When John Howard Lawson delivered his screenplay for Vincent Sheean’s reporting memoir Personal History, he encountered German censorship. American film companies had signed a contract, Article 15, requiring them to submit scripts to Nazi representatives in Hollywood (Doherty, T., 2013; Urwand, 2013). Alfred Hitchcock accepted the challenge, renaming Sheean’s book Foreign Correspondent. He described his theme as “the innocent bystander who becomes involved in intrigue” (Truffaut, F., 1967, p. 96), a variation of The 39 Steps. The movie is acknowledged to dramatize Hitchcock’s shipboard marriage proposal to Alma Reville (McGilligan, P., 2004, p. 73; Spoto, D., 1999, p. 231).
Mr. Powers (Harry Davenport), a newspaper publisher, wants better information from Europe. His editor, Bradley (Charles Halton), offers himself. He wrote a well-received economics text about the European situation, referencing Sheean’s popular book. As King Louis XI and a printer, these actors shared The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s first scene, also about distributing information.
Powers wants a real reporter who knows how to follow a story. His interview with Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) begins with “personal questions,” implying Personal History. Stephen Fisher, of the Universal Peace Party, enters. He’s Herbert Marshall from the Hitchcock-influenced Trouble in Paradise, where he robbed a peace conference. Peace was a euphemism for war in the Group Theatre’s failed Thunder Rock, directed by Elia Kazan. It was hugely successful in London under a different Herbert Marshall.
They change Johnny’s name to Huntley Haverstock, rhyming with Hitchcock. At the bon voyage party, his mother says he looks like a gangster in his English bowler. A tugboat pushes the Queen Mary from the dock. Gangsters evoke Kazan, who played them in Group Theatre productions. He starred in The Gentle People, featuring a small boat and bowlers described as derbies, its gay symbolism signaled by “queen.”
Haverstock arrives in London with views of Big Ben’s clock and a train, Hitchcock symbols. He’s met by Stebbins (Robert Benchley), who drinks milk, a 39 Steps symbol. The next day, Haverstock has a Hitchcock umbrella and an invitation to the peace luncheon. Stebbins can’t go because of a date with a blonde floozy (Barbara Pepper). In the next shot, Hitchcock walks by Haverstock, suggesting Graham Cutts. He enabled Hitchcock’s career by walking off The Blackguard’s set with his own floozy.
Haverstock shares a taxi with Van Meer (Albert Bassermann), who thinks it’s a good sign people are feeding birds. The reporter agrees it’s a “dandy sign.” He leaves his bowler in the taxi, implying the dandy Kazan, a cabdriver in Group Theatre productions.
At the Universal Peace Party luncheon, the 39 Steps party, Fisher and his daughter Carol talk to a diplomat, who comments on “circumstances beyond our control.” Contractual German censorship was beyond the control of American filmmakers. Carol is Laraine Day, Nurse Lamont in the Dr. Kildare film series. She symbolizes Men in White, the Group Theatre play with Kazan’s request for a Hitchcock internship. He accepted with his Waltzes from Vienna and the Men in White film, but Kazan rejected his mentoring advice and began attacking.
Haverstock speaks to a man (Edward Conrad), who doesn’t know English but enjoys the chemistry between Carol and the reporter. So does Haverstock, who calls over a Scotsman, saying the man wants to know about kilts. In a gay reference, the skirted Scot walks with him, beginning his story in Greece, Kazan’s family origin.
Although Haverstock arrived with Van Meer, Fisher announces he is not at the conference and will not be a speaker. Carol substitutes with the first improvised speech, a feature of The 39 Steps. Haverstock’s tablemate insults her by saying, “The female of the speeches is deadlier than the male.” Carol speaks of amateurs, suggesting the misogynous Kazan.
At his hotel, the Carlton, Haverstock is told to go to a peace conference in Amsterdam. Kazan modeled Thunder Rock’s Charleston on Vincent Sheean (Schickel, R., 2005, p. 79). In his pro-Hitler play Dimitroff, fascist patsy Van der Lubbe brings Nazi money into Holland.
The sets included a replica of Amsterdam’s Rembrandt Square (Hitchcock, A., 2014, booklet), identifying Charles Laughton, who played the artist. He wanted to be Peter Pan’s Captain Hook in Britain’s first sound film. When Hitchcock’s Blackmail earned that honor, Laughton attacked.
It’s a rainy day, and everyone but Haverstock has an umbrella. In his essay for Criterion’s DVD, James Naremore includes the observation by Raymond Durgnat that this scene reflects Rain (Regen) (Hitchcock, A., 2014, booklet). Joris Ivens and Mannus Franken directed the short silent documentary about a rainy day in Amsterdam. Ivens later made a Spanish Civil War documentary, The Spanish Earth, co-directed by John Fernhout, who appeared in Rain on a bicycle. Foreign Correspondent’s Amsterdam scene opens to bicycle riders. Ivens, Fernhout, and photographer Robert Capa made The 400 Million, a documentary about the war in China, also referenced in Thunder Rock.
Amsterdam, in Rain and Foreign Correspondent, features a sea of black umbrellas. They have comparable views of the city, including trolleys, a type of train. When he leaves Amsterdam, Haverstock sees the canals of Rain through a wet windshield with the grainy quality of an old silent film.
Van Meer exits a cab and walks up the stairs. Haverstock greets him, but is not recognized. A photographer (Charles Wagenheim) pushes the reporter away, shooting Van Meer with a gun hidden behind his camera. Haverstock chases him through the crowd of umbrellas. When they emerge in the open street, the gunman shoots a bicyclist. He runs among the trolleys, into a waiting car. Haverstock opens another vehicle’s door, and yells, “Follow that car.” Inside is Carol and a friend played by George Sanders. He’s driving, so the murderous camera is not about Alma Reville, a photographer and her family’s driver.
Spanish Civil War photographer Gerda Taro was killed by her camera when she put it on a car seat and stood on the running board, making her vulnerable to a tank. She was Robert Capa’s partner. He became friends with Vincent Sheean after she died. Hitchcock referenced Taro in three films before moving to Hollywood. Thunder Rock has the line, “You’ll no more escape us, Mr. Charleston, than escape yourself” (Ardrey, R., 2014, p. 97), implying Hitchcock can’t escape. Instead, he sets it up so Kazan can’t escape. Hitchcock symbolizes Taro as an unwanted obsession, in this case, murdered by her camera. Each time he does this, Kazan will remember failing with Thunder Rock, a wild success in London.
George Sanders is Scott ffolliott. Henry VIII, a Laughton symbol, beheaded an ancestor. His wife commemorated the event by changing the family’s name to a small “f,” suggesting Laughton is small. As implied by the Scotsman at the peace conference, ffolliott’s first name is significant. Scott represents Britain, while Haverstock is America.
They drive to the 39 Steps wilderness in Holland, with three windmills, reflecting the Moulin Rouge in Woman to Woman, Alma and Hitchcock’s first film together. Haverstock chases his bowler when it blows off. He turns around to see the blades of one windmill rotate against the wind, a signal to an airplane. Based on the derby in The Gentle People, this implies Hitchcock has become more observant because of Kazan’s hostility.
Carol and Scott go for the police. Then Haverstock sees the gunman. He climbs the stairs of the mill past two birds, all Hitchcock symbols. Van Meer is in a room, drugged and nearing unconsciousness. He speaks about the plot against him and about birds. Haverstock hides when the kidnappers arrive. A third bird hops on a rafter. The fascists, speaking a Germanic language, are from Borovia. Haverstock finds Carol and Scott. They bring the police but Van Meer, the conspirators, and the evidence are gone.
At his hotel, Haverstock escapes two police imposters by climbing out a window, as Hannay did in The 39 Steps. In his bathrobe, he enters Carol’s bedroom through another window. A valet (Alexander Granach) retrieves his clothing during a Marx Brothers gag of filling up a room with people. Haverstock escapes with Carol to a ship, where they declare their love and relive the Hitchcock oceanic marriage proposal.
In London, they hurry to tell her father. He’s working with Krug, played by Eduardo Ciannelli, a fascist leader in Gunga Din. When Haverstock says he saw Krug at the windmill, Fisher convinces him to get a bodyguard. He offers Rowley, Edmund Gwenn, who owned a pottery factory in Hitchcock’s The Skin Game. The year he moved to Hollywood, Thunder Rock included a pottery worker travelling to California. Foreign Correspondent’s chase foreshadowed this symbolism when a man carrying a ceramic pitcher tried to cross a street with speeding vehicles racing by.
Rowley, who wears a bowler, shoves Haverstock in front of a truck, but his victim escapes and is still trusting, so he calls a taxi, identifying Rowley as Kazan. They take a Hitchcock elevator to the top of Westminster Cathedral. Rowley insists Haverstock look at horse guards on the street below. He rushes from behind, but is thwarted when the reporter turns at the sound of an elevator. Rowley and Kazan fall to their deaths.
Scott, who already knows about Fisher, visits the newspaper office. Fascists want Van Meer because he’s a signatory to a secret clause, suggesting Article 15. He asks Scott to take Carol on a short trip, while he tells Fisher she’s been kidnapped. The price for her return will be Van Meer. Carol enters to convince Haverstock to get out of town. She doesn’t know about the kidnapping or her father’s involvement.
Like Alma, Carol is the driver when they go to a Cambridge hotel for a 39 Steps romance. Scott calls. He hasn’t talked to Fisher. Can Haverstock keep Carol overnight? That’s outside propriety. The clerk (Eily Malyon) looks suspicious when he arranges for the rooms. As in The 39 Steps, Carol hears some of the conversation. She assumes the worst, and leaves by herself.
Her car drives up when Scott is talking to her father about kidnapping. Fisher gives him a 39 Steps piece of paper, with a joke for information. He tells Carol they will fly to America tomorrow. Then he goes to where Van Meer is imprisoned. Scott hears the address and follows, asking Stebbins to bring Haverstock when he arrives.
Scott becomes the heroic hero. After Rebecca, Foreign Correspondent is George Sanders’ second Hitchcock film in a row. In The Lodger, police officer Joe, played by Malcolm Keen, becomes the heroic hero when he rescues his rival (Miller, H. K., 2022, p. 21). That was Malcolm Keen’s second Hitchcock film in a row, after The Mountain Eagle. Both second films relate to the Hitchcock wedding, which happened as The Lodger was in pre-release. Foreign Correspondent recreates the shipboard marriage proposal.
At a small hotel, Van Meer is tortured with bright lights, sleep deprivation, and loud jazz music. The underground distributed jazz recordings in the Group Theatre’s pro-fascist Till the Day I Die.
Taking the role of a friend, Fisher kindly asks Van Meer to recite Clause 27. These films often include numeric symbols. Adding 12 to Article 15 gives Clause 27 for a numerological string of 3 (12), 6 (15), and 9 (27), three being Hitchcock’s favorite number.
After Scott enters, he and the fascists watch Fisher toy with the disoriented diplomat. When he reminds Van Meer of their friendship, Scott calls out, “He’s not your friend.” Van Meer understands and speaks of Nazi victims.
You’ll never conquer them, Fisher. Little people everywhere who give crumbs to birds. Lie to them, drive them, whip them, force them into war. When the beasts like you will devour each other, then the world will belong to the little people.
Herbert Marshall suffered a leg amputation in World War I. As Fisher, he says, “We’re wasting valuable time,” a warning that the U.S. is too slow in joining the fight against fascism. For the camouflage plot, that’s the signal for serious torture. Van Meer screams. He begins to recite Clause 27 when America arrives as Haverstock and Stebbins.
Scott grabs Krug’s shirt, exposing a scar around his neck, linking him with Frankenstein’s monster. This signals Laughton’s wife, Elsa Lanchester from Bride of Frankenstein. Albert Bassermann, as Van Meer, was a Gentile German refugee. His Jewish wife, Elsa, was also an actor.
Scott jumps out the window, landing on his feet in front of Haverstock. They rush up the stairs, but only Van Meer remains. Scott visits his brother, an official with Scotland Yard, making him a modern Sherlock Holmes. Kazan is Moriarty, a role he claimed with the corrupt Judge Moriarty in The Gentle People.
On the plane with Carol, Fisher learns Scott and Haverstock are aboard when he intercepts a message for them that Van Meer is talking. Knowing he will be arrested, he sends the paper on and confesses to his daughter.
Haverstock walks to them with Scott. He’s trying to make up with Carol when a military ship attacks their civilian plane. As she distributes life jackets, Haverstock calls Carol “the most amazing cool-headed woman I’ve ever seen,” describing Alma, amplified by Jane Novak, a passenger. She was in The Blackguard. Hitchcock and Alma got engaged on the way home from finishing that film. It premiered on Hitler’s birthday.
The plane crashes into the sea with elaborate trick photography. Hitchcock had stunt pilot Paul Mantz dive toward the Pacific Ocean, pulling up as he “almost grazed the water” (McGilligan, P., 2004, p. 262). In the studio, the footage was projected in front of the airliner. At the crucial moment, two large tanks opened, with water smashing through thin paper screens.
Seawater rises into the cabin as our four, and a few others, escape out a window, using a wing for a raft. Fisher slips into the ocean to make room for the pilot (Martin Lamont). Haverstock and Scott dive in to rescue him, but he’s already gone. As in The 39 Steps, Hannay gets wet.
The American climbs onto the raft first. Scott, as Britain, has a difficult time. He’s pulled up by the uniformed pilot, who sees a rescue ship and announces, “We’re all right. She’s American,” reminding the U.S. audience that they’re needed. In the first shot on the ship, Scott talks with the uniformed captain (Emory Parnell) of the Mohican, an American name.
The captain won’t allow news messages until they get to port. In the second spontaneous speech, Haverstock calls Powers, hiding the phone near an African sculpture. Then he tells the captain what happened, with the details of a news story. In New York, newspaper presses run with articles bylined Huntley Haverstock, but we’re no longer in Borovia. The first line of the first article defies Article 15, “Germans bombed Warsaw today at 9 a.m.”
Huntley Haverstock becomes John Howard Lawson. In an attack on Hitchcock, he was vilified by a Kazan associate for Gentlewoman, the Group Theatre’s play after Men in White. The Sheean character in the final scene of Lawson’s Personal History reports on the Austrian invasion in a dark radio studio (Urwand, B., 2013, p. 196).
Haverstock and Carol enter a radio studio. When the lights go out in an air raid, the announcer (John Burton) offers another day, but there’s no postponing. It’s too dark to see his paper, so Haverstock gives the third extemporaneous speech. Describing the bombing of London, he urges America to action, “It’s as if the lights were all out everywhere, except in America. Keep those lights burning.”