Classic Hitchcock. It is 1939 and Johnny Jones, a naive police reporter, is sent by his even more naive boss to cover a "crime" story that's unfolding in Europe: the potential outbreak of a second world war. Unprepared for the dangerous political landscape he's entering, Johnny manages to land smack in the middle of a spy ring that is masquerading as a peace organization.

Set after the start of World War II, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT avoids almost all the trappings of a war movie and focuses on the type of murky intrigue that is Hitchcock's signature. Joel McCrea plays Johnny Jones, a reporter sent overseas when his newspaper demands some firsthand news. Jones is a New Yorker out of his element in Europe, but when he stumbles upon a massive conspiracy headed by peace advocate Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall), his instincts drive him to pursue the story and confront the web of intrigue, but he'll need help and finds it in the lovely Carol (Laraine Day). The rain-soaked assassination sequence that kicks off the intrigue has a raw, haunting quality that plays on the spareness of newsreel footage.

Theatrical release: August 16, 1940.

Hitch onscreen: Hitchcock appears as a pedestrian reading a newspaper passing by Joel McCrea.

Hitchcock used the haunting site of an old mill in FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and two previous films, YOUNG AND INNOCENT and THE MANXMAN.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT was independently produced by Walter Wagner and therefore is sometimes hard to find on video.

This was Herbert Marshall's second Hitchcock film. The first was MURDER!

Gary Cooper turned down the lead role, refusing to act in a thriller.

Hitchcock's eccentric marriage proposal to Alma was written into the script.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.37
Audio:
Mono 1.0 - English
Additional Release Material:
Documentary: PERSONAL HISTORY: FOREIGN HITCHCOCK

Joel McCrea: American Actor
Laraine Day: American Actress
Herbert Marshall: British Actor/In USA & UK
George Sanders: Oscar-winning actor, ALL ABOUT EVE
Albert Basserman: German Actor
Edmund Gwenn: Welsh Actor
Eduardo Ciannelli: Italian Actor
Robert Benchley: American Actor/Screenwriter
Harry Davenport: American Actor/Director
Martin Kosleck: Character Actor
Charles Halton: Actor, worked with Wilder, Lubitsch, and Wyler, '10s-'50s

Alfred Hitchcock: Director/screenwriter/producer, VERTIGO, THE BIRDS, PSYCHO

Walter Wanger: Producer

Charles Bennett: Screenwriter, '30s-'60s, several screenplays for Hitchcock
Joan Harrison: British Writer/Producer
James Hilton: British Novelist/Screenwriter
Robert Benchley: American Actor/Screenwriter

Alfred Newman: Composer/Conductor/D.1970

Otho S. Lovering: Editor, mostly Westerns, 1920s-1960s
Dorothy Spencer: Editor

"[With] snappy, sophisticated and funny dialogue..."