Foreign Correspondent

You don't often equate the Master of Suspense with large-scale action, but "Foreign Correspondent" proves Hitch just as adept at spectacle as small-scale, nerve-jangling tension. Joel McCrea makes an amiably quick-on-his-feet reporter hero, sent to Europe to cover crucial peace talks that might avert WWII, who stumbles into an even bigger and deadlier story. Laraine Day is yet another in Hitch's early-period roster of awesome, resourceful heroines; while McCrea's trying to chat her up like a dope, she's just a tad busy trying to, you know, prevent a devastating global war. And Herbert Marshall makes for a wonderfully complex and conflicted character, adding welcome shades of gray to a movie that makes no bones about its forceful opposition to Nazi Germany. But all three get eclipsed by scene-stealing turns from George Sanders, as an impossibly droll and dashing British reporter, and a small but memorable appearance from Edmund Gwenn -- Santa Claus from "Miracle on 34th Street" -- who adds an undercurrent of menace to his usual twinkly-eyed lovability. Amazing set pieces involving a rain-soaked assassination in a sea of umbrellas, a stealthy crawl through a spy-infested windmill, and a narrow escape from a hotel culminate in a plane crash sequence that remains thrilling and jaw-dropping in an age of CGI blockbusters. While it doesn't quite hit the heights of "Rear Window" or "North by Northwest," this is a fun, funny, fast-paced ride, and one of Hitchcock's most underrated delights.

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