Foreign Correspondent

Less famous perhaps than some of Alfred Hitchcock's other wartime thrillers, this 1940 spy yarn is possibly one of his best. [07 Mar 2014, p.W15]

In many ways, the film is typical Hitchcock, with his camerawork check out the scenes with the umbrellas, the windmill, Big Ben, an airplane crash and others, thrilling plot lines, casting against type and employing attractive lead actors and actresses. But it's also very unusual because of the director's use of propaganda, unusual for him. [06 Apr 2014, p.R19]

Yes, “schmaltzy” and “corny” fit in any description of this 1940 film. The soundstages don’t do justice to Holland or London or the North Atlantic. But what plays over 80 years later is the wit, the Ben Hecht (“The Front Page”) and Benchley-written exchanges between the posh Brit and the American trying to work his way into the political inner circles where Europe was about to take a stand against fascism. Read full review

Director Alfred Hitchcock, whose unmistakable stamp the picture bears, has packed about as much romantic action, melodramatic hullabaloo, comical diversion and illusion of momentous consequence as the liveliest imagination could conceive. Read full review

One of Hitchcock's greatest entertainments, Foreign Correspondent is also a stirring propaganda piece which clearly indicts the Nazi regime. Read full review

It's one of Hitchcock's most inventive works, a great favorite of French director Jean Renoir. [24 Sep 1995, p.71]

Foreign Correspondent seems a sterling example of how the director could help the war effort by using current events as a launching point for his signature brand of suspense. Read full review

Hitchcock's second Hollywood movie is a hugely enjoyable espionage thriller. [05 Jan 1997, p.12]

It’s such an entertaining film that it’s almost possible to forget its didactic agenda, which is certainly part of the point. Read full review

Where the film separates itself from the director’s other early studio work and, indeed, many films of the period, is in its ambition and scope of its production. The aforementioned set pieces are not only memorable, they’re among the most impressively mounted action sequences to that point. Read full review

Foreign Correspondent hasn’t been as well remembered as some, but those who seek it out will discover a fun and highly entertaining picture awaiting them. Read full review

Intermittently first-rate.

A thoroughly enjoyable affair, complete with some of his most memorable set pieces. Read full review

Story is essentially the old cops-and-robbers. But it has been set in a background of international political intrigue of the largest order. Read full review

Heavy-handed but still poignant patriotism in this Hitchcock thriller. Read full review

A breathless yarn with the most serious of intents that soars well beyond mediocrity but just below genius, yet remains a film that I feel should be included on the master of suspense's top table. Read full review

A bit ham-fisted in its call to arms, Foreign Correspondent also fails in trying to force a romance between McCrea and Day. But there are plenty of signature Hitchcock sequences to recommend it. Read full review

This film contains one of Hitchcock's most famous set pieces—an assassination in the rain—but otherwise remains a second-rate effort, as immensely enjoyable as it is. Read full review