|
|
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing cast, unexpectedly funny film., 24 Jul 2004
Ostensibly a spy thriller set during World War I, this 1936 Hitchcock film is filled with some over-the-top scenes which will bring smiles rather than chills to the modern audience. Edgar Brodie (John Gielgud), a novelist returning from the war, is declared dead by his own government, given a new identity (Richard Ashenden) and passport, and ultimately sent back to Europe to find an enemy spy. With the charming Madeleine Carroll as his "wife" Elsa, Peter Lorre as a foreign general (with a Latin accent), and Robert Young as Robert Marvin, an American who flirts with Elsa, he arrives in Switzerland to discover his contact, a Swiss organist, dead. As he, Elsa, and the General travel from the mountains to the casino, a chocolate factory, and eventually by train toward Constantinople, looking for the enemy agent, Hitchcock keeps the viewer entertained with snappy scenes and dialogue but little real suspense.Gielgud is cold and elegant as Brodie/Ashenden but lacks the heart which makes spies intriguing to an audience. Madeleine Carroll is warm and funny, Robert Young is charming (and would have made a great leading man here), and Peter Lorre is hilarious (perhaps unintentionally), stealing scene after scene. Lorre plays his part with a Spanish accent, an earring, curly dark hair, and rolling eyes, and it's hard, if not impossible, to believe that he's an assassin. The outdoor scenes are obviously painted, especially in a mountain climbing scene, and the action is melodramatic. The best and most natural scenes are the scenes in which Young flirts with Carroll, while Gielgud stews or looks confused. These scenes provide contrast with those in which Lorre, in real life a German, looks like a chubby assassin trying to sound "Spanish." Hitchcock balances his serious scenes with scenes which offer some dark comic relief--Brodie's "wake" contrasting with a scene in which the butler casually carts off his empty casket, Gielgud and Lorre discovering a church organist's body and then having the church bells ring while they are hiding beside them in the bell tower, and Madeleine Carroll visiting politely with the wife of a man being assassinated while the wife's psychic dog howls loudly at the door. In major scenes the major characters wear clothing with sharp black and white contrasts, while lesser characters wear grays, and a constant prop throughout the film is the cigarette--even inside a sauna. Not very suspenseful, the film nevertheless has a surprise ending, and modern viewers will enjoy seeing this cast at work in this early Hitchcock film. Mary Whipple
|
![Foreign Correspondent [DVD] [1940]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GGJ9YSCWL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Joel McCrea
![Sabotage [DVD] [1936]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XsxjFCxeL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Sylvia Sidney
![Young and Innocent [DVD] [1938]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DYIxGIStL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Derrick De Marney
![The Man Who Knew Too Much [DVD] [1934]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41UQHnixmZL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Peter Lorre
![The Lady Vanishes [DVD] [1938]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jpkyzbNUL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Margaret Lockwood
