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Saturday, 17 June 2006 |
By D. W. O'Dell
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Academy awards: 6 nominations (including Best Picture, no awards)
 It’s odd how some films are considered major films at the time of their release, but then slide into obscurity. Foreign Correspondent, Alfred Hitchcock’s second American film, is today considered minor Hitchcock, a long way down from masterpieces like Vertigo and North by Northwest. But at the time of its release, the film was highly regarded and was even nominated for Best Picture (losing to director Alfred Hitchcock’s first American film, Rebecca).
Perhaps part of the reason is that the prologue and epilogue are highly dated, setting the film at the very start of WW II and making the movie seem like pro-war propaganda. Its ending was a last minute add-on designed to take advantage of America’s entry into the war. What passes between the prologue and epilogue, however, is vintage (if not classic) Hitchcock and is as timeless as Casablanca.
The film stars Joel McCrea as a down-on-his-luck crime journalist working for a major metropolitan newspaper (the New York Globe, not the Metropolis Daily Planet). The publisher of the paper, bored with the drivel his correspondents in Europe are feeding him as the continent gears up for war, assigns the journalist to cover Europe even though he has no international news experience - the publisher says he wants a “fresh, unused mind."
Once in Europe McCrea’s character, who possesses the unfortunate name of Johnnie Jones (he is renamed Huntley Haverstock by the publisher to make him sound more distinguished) immediately starts rubbing elbows with the leaders of the peace movement, including Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall) and Fisher’s beautiful daughter Carol (Laraine Day). He also happens to meet and chat with a key peace movement leader named Van Meer, who to Jones’ horror is assassinated before his eyes in Amsterdam. Jones pursues the assassin, only to have him vanish among some windmills. Jones is stymied until he notices one windmill is turning the opposite way to all the others.
Van Meer, or rather the information in Van Meer’s head, is the McGuffin in Foreign Correspondent. Jones, on unfamiliar territory in Europe, has to track down pro-war spies, thwart several attempts on his life, and court Carol Fisher all at the same time. Luckily, the woman doesn’t put up much of a struggle against his American charms: after she responds to his declaration of love that she is in love with him, too, he replies, “Well, that cuts down our love scene quite a bit.”
Hitchcock relied on humor in his best movies, and the wit here is supplied by none other than Algonquin Round Table member Robert Benchley, who not only dabbled with the script but also has a small role as the world-weary European correspondent Jones is in Europe to replace. Benchley was allowed to create some of his own dialogue, a liberty Hitchcock almost never granted.
Also aiding Jones is an Englishman named ffolliott (he explains that an ancestor had his head cut off by Henry VIII and another ancestor removed the capital letter of the family name in protest), played to oily perfection by George Sanders. Sanders usually portrayed bad guys - he titled his autobiography A Perfect Cad - but he was versatile enough to play good guys in several films and is effective here in helping Jones, without seeming too able to supplant him as the hero, or with the girl.
The film has several deft Hitchcokian touches. An escaping assassin ducks under the umbrellas held by by-standers, allowing the audience to see his path without actually seeing him. Jones’ coat catches in the mechanism of a windmill while he’s hiding, nearly revealing his presence. There are several assassination attempts on Jones life that are, of course, near misses - all executed with perfect timing by ‘The Master of Suspense.’
The film was nominated for six Oscars: in special effects, cinematography, art direction, supporting actor, screenplay and best film. Albert Basserman received a supporting actor nomination despite the fact that he spoke no English and recited his lines phonetically. The “making of” featurette on the DVD reveals many of the quite clever tricks and effects used which garnered the film its nominations, including the sinking of an airplane that looks terrifyingly realistic.
Why isn’t the movie among the top echelon of Hitchcock’s films? I suspect one thing might be the starring of Joel McCrea, a wonderful actor who is little remembered today. He also starred in one of the best comedies ever made, The Palm Beach Story, but no one remembers that either. Reportedly, Hitchcock wanted Gary Cooper for the lead, but Cooper declined because he didn’t want to make a thriller (a decision he later said he regretted). Maybe Cooper would have raised the film’s profile.
Foreign Correspondent does seem a little dated, with all of the characters wondering if Europe will go to war. We now believe that war was inevitable given Hitler’s megalomania, so the uncertainty strikes the modern ear oddly. Also the very phrase “foreign correspondent” is something unknown in today’s era of easy travel. There’s no longer any need for news organizations to send specialists to cover the world; anyone with a passport can now go anywhere.
If you haven’t seen every film Alfred Hitchcock ever made, and Foreign Correspondent is one of the gaps, by all means seek out the DVD and rent it. McCrea is a winning leading man, embodying the perception of Americans at the time - brash, fearless, stubborn, and charming. The story will have you twisting and turning, even though today we all know how WW II turned out (we won - oh, is that a spoiler?). |
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