Head Butler - Movies

“Foreign Correspondent”
directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Once there were reporters; now there is “the press.” The difference? Reporters talked tough but were secretly idealists; “the press” makes sure its hair is correctly blown-dry and its make-up hasn't smeared but forgets to ask pointed questions. To be a member of “the press” is cringe-worthy. But a reporter --- yes, you could build a film around a reporter.

In the mid-1930s, the prescient film producer Walter Wanger was so enamored of the memoirs of a legendary correspondent that he spent $10,000 of his own money to buy the rights to his book. The screenplay that resulted covered a wide swath of history, dropping in on various revolutions. In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, revolution was no longer an interesting topic --- impending war was. The movie needed to change.

And then Alfred Hitchcock signed on to direct the film. A loyal Brit, he wanted to make patriotic films. But he was now in America; his film needed to start there. And so, dumping all versions of the script, Hitchcock outlined a new story. His main character was a local reporter brimming over with attitude but short on ideas. His boss would pluck him out of the bullpen to get great stories. Does the reporter jump? “Give me an expense account,” he says, “and I'll cover anything.”

So, armed with a new, foreign correspondent kind of name (“Hadley Haverstock”), the reporter sets off for Europe. Naturally, the good guy turns out to be the bad guy. Naturally, the correspondent falls in love with the good/bad guy's daughter. And, because it's Hitchcock, there are great suspense scenes that turn into terrific action sequences.

The most gripping occurs early on: an assassination on a rainy day in Amsterdam. The killer rushes into a crowd of men with identical black umbrellas, then jumps into a car with our hero and his friends close behind. A chase ensues. In a desolate field, dotted by windmills, the killer's car disappears. And then comes a diabolically clever investigation of the windmills. All in all, twenty minutes of pure delight.

A set with an 80-foot windmill was the least of it. Hitchcock's budget --- a generous $1.5 million --- allowed him to hire William Cameron Menzies, who'd just won an Oscar for “Gone With the Wind.” Together they conceived of a climactic plane crash that leaves all the main characters bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Forget the acting and the writing; there's one shot here that has never been explained technically. Here's Hitchcock: “W hen the plane is diving down toward the sea because its engines are crippled, the camera is inside the cabin, above the shoulders of the two pilots who are trying to pull the plane out of the dive. Between them, through the glass cabin window, we can see the ocean coming closer. And then, without a cut, the plane hits the ocean and the water rushes in, drowning the two men. That whole thing was done in a single shot, without a cut!”

The 14 writers who worked on the script somehow produced a minor masterpiece. The casting was inspired --- Joel McCrae , George Sanders, Herbert Marshall and Larraine Day --- and the acting is first rate. The anti-fascist message tacked on at the end is considerably less heavy-handed than much of the propaganda that piggybacks news today.

It's no surprise that “Foreign Correspondent” got 6 Oscar nominations in 1941. What is surprising is how few Hitchcock fans have seen this movie and how neglected it is in the Hitchcock filmography. You can --- and should --- do something to correct that.

--- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com

To buy "Foreign Correspondent" from Amazon.com, click here.