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Registered: ‎11-08-2014

JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

 

 

4:00 p.m. Eastern--  "Foreign Correspondent"  Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall George Sanders

 

I never tire of alerting this top HItchcock thriller with adorable Joel McCrea, and impeccable, never-fail actor Herbert Marshall.  McCrea is the brash American reporter sent to cover turmoil in Europe, where he becomes entangled both romantically (Day), and also in a swirl of espionage.

 

This movie is like a primer on building Hitchcockian suspense, with the famous sequence of intrepid Joel McCrea nosing out Nazi secrets amid old windmills, the standout example.  There's a boffo ending too.

  Justly nominated for six Oscars, including "Best Picture".

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

@Oznell  Joel McCrea was a great actor.  This is a thriller deluxe!!!

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

Oh My, there are so many movies I have to catch up on watching. I have to add this to my list, especially with a cast like that. I don't want to miss it. 

I don't know what the actors went through to film the scene in the windmill. It was tough to watch, I can't imagine what it must have been like to shoot it.

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

Oh, yeah, @Oznell . Great flick. Too fresh in my mind to watch again but it sure was good. Laraine Day didn't make many movies, did she? Maybe she was at the ballpark instead? hahaha

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

Great film. The umbrella scene is very important if you are a film student.

When I lose the TV controller, it's always in some remote destination.
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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

foreign-correspondent-2.png

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

Great movie and perfect cast. 1940 was a good year for Hitchcock movies because both "Foreign Correspondent" and " Rebecca" we're released in 1940 - they're my favorite Hitchcock movies.

 

I think only Herbert Marshall could have pulled off a likeable antagonist. The first time I saw this movie on TCM I was disappointed that Marshall's character was the bad guy.

 

Just a side note, Albert Basserman, who played Van Meer was also in "The Red Shoes." He was born in Germany and his wife was Jewish. He was disgusted with the discrimination toward his wife in Germany so they emigrated to America in 1939. For movies, he had to learn his lines phonetically because his ability to speak English was very limited.

 

Joel McCrea's boyish crush on pretty Laraine Day was so cute.

 

I love the last part of the movie when McCrea's character is speaking over the radio and tells America to keep it's lights on because they are the only lights left in the world (kind of chilling). For me, this movie and "The Mortal Storm" help give us a glimpse/feeling about what it was like in Europe in the late 1930's and 1940 and the approaching evil of Nazi Germany.  (I suppose you could add Mrs. Miniver also).

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

I love Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels.

 

My mom used to work for Pat Boone and said that his son, Jody McCrea, used to harass her and the other women in the office. She met a lot of famous people and I've only heard her say anything negative about two of them, so that really stood out to me. She usually only had good things to say about the people she met.

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM


@cimeranrose wrote:

Great movie and perfect cast. 1940 was a good year for Hitchcock movies because both "Foreign Correspondent" and " Rebecca" we're released in 1940 - they're my favorite Hitchcock movies.

 

I think only Herbert Marshall could have pulled off a likeable antagonist. The first time I saw this movie on TCM I was disappointed that Marshall's character was the bad guy.

 

Just a side note, Albert Basserman, who played Van Meer was also in "The Red Shoes." He was born in Germany and his wife was Jewish. He was disgusted with the discrimination toward his wife in Germany so they emigrated to America in 1939. For movies, he had to learn his lines phonetically because his ability to speak English was very limited.

 

Joel McCrea's boyish crush on pretty Laraine Day was so cute.

 

I love the last part of the movie when McCrea's character is speaking over the radio and tells America to keep it's lights on because they are the only lights left in the world (kind of chilling). For me, this movie and "The Mortal Storm" help give us a glimpse/feeling about what it was like in Europe in the late 1930's and 1940 and the approaching evil of Nazi Germany.  (I suppose you could add Mrs. Miniver also).


Interesting. I've seen The Red Shoes many times. I looked up Basermann but he doesn't look familiar. What part did he play? Everyone was English in the movie. I'm just curious how he could be in it and not speak English?

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Re: JOEL MCCREA "FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT" WEDNESDAY 4:00 P.M. EASTERN TCM

@hayseed00,  "thriller deluxe"--  I'd like to steal that great phrase from you, if I may!

 

@cimeranrose,  wonderful back stories on the film! 

 

Whew, the rest of my household is heading off to a varsity basketball game tonight, so I've got supper all ready ahead of time  Just have to put away groceries I hurriedly grabbed just now, and I might even be able to watch this in real time, almost from the beginning.... such a pleasure...