Foreign Correspondent (1940)

 Alfred Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent"


Although it was the second film Alfred Hitchcock shot in the US (1940's "Rebecca" being the first), 1940's "Foreign Correspondent" feels very much like Hitchcock's British films from the 1930s. It centers on an American journalist who travels to the UK to be a foreign correspondent, only to get wrapped up in a web of conspiracy and espionage. Sounds like "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "The 39 Steps," doesn't it? "Foreign Correspondent," however, is perhaps the final 'teetering on the brink of war' of these films, as war finally breaks out by the film's conclusion. 

I've got to say that "Foreign Correspondent," although checking all of the 'Hitchcock' boxes, like everyday individual getting caught up in a conspiracy much bigger than them, the 'wrong man' trope, and the 'nobody believes you' circumstance, still manages to be somewhat of a let down for me. I have been finding myself feeling this way for most of Hitchcock's films beyond the masterful classics like "Rear Window" and "Vertigo." Although it checks all of the 'thriller' boxes, I found myself completely uninterested in the story and circumstances. However, it makes for a very good propaganda film that was completely necessary in order to get the US public consciousness eager to join the European efforts.



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