Foreign Correspondent

Filming on Foreign Correspondent was completed on 29 May 1940, after which Sir Alfred Hitchcock visited England. He returned on 3 July, saying the Germans were expected to begin bombing at any moment. Ben Hecht was hastily summoned and wrote the final scene, set in a London radio station. The scene was shot on 5 July, and the real-life bombing began on 10 July 1940.

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Producer Walter Wanger and Sir Alfred Hitchcock clashed repeatedly during filming. Wanger wanted the script rewritten with every news report of changes in the situation in Europe. Hitchcock, who hated making a film whose script was not completely final before shooting began, noted that even if the film was current during production, it would be out of date by the time post-production was finished and it was ready for release.

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When the plane crash scene was shot, a special bathtub had to be built inside the studio tank for Sir Herbert Marshall, who could not swim because he had only one leg (he had lost a leg in combat in World War I).

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Albert Bassermann, who played the Dutch diplomat Van Meer, could not speak a word of English and learned all his lines phonetically.

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Producer Walter Wanger wanted to include many political elements in this film, but Sir Alfred Hitchcock tried to minimize the political elements as much as possible. Hitchcock felt the film would become dated because politics changes from time to time, so he tried to reduce references to the Axis powers as much as possible.

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In a 1972 interview on The Dick Cavett Show (1968), Sir Alfred Hitchcock explained that the plane crash scene was shot using footage taken from a stunt plane diving into the ocean, rear-projected onto rice paper in front of the flight deck set. Behind the rice paper there were also two chutes connected to large water tanks, aimed at the front windshield of the flight deck. When a button was pressed at the right moment, water flowed through the rice paper onto the plane, simulating the aircraft falling into the sea as seen from the flight deck.

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Robert Benchley was allowed to write his own lines. The humorist liked to make self-deprecating jokes about his drinking, and so did his character Stebbins in the film.

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Early in the film, after Johnny Jones drops off Stebbins and Miss "Clark" at the entrance of the Carlton Hotel, Jones is reading a newspaper as he passes in front of his own hotel.

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According to the press release, more than 600 workers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and prop makers worked on this film's sets. A 600-by-125-meter stage was used to recreate Waterloo Station for several scenes, and, even more extravagantly, an entire square was built on ten acres of land in Amsterdam at a cost of $200,000. The scenes in the square, including the elaborate assassination and escape shots, took place during a rainstorm, so the set had to be equipped with an elaborate drainage system.

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Johnny Jones/Huntley Haverstock was broadly based on the real-life journalist Edward R. Murrow.

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When this film was made, America was not part of World War II. At the time, many Hollywood studios showed pro-American interventionist sentiment toward the war. This film is one of several from the late 1930s and early 1940s that represented pro-American intervention in the war. These films include Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), The Mortal Storm (1940), A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941), Man Hunt (1941) and Sergeant York (1941).

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Sir Alfred Hitchcock took great interest in the scenes of the spy ring operating inside a Dutch windmill. The creaky, atmospheric set had three levels and was fitted with working equipment; it was important to the plot because the protagonist's coat travels through it. A plane was also built for the film, with four propeller engines, a hundred-and-twenty-foot wingspan and an eighty-four-foot fuselage, most of which became a giant studio tank.

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According to Sir Alfred Hitchcock's interview with François Truffaut, Joseph Goebbels (the Nazi Minister of Propaganda) liked this film very much.

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Producer Walter Wanger disputed Sir Alfred Hitchcock's claim that he did not even need to open his script during shooting. On the contrary, Wanger observed that Hitch's copy of the script had frayed edges before the first week of filming was complete and contained "dialogue corrections on one side and sketches showing the composition of scenes, medium shots and close-ups on the other." Along with the many sketches art directors prepare showing lights, shadows and proposed composition, Hitchcock would make some three hundred quick pencil drawings himself to show the crew how he wanted the scenes to look.

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This was Sir Alfred Hitchcock's second American film. He was under contract to David O. Selznick, who loaned him out to producer Walter Wanger.

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During the script stage, a second unit crew was sent to Europe to shoot background footage. Sir Alfred Hitchcock later described the dangers of travelling at that time to François Truffaut: "You see, this was in 1940, and the first time the cameraman going from London to Amsterdam was torpedoed and lost all his equipment. He had to cross a second time." The film's location shooting was sparse, however. Hitchcock mostly used detailed and expensive sets. He always took a great interest in set design and would prepare rough idea sketches for the art directors.

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The US Copyright Office uses "Huntley Haverstock" as an example of a pseudonym.

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The film's ending, in which Joel McCrea broadcasts propaganda while bombs fall on London, was written by Ben Hecht and shot after the rest of the film was completed. It replaced a more cynical ending in which ffolliott (George Sanders) tells Haverstock (McCrea) how the enemies would cover up the events depicted in the film's main section.

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Sir Alfred Hitchcock's eccentric marriage proposal to Alma Reville was written into the script.

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What happened to this film's original ending is unknown; Scott Ffolliott says how the enemies would most likely cover everything up.

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This is the only Sir Alfred Hitchcock film scored by Alfred Newman. Newman was appointed head of the music department at Twentieth Century-Fox the year this film was released and remained the composer with the most Oscar nominations until his record was broken by John Williams.

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Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted either Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Fontaine for the female lead.

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The film's final cost was 1.5 million dollars, a startling figure at the time. The cost charged to the script alone, for a total of sixteen writers, was 250,000 dollars.

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It was nominated for six Oscars and was one of two Hitchcock films competing for Best Picture of 1940. The award ultimately went to the other Hitchcock film, Rebecca.

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Laraine Day (Carol Fisher) was 19 years old during filming.

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The music the Germans use while torturing Van Meer is Chick Webb's "Harlem Congo."

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The film takes place between 19 August and 5 September 1939.

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When Joel McCrea climbs out of one window of the windmill and enters another, just inside the window he enters (on the right), wooden boards, two nails and their shadows form a profile image of Adolf Hitler.

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Unlike this film's original ending, Sir Alfred Hitchcock was not involved in writing the ending that was released. In Charles T. Samuels's book "Encountering Directors" (1972), Hitchcock revealed that the released ending was written by producer Walter Wanger and Ben Hecht.

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Producer Walter Wanger had been developing the story for several years. It initially dealt with the Spanish Civil War, but that war ended too quickly and the story therefore lost its interest for audiences. Wanger insisted that the film be politically current, so rewrites were constantly being done throughout production. In the end, sixteen writers were involved in bringing the story to the screen.

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The plane in the film was meant to be a Clipper 314, which first entered service in June 1939 and carried passengers on a transatlantic flight (also a first). The aircraft was changed for filming, however. The plane's logo says it belongs to the fictional Transoceanic Airways, but the original flight was operated by Pan Am and cost $375 one way or $675 round trip. In 2020 dollars, that equals roughly $7,000 one way and about $12,500 round trip.

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Producer Walter Wanger bought the rights to Vincent Sheean's political memoir "Personal History" (New York: Doubleday, 1935) for $10,000 in 1935. After sixteen writers and five years, the screenplay became the basis of this film.

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Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant for the lead role, but Grant was busy with Only Angels Have Wings (1939).

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The German destroyer that shoots down a British plane at the start of World War II may have been inspired by the real-life sinking of the S. S. Athenia, the first British passenger ship sunk by submarines. Coincidentally, one of the survivors of the Athenia's sinking was Judith Evelyn, who appeared in Sir Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) and in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). In another coincidence, Evelyn's father was among the Athenia passengers killed, paralleling the fate of the Fishers in this film (Carol survives, her father Stephen does not).

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The music audible in the cathedral scene is the Dies Irae from the Requiem Mass.

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As Johnny Jones/Huntley Haverstock (Joel McCrea) walks heavily past his Amsterdam hotel, he gets wedged behind a neon sign reading EUROPE HOTEL. He knocks out the top neon tube of the "E" in HOTEL, leaving the last two letters of the word dark and a sign behind him reading HOT EUROPE — a fitting, if not subtle, symbol of a continent on the brink of World War II.

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Donald Stuart actually plays three roles in Foreign Correspondent. He is a journalist sitting at McCrea's table at lunch; he is the dyspeptic pursuer who snatches a 5-pound note; and he is the hulking Eric atop the cathedral tower.

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With Laraine Day's (Carol Fisher) death in 2007, all of the credited cast members have died.

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Although Eduardo Ciannelli's name is spelled "Cianelli" in the extensive end credits, it is spelled correctly in the opening credits.

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Laraine Day said that during the drowning scene on the plane, George Sanders took advantage of the underwater situation to put his hands under her dress.

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Although the Germans liked the film when it was released in 1940, they were not pleased with the current ending written by Ben Hecht. The Germans disliked the film's ending because it put Germany in a bad light. Every seemingly positive move from Germany was aimed at pressuring Great Britain and keeping it from interfering with Hitler's plans. As direct experience in 1938 clearly proved, Germany did not hesitate to break its promises.

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It was included in the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 nominated films for the 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films.

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Clark Gable turned down the lead role.

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Working titles for this film included "Personal History" and "Imposter."

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This is one of the few films in which George Sanders plays a very noble and positive character.

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It contains Albert Bassermann's only Oscar-nominated performance.

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The plane seen at the end of the film is a fairly accurate model of the Short Empire series flying boat, used since 1937 by Imperial Airways (later BOAC) and, in the Far East, by Qantas and TEAL for mail and passenger services. Although Empire boats were never used on transatlantic service, they had successfully completed survey flights in both directions, and BOAC used one of the type for its New York–Bermuda service. The RAF pressed Empire boats into military transport service and used them between Northern Ireland and Canada at the start of the war, though they were mostly used on the Lisbon route. The Empire series looked enough like the jointly developed Sunderland patrol bomber, a flying boat the RAF used for convoy protection and to intercept German raiders, that it could easily be mistaken at altitude for a Sunderland and draw defensive anti-aircraft fire.

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Edmund Gwenn, who plays McCrea's elderly Cockney "bodyguard," is best remembered for his Oscar-winning role as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

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The costumes were one of the few budget items on this film that were not excessive. All of them (including Laraine Day's extremely elaborate hats) were bought directly from I. Magnin and Company, a popular Los Angeles department store, rather than designed and made to order.

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Scott ffolliott (George Sanders) drives a 1936 Bentley 4¼ Litre Drophead Coupe. Carol Fisher (Laraine Day) drives a 1938 MG SA Tickford Roadster.

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On the plane, Jones and ffolliott scratch their noses in the same way at the same moment, just before another passenger asks for a drink.

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This film is part of spine number 696 of the Criterion Collection.

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Riding the elevator up the tower of the Catholic cathedral in London cost 6 pence in this photograph. These days (2026) it is 6 pounds.

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Ken Christy's debut.

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Loulette Sablon's debut.

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George Offerman Jr. and Charles Halton, who appear in the opening scene in the newspaper office, also appeared in the opening scene of Nancy Drew Reporter, which likewise takes place in a newspaper office.

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This was one of two dozen Walter Wanger/Harry Sherman/Cinema Guild productions first released by United Artists, theatrically re-released in the 1940s by Masterpiece Productions and eventually sold by them for U.S. television broadcast in 1950. Its broadcast on WCBS (Channel 2) in New York City on Saturday, April 8, 1950 launched the series in New York City, and its widespread popularity quickly spread across the country. It first aired on KOB (Channel 4) in Albuquerque on Tuesday, April 11, 1950; on WFIL (Channel 6) in Philadelphia on Sunday, April 23, 1950; on KPHO (Channel 5) in Phoenix on Thursday, May 18, 1950; on KTLA (Channel 5) in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 18, 1950; on WKRC (Channel 11) in Cincinnati on Saturday, July 15, 1950; on WXYZ (Channel 7) in Detroit on Sunday, July 30, 1950; on WENR (Channel 7) in Chicago on Sunday, August 13, 1950; on WNAC (Channel 7) in Boston on Sunday, November 19, 1950; and on KGO (Channel 7) in San Francisco on Saturday, December 9, 1950.

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