Rent Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Typical Hitch - Foreign Correspondent review by NO

Slow to start but gathers pace. Many scenes were later copied & became cliches .I liked the plane crash-well done & although it was propaganda at the end,it was

throughly enjoyable.

Wartime Propaganda. - Foreign Correspondent review by Steve

With the war on in Europe and the US public largely disinterested, the legion of expats and Jews in Hollywood worked to turn public opinion towards entering the war against Germany. This is the first of Alfred Hitchcock's American films made in the style of his British thrillers, and his first anywhere to name the Nazis as the enemy.

It's a picaresque adventure, with decent comedy and superb visual touches. It is even set mostly in England, as an American reporter (Joel McCrea) chases down a key Dutch diplomat who has been kidnapped by terrorists. McCrea and Laraine Day are anaemic leads, but there's some fine support.

When Edmund Gwenn is performing an adorable cameo, we could be back with Hitch at Gaumont. For once George Sanders gets to play a hero not a heel. It treads water badly at halfway (and Hitch would have got this done half an hour sooner in the UK), but it recovers with an exciting and well staged plane crash at sea.

This isn't one of the Master's most suspenseful thrillers, but it is packed with wonderful imagery, like the chase of a would-be assassin viewed from above through a sea of umbrellas. Joseph Goebbels called it a masterpiece of propaganda. McCrea's final broadcast from the blitz to the US audience is the real purpose of the film; this is your fight too.

Pardon me gentlemen, I represent the Jupiter Life Assurance, could I interest you in a small policy - Foreign Correspondent review by LJ

This spy thriller starts off slow but more than makes up for it with multiple exciting set pieces later on. However it is odd that Joel McCrea drops out of the story at one point and George Sanders takes over as the hero. It made me realise I would rather watch Sanders.