Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Street news reporter gets sent over to Europe at the dawn of WWII to get the real news about the war from the effete upper class culture.
Biased, pithy comments: A young Hitchcock movie, this is more brawn than brains. Lots of good thriller moments (fast-talking car chase, on the tower), and a bang-up job from Sanders as the smooth-talking, Bond-like Englishman Scott ffolliot [sic]. Fun in a random, spastic sort of way; the plot never really seems to be totally written as each scene was shot. Amusing antiquated views on morality---the shock and horror of an unmarried couple spending the night in the same room! Or a man in a bathrobe in a single woman's bathroom! Oh, lord! (And of course, some good shots of McCrea in sock garters. Does anyone still wear sock garters?) I had fun, but I wasn't edified. Ends with strong military message; typical of war films of that era---watch as heroine and hero put aside both their love and the personal fortunes to catch spies and traitors.
Other Notes: Numerous academy award nominations; apparently the last scene of the bombing of London was tacked on five days before the real bombing started. Sanders goes on to be (among other things) the voice of Shere Khan in Disney's ``Jungle Book.''
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, Albert Bassermann, Edmund Gwenn, George Sanders.
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock