In 1940, movies like Foreign Correspondent could get away with things movies can’t get away with today. It wasn’t uncommon then for a film to have boy meet girl, girl brush off boy, boy try again, and girl immediately agree to get married. Simple as that. Little fuss or muss, and definitely no hint of hanky panky. Such was Hollywood romance in 1940. If only real life were so simple.
Joel McCrea plays Johnny Jones, a freshly recruited foreign correspondent for a New York newspaper. It’s 1939, he’s been given the nom de plume Huntley Haverstock, and he’s come to Europe to get the straight dope on rumblings of war. Herbert Marshall plays Stephen Fisher, the leader of a pacifist political party trying to help forestall war in Europe. Laraine Day plays Carol, Fisher’s daughter. Within minutes of arriving in London, Jones/Haverstock is in romantic pursuit of Carol and entangled in political intrigue involving an assassination that happens right in front of him. For the remainder of Foreign Correspondent, the political intrigue plays itself out. As for the romance, it takes only a few minutes before it’s settled and Johnny and Carol are engaged. Just as well anyway, as this really isn’t a romance – it’s a crafty thriller.
There’s plenty of action in Foreign Correspondent, and some interesting plot twists. Neither McCrea nor Day give remarkable performances, instead playing things very straight. However, Marshall is very good in the film’s most complex role, as is George Sanders, as a James Bondish fellow journalist who’s way ahead of Jones/Haverstock in sorting out the mystery.
There is plenty to enjoy here, including some impressive sets, especially those used for a harrowing plane crash at sea and the interior of a Dutch windmill, complete with all its turning wooden gears. This is a great setting for the movie’s climactic struggle, and director Alfred Hitchcock does a fine – and characteristic – job of piecing together the action.
Foreign Correspondent, unlike most other Hitchcock films, is in a bit too much of a hurry to give us all the answers. While there are twists, not enough of them are of the sort that really shock you or keep you guessing. And of course, the movie’s romantic element lacks heat and is too automatic.
But even with those flaws, Foreign Correspondent is good fun and well worth watching.
There is plenty to enjoy here, including some impressive sets, especially those used for a harrowing plane crash at sea and the interior of a Dutch windmill.- Brian Webster
