Foreign Correspondent
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Written by	Charles Bennett Joan Harrison
Starring	Joel McCrea Laraine Day Herbert Marshall George Sanders
Release date	August 16, 1940 (U.S. release)
Running time	120 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Foreign Correspondent is a 1940 film which tells the story of an American reporter who becomes involved in espionage in England during the onset of World War II. It stars Joel McCrea, George Sanders, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, Albert Bassermann and Robert Benchley. Image File history File links Foreign Correspondent This image is of a DVD cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the DVD or the studio which produced the movie in question. ... Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was a British film director and producer, a master of the suspense thriller genre. ... Charles Bennett (December 28, 1870 – March 9, 1949) is a former British athlete, winner of the 1500 m at the 1900 Summer Olympics and the first British track and field athlete to become Olympic champion. ... Joan Harrison (June 26, 1907 - August 14, 1994) was a film producer and screenwriter. ... Joel McCrea in Foreign Correspondent Joel Albert McCrea, (November 5, 1905 - October 20, 1990) was an American film actor. ... Actress Laraine Day American actress Laraine Day (b. ... Herbert Marshall (1890-1966) was a popular English cinema and theatre actor who overcame the loss of a leg during World War I, to enjoy a long career, initially as a romantic lead and then in character roles. ... Do you mean: George Sanders (1906-1972), the British actor George Sanders, who was awarded the Victoria Cross on the first day of the Battle of the Somme This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population –mid-2004... Combatants Allies: Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France/Free France, United States, Canada, China, India, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian... Joel McCrea in Foreign Correspondent Joel Albert McCrea, (November 5, 1905 - October 20, 1990) was an American film actor. ... George Sanders (1906-1972) in Foreign Correspondent George Sanders (July 3, 1906 – April 25, 1972) was an actor in British and American films. ... Actress Laraine Day American actress Laraine Day (b. ... Herbert Marshall (1890-1966) was a popular English cinema and theatre actor who overcame the loss of a leg during World War I, to enjoy a long career, initially as a romantic lead and then in character roles. ... Albert Basserman (September 7, 1867 – May 15, 1952) was an actor. ... Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist, film actor, and drama editor. ...

The film had a large number of writers: Robert Benchley, Charles Bennett, Harold Clurman, Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht, James Hilton, John Howard Lawson, John Lee Mahin, Richard Maibaum and Budd Schulberg. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist, film actor, and drama editor. ... Charles Bennett (2nd August, 1899 - 15th June, 1995) was a British playwright and screenwriter, probably best known for his work with Alfred Hitchcock. ... Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an Jewish-American theater director and drama critic, most famous for his work with New York Citys Group Theater. ... Joan Harrison (June 26, 1907 - August 14, 1994) was a film producer and screenwriter. ... Ben Hecht (February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was one of the most prolific of all Hollywood screenwriters, even though he professed disdain for the motion picture industry, and a human rights and Zionism activist. ... James Hilton (September 9, 1900 - December 20, 1954) was a popular English novelist of the first half of the 20th century. ... John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson was born in New York on 25th September, 1894. ... John Lee Mahin, (August 23, 1902 - April 18, 1984) was a prolific screenwriter and producer. ... Richard Maibaum (May 26, 1909 - January 4, 1991) is a screenwriter best known for his adaptations of Ian Flemings novels, specifically the James Bond series of novels. ... Picture of writer Budd Schulberg (born March 27, 1914 in New York City, New York) is an American screenwriter and novelist. ... Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was a British film director and producer, a master of the suspense thriller genre. ...

The film was one of two Alfred Hitchcock films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in the 1941 Academy Awards. The other film was Rebecca, which went on to win the award. Bassermann was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards, awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which are voted on by others within the industry. ... See also: 1940 in film 1941 1942 in film 1940s in film years in film film // Events Top grossing films Sergeant York Buck Privates, starring Abbott and Costello Tobacco Road Academy Awards Best Picture: How Green Was My Valley - 20th Century-Fox Best Actor: Gary Cooper - Sergeant York Best Actress... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world. ... Rebecca is a 1940 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock as his first American project. ... The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ...

The movie is memorable for such visuals as a flat field of windmills in which the sails of one windmill are mysteriously turning in the opposite direction from the others, or the dramatic shooting of a diplomat's decoy on the crowded steps of a public building, after which the assassin dashes through a crowd of onlookers, as from above Hitchcock's camera follows his progress by showing a line of disturbed and jostled umbrellas in an otherwise unbroken sea of bumbershoots. Pitstone Windmill, believed to be the oldest windmill in the British Isles A windmill is an engine powered by the wind to produce energy, often contained in a large building as in traditional post mills, smock mills and tower mills. ... An umbrella is a device used to keep rain off a person. ...

Plot Introduction

Jones (McCrea) is appointed as the Foreign Correspondent for the New York Morning. He is sent to London to meet Van Meer, a Dutch minister who is playing a crucial part in maintaining peace in Europe. Jones follows Van Meer to Amsterdam, where the latter is seemingly killed in front of a large crowd. Jones follows the assassin's getaway car to a windmill in the countryside, where he discovers that a large network of spies are trying to hasten the outbreak of war in Europe, under the guise of a Pacifism movement. For other uses, see London (disambiguation). ... World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 742,951(1 January 2005) Coordinates Website www. ... Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes. ...

McCrea escapes death several times during the film:

• Two spies, dressed as police officers, arrive at his hotel room, intent on kidnapping him. He asks if he can take a bath in his hotel bathroom, which they permit. He escapes out the window and enters Laraine Day's bedroom, from where he phones for several hotel servants to go to his hotel room simultaneously.

• He narrowly escapes being killed by a truck after being pushed out on to the road by an assassin posing as a bodyguard (Edmund Gwenn).

• The same bodyguard/assassin attempts to push him off the ledge of a cathedral tower, but McCrea steps aside just in time, and the 'bodyguard' plunges to his death instead.

• His transatlantic plane is shot down by Nazis in the thrilling climax.

Edmund Gwenn (September 26, 1875 – September 6, 1959) was a theatre and film actor. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ...

Quotes

Johnny Jones is speaking on BBC Radio when a bomb raid commences. Everyone but Johnny and Carol (Day) flee to the bomb shelter. Johnny carries on speaking. BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. ...

Carol: They're listening in America.

Johnny: Okay, we'll tell 'em then. I can't read the rest of the speech I had, 'cause the lights have gone out, so I'll just have to speak from the cuff. All that noise you hear isn't static - it's death, coming to London. Yes, they're coming here now. You can hear the bombs falling on the streets and on the homes. Don't tune me out, hang on a while - this is a big story, and you're part of it, it's too late to do anything here now except stand in the dark and let them come... as if the lights were out everywhere, except in America. Keep those lights burning, cover them with steel, ring them with guns, build a canopy of battleships and bombing planes around them. Hello, America, hang on to your lights: they're the only ones left in the world!

Trivia

• Hitchcock's cameo: When Jones (McCrea) first spots Van Meer (Basserman) on the street in London, Hitchcock walks past reading a newspaper.
• Hitchcock originally wanted Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck to play McCrea and Day's parts
• Basserman couldn't speak English (he was German), and had to learn all his lines phonetically. Likewise, one 'Dutch' girl speaks Dutch phonetically, though not quite as convincingly.
• In the windmill scene, the windmills are more Spanish than Dutch in appearance, and the Dutch policeman speaks (broken) German in stead of Dutch.
• When McCrea flees his hotel room and touches the letter 'E' of the neon 'HOTEL' sign, he burns himself and the letters 'E' and 'L' die, appropriately leaving the word 'HOT'.

Gary Cooper and Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1950 Gary Cooper (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was a two-time Oscar-winning American film actor of British heritage, whose career spanned from the 1920s up until the year of his death. ... Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American film and television actress. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Foreign Correspondent

• Foreign Correspondent at the Internet Movie Database
• Classic Movies: Foreign Correspondent (1940)
• An analysis of Foreign Correspondent in the context of Hitchcock's career