As we've discussed, there are some movies that you can't help but watch (no matter how many times you've seen them) when you get the chance. One of them for me is definitely Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film Foreign Correspondent. It's certainly not the best Hitchcock film, but it just might be my favorite Hitchcock film. I'm not a huge Joel McCrea fan, but he's pretty good as a classically American Johnny Jones (this definitely falls into the propaganda film category - but then, it 2as 1940) who is hired to go to Europe (about which he knows nothing, even suggesting to his boss that "maybe we should talk to this Hitler guy, he probably knows some stuff") to act as a foreign correspondent. Laraine Day (who, I guess, was 19 at the time) plays his love interest, and she sparkles, which is a nice change of pace from the icy blondes that Hitchcock loved. Herbert Marshall is wooden as only Herbert Marshall can be. George Sanders, as was his wont, stole every scene. Edmund Gwen, who I tend to associate with love able characters in Miracle on 34th Street and Them! plays a menacing role. The ending must have really spoke to an American audience not yet in the war. Definitely recommended.
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