Monday, February 7, 2022

Hitchcock vs. Radio Part 4: Foreign Correspondent

Foreign Correspondent

  • Academy Award (July 24, 1946): starring Joseph Cotten (who substituted for Joel McCrea).

Foreign Correspondent is not usually counted among the 'greatest' of Hitchcock's films. It isn't exactly disliked, but it seems to be a little neglected compared to others. It's a fairly decent movie but very much tied to World War II - it doesn't fit the post-war environment very well. Perhaps that's why this adaptation doesn't quite work. Academy Award Theater tried to cover too much too briskly. The script really needed to be pared down - as is, the protagonist just seems to lurch from one locale to the next. The ending is also disappointing - instead of the protagonist urging his fellow Americans to action, it ends with the couple being split up in a bittersweet ending. This adaptation simply fails to capture what made the movie such good fun.

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