Foreign Correspondent

Alfred Hitchcock followed his American filmmaking debut Rebecca with this motion picture that brought him back to Britain but featured an American in the lead. Joel McCrea stars in 1940's Foreign Correspondent as newspaper reporter John Jones, who is sent to Europe to get a fresh perspective on the clouds of war but once there uncovers a conspiracy involving the murder of a peace activist. Hitchcock's fast-paced, action-packed thriller is full of memorable locations (including the windmill-dotted landscape of Holland), well-designed set pieces (a crash landing in the Atlantic Ocean), agents and double-agents, romance (courtesy of Laraine Day as love interest Carol Fisher), and a little humor. Produced after Germany invaded Poland but before the Nazis declared war on Britain (American studios were pressured to remain neutral), the film feels as much like an early 1930s Graham Greene–style suspense drama as it does a portrait of old Europe about to be upended by conflict—and it only slips into wartime patriotism in a postscript (added months later) set during the bombing of London. While this is lesser Hitchcock, it's still superior filmmaking. Remastered from a beautiful new restoration for this Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, extras include a vintage interview with Hitchcock, a 1946 radio drama adaptation starring Joseph Cotten, a featurette on the special effects with Craig Barron, a new interview with writer Mark Harris, a 1942 Life magazine “photo-drama” by Hitchcock, and a booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)