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Foreign Correspondent--Classic Hitchcock and classic propaganda
Pulled this off the shelf last night. I have a sizeable Hitchcock collection (my favourite director) and this was among the few I'd not seen yet. A great example of 30s style filmmaking (a 1940 release, but it fits the 30s quite well).
You can see a number of Hitchcock flairs and touches that would recur later on (a number of elements of North by Northwest--my favourite of Hitchcock's films and in my top 5 of all films--are present in Foreign Correspondent in a less polished, but no less interesting, form). Joel McRea is fantastic as the "fish out of water" that was a signature Hitchcockian character.
As for my propaganda remark, the film was released just as the Battle of Britain was raging (the end is set during a bombardment of London) and the film clearly has a particular bent regarding the war (this was Hitchcock's second American film, though set largely in London, and it was made after the Second World War had started but before the US entered the war). No less an expert on propaganda than Joseph Goebbels admired the film's powerful message and acknowledged it would make a persuasive case against the Nazi cause of which he was the leading "message-maker".
A great example of classic cinema, classic Hitchcock and political filmmaking/propaganda that was not done at the best of official government requests (there would be plenty of those soon enough in that period).
Strongly recommend it for anyone who's a fan of classic cinema. :T
You can see a number of Hitchcock flairs and touches that would recur later on (a number of elements of North by Northwest--my favourite of Hitchcock's films and in my top 5 of all films--are present in Foreign Correspondent in a less polished, but no less interesting, form). Joel McRea is fantastic as the "fish out of water" that was a signature Hitchcockian character.
As for my propaganda remark, the film was released just as the Battle of Britain was raging (the end is set during a bombardment of London) and the film clearly has a particular bent regarding the war (this was Hitchcock's second American film, though set largely in London, and it was made after the Second World War had started but before the US entered the war). No less an expert on propaganda than Joseph Goebbels admired the film's powerful message and acknowledged it would make a persuasive case against the Nazi cause of which he was the leading "message-maker".
A great example of classic cinema, classic Hitchcock and political filmmaking/propaganda that was not done at the best of official government requests (there would be plenty of those soon enough in that period).
Strongly recommend it for anyone who's a fan of classic cinema. :T
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