make a mere "thriller.") And though Hitch considered his eventual star "too easy-going," Joel McCrea works very well as an American reporter sent to Europe to scrape up news during the early days of WWII. Once there, he uncovers a doozy: the staged assassination and kidnapping of a diplomat. Laraine Day co-stars as "the girl," with strong support from George Sanders, Herbert Marshall and others. The film includes some of Hitchcock's finest set-pieces, including a secret hideout inside a windmill, a murder in broad daylight and a plane crash, even if the romantic subplot tends to slow things down a bit. The final scene is a slightly veiled but earnest plea for America to enter the war.

DVD Details: Warner's New DVD comes with a making-of documentary (featuring the usual band of misfits) and a trailer. Optional subtitles are available in English, Spanish and French.

Starring: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Albert Basserman, Robert Benchley
Written by: Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison, with "dialogue" by James Hilton and Robert Benchley
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 120 minutes
Date: September 7, 2004

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