One of Hitchcock's first films after leaving England, 'Foreign Correspondent' is a well written yarn about a Yankee crime reporter (Joel McCrea) who gets caught up in European political intrigue in the days leading up to WWII. At the time, there was much debate about the extent to which the US should get involved in European politics and the looming war and the premise of sending a reporter over to find out 'just what's going on' would have resonated. While the story has a typical 'heroic reporter' B-movie plot, it is very well directed, written and acted, especially by Herbert Marshall and George Sanders and includes some excellent special effects, including the famous seaplane crash. For a wartime film, Marshall's character is remarkably ambivalent. Most commentators refer to him as a traitor but his confession to his daughter (Laraine Day) on the seaplane suggest that he is not British and is in fact a 'fifth columnist' ("I have fought for my country, in my heart, in a very difficult way; because, sometimes it is harder to fight dishonourably than nobly in the open.") The film was produced in the summer of 1940, as Germany invaded France and consolidated its hold on Northern Europe, and the ending of the film was rewritten, predicting the bombing of London (the film opened in the US on Aug 15, a week before the first bombs fell on London, and on October 11 in England, a month into the Luftwaffe's strategic bombing of the city ('The Blitz')). Reflecting the events in Europe, a new closing scene was written: a blatant plea for America to support Britain "...this is a big story, and you're part of it". Not Hitchcock's best work, but worth watching.
Review of Foreign Correspondent
