Foreign Correspondent is a 1940 American black-and-white spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It tells the story of an American reporter based in Britain who tries to expose enemy spies involved in a fictional continent-wide conspiracy in the prelude to World War II. It stars Joel McCrea and features 19-year-old Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann, and Robert Benchley, along with Edmund Gwenn.
Foreign Correspondent was Hitchcock's second Hollywood production after leaving the United Kingdom in 1939 (the first was Rebecca) and had an unusually large number of writers: Robert Benchley, Charles Bennett, Harold Clurman, Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht, James Hilton, John Howard Lawson, John Lee Mahin, Richard Maibaum, and Budd Schulberg, with Bennett, Harrison, Hilton and Benchley the only writers credited in the finished film. It was based on Vincent Sheean's political memoir Personal History (1935), the rights to which were purchased by producer Walter Wanger for $10,000.
The film was one of two Hitchcock films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1940, the other being Rebecca, which went on to win the award. Foreign Correspondent was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Albert Bassermann for Best Supporting Actor, but did not win any.
Plot
Duration: 2 minutes and 22 seconds.2:22
Trailer for Foreign Correspondent
In mid-August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, the editor of the New York Morning Globe, Mr. Powers (Harry Davenport), sends crime reporter John Jones, using the pen name "Huntley Haverstock" (Joel McCrea), to Europe to report on conditions there.
Joel McCrea as "John Jones", foreign correspondent
Jones's first assignment is to interview a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer (Albert Bassermann), at a luncheon.
Jones/Haverstock shares a cab with Van Meer on the way to the luncheon. He peppers him with questions about the impending war, but Van Meer evades answering. Once at the event, Jones becomes smitten with Carol (Laraine Day) who has some uncertain role at the meeting. He invites her to sit at his table saying none of the reporters will listen to the speeches. A charming host, Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall), the leader of the Universal Peace Party, makes the announcement that their keynote speaker, Van Meer, has taken ill and won't appear. In his stead, the host has his daughter, Carol, speak. Jones realizes he has inadvertently insulted the woman he now adores.
The newspaper editor, Powers, sends Jones on to Amsterdam to cover Van Meer's next appearance, at a conference of the Universal Peace Party. When Jones stops to greet Van Meer outside the conference hall, Van Meer seems to be in some kind of hypnotic state and does not recognize him. Suddenly, an eager photographer moves to take a photo of the Dutch diplomat – actually concealing a gun near the camera. He assassinates Van Meer. Jones runs after the shooter and ends up encountering Carol and a reporter friend of hers, Scott ffolliott (George Sanders). They give chase in his car. Outside the city, they seem to lose sight of the car they have been following, but Jones suspects that the assassin is hiding in a windmill.
While Carol and ffolliott go for the police, Jones searches the windmill and finds Van Meer alive, but heavily drugged. All Van Meer can manage to convey is that the man shot in front of witnesses earlier was an imposter. Jones narrowly escapes the windmill to tell the police that Van Meer is alive. When they all return to the scene with authorities, Van Meer and his kidnappers are gone. Later, back at Jones's hotel room in Amsterdam, two spies posing as police officers arrive to kidnap him. When he suspects who they
Cast
Joel McCrea as John Jones
Laraine Day as Carol Fisher
Herbert Marshall as Stephen Fisher
George Sanders as Scott ffolliott
Albert Bassermann as Van Meer (as well as Van Meer's body double)
Robert Benchley as Stebbins
Edmund Gwenn as Rowley
Eduardo Ciannelli as Mr. Krug
Harry Davenport as Mr. Powers
Martin Kosleck as Tramp
Frances Carson as Mrs. Sprague
Ian Wolfe as Stiles
Charles Wagenheim as Assassin
Edward Conrad as Latvian
Charles Halton as Bradley
Barbara Pepper as Dorine
Emory Parnell as "Mohican" Captain
Roy Gordon as Mr. Brood
Gertrude Hoffman as Mrs. Benson
Martin Lamont as Captain
Barry Bernard as Steward
Holmes Herbert as Asst. Commissioner
Leonard Mudie as McKenna
John Burton as English Announcer
Uncredited (in order of appearance)
Crauford Kent as Toastmaster
Jane Novak as Miss Benson
Louis Borell as Captain Lanson
Eily Malyon as English cashier
E. E. Clive as Mr. Naismith
Alexander Granach as Valet
Jack Rice as Donald
Hilda Plowright as Miss Pimm
James Finlayson as Dutch peasant
Joan Leslie as John Jones' sister
Ernie Stanton as a secondary role
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