A year before Joel McCrea played a reporter who acted as an unwitting espionage agent in Alfred Hitchcock’s Oscar® nominated FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, he was a ‘witting’ one in this sketchy programmer from Warners. The film’s more of an intro for new star Brenda Marshall than anything else (her blank beauty & unanimated face saw her fast-fading after ‘43), and its slack script finds journeyman helmer Lloyd Bacon phoning it in. Same for composer Adolph Deutsch & lenser Charles Rosher. The bare bones plot finds Euro-orphan Marshall quickly marrying McCrea, then ruining his career in the diplomatic service when she ‘fesses up and renounces the Euro-spy ring that got her to America. Redemption calls when the newlyweds return to Vienna and expose that old fascist gang o’ mine. Far-fetched and haphazardly plotted, each story beat overheard as if we were in a comic operetta. The film does holds a bit of interest for its early call to action from the U.S. Congress against sabotage by foreign agents (and pings of pleasure in McCrea’s exceptionally well-tailored suits . . . such shoulders!), just not enough to make up for the lackluster story & filmmaking. Pass.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: As mentioned above, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, the Hitchcock film that lost Best Pic to that other Hitchcock film from the same year, REBECCA.
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