The film starring Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. An American journalist is responsible for covering the volatile war scene in Europe for his newspaper. He attempts to expose enemy agents in Lon Don so he always is in danger.
Into it Director Alfred Hitchcock, whose unmistakable stamp the picture bears, has packed about as much romantic action, melodramatic hullabaloo, comical diversion and illusion of momentous consequence as the liveliest imagination could conceive.
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
March 20, 2008
Due to the rapidly changing political context, more writers worked on the script than on any Hitchcock thriller, but end result is satisfying (if not credible), and even Nazi Propaganda Minister Goebbels acknowledged the movie was a masterpiece.
While Albert Bassermann earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for a somewhat hammy turn, the best performance comes from George Sanders, atypically cast as a fearless and resourceful hero rather than the cads and scoundrels he generally played.
A fitfully crackerjack picture with astonishing mise-en-scène...some memorable set pieces to take advantage of same, and flashes of Hitchockian wit... [Criterion Blu-ray/DVD]
This film contains one of Hitchcock's most famous set pieces -- an assassination in the rain -- but otherwise remains a second-rate effort, as immensely enjoyable as it is.