Foreign Correspondent (1940)

(New York, England, Holland; August-September 1939, plus epilogue several months later)

Hitchcock film concerns American crime reporter Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) sent to Europe by his paper to get the real scoop on impending war. Jones under a new paper mandated moniker is tasked with landing an interview with a Dutch politician named Van Meer, who may be key to last minute peace negations. When his subject is apparently killed in front of him, Jones follows a suspect and manages to sneak into a secret holding facility where he discovers Van Meer still alive, being held by German agents in an attempt to get important information out of him regarding a secret treaty. Jones is then thrown into the task of attempting to prove that Van Meer is still alive and effect his rescue, a cause for which he gradually gains allies including British reporter George Sanders, and Carol Fisher the daughter of a prominate peace activist. Also Robert Benchley appears as comic relief in the form of a senior American correspondent in London.

The film is sold, good espionage stuff, which seems fairly conventionally framed until the last half hour or so. Indeed the last 30 minutes of the film are a real treasure, a kind of low key twist occurs, in which the villain manages to redeem himself, and in facts turns out to be a good egg in a bad situation. Really you need to see this film for the wonderfully unconventional resolution. The ending also contains a not to subtle plea for American involvement in the European war.