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List Price: $19.98Amazon.com's Price: $17.99 You Save: $1.99 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790789682
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 079078968X
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 07, 2004
Running Time: 120 minutes
Sales Rank: 20045
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: August 16, 1940
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Johnny Jones is an action reporter on a New York newspaper. The editor appoints him European correspondent because he is fed up with the dry reports he currently gets. Jones' first assignment is to get the inside story on a secret treaty agreed between two European countries by the famous diplomat Mr. Van Meer. However things don't go to plan and Jones enlists the help of a young woman to help track down a group of spies.Running Time: 120 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085393186227
Amazon.com essential video:
The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features, Foreign Correspondent was completed in 1940, as the European war was only beginning to erupt across national borders. Its titular hero, Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea), is an American crime reporter dispatched by his New York publisher to put a fresh spin on the drowsy dispatches emanating from overseas, his nose for a good story (and, of course, some fortuitous timing) promptly leading him to the 'crime' of fascism and Nazi Germany's designs on European conquest.
In attempting to learn more about a seemingly noble peace effort, Jones (who's been saddled with the dubious nom du plume Hadley Haverstock) walks into the middle of an assassination, uncovers a spy ring, and, not entirely coincidentally, falls in love--a pattern familiar to admirers of Hitchcock's espionage thrillers, of which this is a thoroughly entertaining example. McCrea's hardy Yankee charms are neatly contrasted with the droll, veddy English charm of colleague George Sanders; Herbert Marshall provides a plummy variation on the requisite, ambiguous 'good-or-is-he-really-bad' guy; Laraine Day affords a lovely heroine; and Robert Benchley (who contributed to the script) pops up, albeit too briefly, for comic relief.
As good as the cast is, however, it's Hitchcock's staging of key action sequences that makes Foreign Correspondent a textbook example of the director's visual energy: an assassin's escape through a rain-soaked crowd is registered by rippling umbrellas, a nest of spies is detected by the improbable direction of a windmill's spinning sails, and Jones's nocturnal flight across a pitched city rooftop produces its own contextual comment when broken neon tubes convert the Hotel Europe into 'Hot Europe.' --Sam Sutherland
Amazon.com:
For inexplicable reasons, Foreign Correspondent never achieved the fame of The 39 Steps or North by Northwest, but it is certainly good enough to join the ranks of these better-known Hitchcock thrillers. Set just before the beginning of World War II, the film focuses on murder, international intrigue, and an innocent Joel McCrea caught between spies and counterspies. Highlights include an assassination on a rainy day with the killer escaping into a sea of umbrellas, a group of spies who signal their Dutch contacts by turning windmills against the wind, and an extraordinary climax aboard a plane that crashes into the ocean. In McCrea's final speech, you can hear the British filmmaker uniting American patriotism with the anti-Nazi cause. --Raphael Shargel
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Every which way
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - The Great Suspense Thriller
"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" ... Read More
Rating: - remarkable!
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. ... Read More
Rating: - The Battle for Britain?
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - A forgotten gem from the master.
This spy-story runs long and sometimes you just want to fast forward to the great spectacular scenes. The second film from Hitchcock made in the states; Rebecca has a better plot and star power. Yet this six oscar nominated film does deserve a look at, especially the set pieces. There is no confrontations or suspense who is the villain, but the camera shots are worth the price of admission. Although the final sequence is a little predictable and the goofs are among the most obvious, it is still a ride I will continue ... Read More
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