Joel McCrea known for his great work with directer Preston Sturges stars here with Laraine Day. McCrea plays it like no other can. They both give charming performances similar to the 2 actors in 'Young and Innocent'. Hitchcock stages some wonderful scenes including a plane crash. If you love the 'Hitchcock Way' of film making, like myself, this is a must.

Made during his early years in Hollywood, the little-seen FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT reflects Hitchcock is one of his most experimental phases: as in his follow-up to this, SABOTEUR, the film uses an espionage plot mostly as an excuse to show off. Here he seems mostly interested in seeing how he can work with mise-en-scene and camera movement. There are classic sequences constructed along vertical axes (the great sequence with Joel McCrea exploring a Nazi base hidden in an anicent Dutch windmill), horizontal axes (McCrea's attempt to sneak out of a hotel room along a high outdoor ledge to get away from spies), and diagonals (the assassination sequence on the giant steps of an Amsterdam government building). McCrea, as the title character, a crackerjack New York reporter put on his first foreign assignment, is warmer here than usual: it helps that he seems to have an unusual rapport with his leading lady, Laraine Day. The film does drag quite a bit after McCrea and Day escape from Amsterdam to London, but it picks up again at the end tremendously in the exciting if crazy sequence near the end when the leads' passenger airplane is shot down over the ocean and they must escape to safety with the rest of the passengers and crew on a broken wing in dangerous seas. Robert Benchley, who helped with the dialogue, has what is for him an unusual role as a jaded and seedy correspondent stationed in Europe; he seems a bit like something out of Graham Greene.

"The events in this film are fiction" says the opening. This film is dedicated to the foreign correspondents who report the news. The publisher of the 'NY Globe' wants to send a crime reporter, Johnny Jones, to report on Europe with a fresh outlook. He is to interview Van Meer on the situation in Europe. There are some comic scenes. People arrive for the meeting in London. Mr. Steven Fisher says Van Meer can't attend as planned. Jones goes to Holland for the Peace Conference with Van Meer. But a "lone gunman" shoots Van Meer and makes his escape. He is chased through the flat countryside - then disappears! A wind blows Jones' hat off, and this accident draws his attention to a mill whose sails turn against the wind. Jones finds the real Van Meer hidden away, a double was used to provide a patsy! There is plenty of suspense in these scenes. The gang clears out before Jones returns with the police.

Back at the hotel two men attempt to abduct Jones, but he escapes. Another ruse allows him to retrieve his clothes and then board a ship to London. Jones finds Mr. Fisher meeting Mr. Krug! There is double dealing here, a conspiracy. Rowley the bodyguard will take care of Jones. But there is a hitch in the plan. Mr. ffoliot is up on things and has a plan to get Van Meer (no doubt about his work for MI5). But his plan fails due to another human error. Van Meer knows a secret that the spies want. Torture gets the secret from Van Meer. Fisher and his daughter will travel to America on a Clipper flying boat. A ship at sea begins to shell their Clipper [which flies higher and faster], this forces the plane to crash into the sea. The survivors use the wing as a raft. After rescue Jones reports the air raid in London and warns America to become prepared for the future.

This fast-paced thriller set a high level that would not be equaled by later films. It combined political intrigue with the usual Hitchcock formula of the chase of an innocent man and a girl, and their eventual vindication. Some events are dated now, but were quite innovative then. How many other films repeated these scenes? The raft at sea foretells "Lifeboat", the chase "Saboteur" or "North by Northwest", the impersonation recalls "The Lady Vanishes" (or the novel "The 39 Steps"), the unmasking of an important person as a villain "North by Northwest". Is there irony in having Johnny Jones use a pseudonym?

A masterpiece by the Grand Master himself (Alfred Hitchock) this film stands up to all measures of time. Entertaining, suspenseful, educational, and simply brilliant in all traditional Hitchock ways, this movie is a must see for anyone who enjoys movies. The script is the strongest here, but exceptional performances, superb editing, and talented cast and crew make this film truly extraordinary.
Originally, I had started watching this film on TV about a year ago and was intrigued but fell over from tiredness. I've been trying to track it down ever since. I'm definitely glad that I was finally able to get my hands on it. It looks very good on rewatch too and is the kind of film I wouldn't mind watching again and again.

This is an early black and white political suspense classic by the master of the genre, Alfred Hitchcock. What makes this film somewhat different from his other classics like The Birds or Rear Window is its evocation of up front patriotism at a time when Europe was getting set for war in the late 1930's. The Foreign Correspondent Johnny Jones(for an American newspaper, of course) in this case (played by boy next door Joel McCrea) is sent to Europe to get the facts about what was happening there-namely was war really in the offing. Along the way he runs into people and organizations (the leader of one played by arch-British gentleman Herbert Marshall) whose sole purpose is to agitate for war -for the benefit of the other side. As McCrea and later a British correspondent (played by George Sanders) dig deeper they figure out the deal and try to crush it.

Of course, along the way there is a little off-hand romance involving McCrea (with Marshall's daughter the girl next door Larraine Day) but not to worry `justice' will out in the end. A rather interesting point is that the traitor Marshall in the end finishes up heroically. Well, I guess we have to remember this was still a time when the British Empire, at least formally, held sway in the world so that even scoundrels, as long as they were British scoundrels, had to keep a stiff upper lip. As a thriller this film is interesting. As a political statement it is much too ham-handed.