Peter McCrea will return to our Easton Film Series with stories aplenty to share about his famous father, Joel McCrea. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Foreign Correspondent” (1940) is the first film in this season’s lineup, showing Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m.
“Foreign Correspondent” feels as though it should be considered Hitchcock’s first American film, though it was preceded by his celebrated, Hollywood-made “Rebecca” (also 1940), a film that seems thoroughly British in locale, cast and overall pace. Though “Foreign Correspondent” feels like a closer cousin to his English thrillers “The 39 Steps” and “The Lady Vanishes,” its protagonist, Joel McCrea, is 100% American in looks, attitude and temperament.
1940 was a challenging time to be making movies with Nazi villains, and Hitchcock and Walter Wanger, his friend and producing partner on the project, had to navigate the American Neutrality Act of 1939, taking care not to compromise the integrity of their strong anti-fascist sentiment. “Foreign Correspondent” had to pretend the looming threat in Europe was coming from a country called Borovia, even though, in the real world, the Nazis were on the march and World War II in Europe was underway.
According to Pete, his father picked up many of his best roles after Gary Cooper turned them down; that was the case with “Foreign Correspondent.” Second choice or not, Joel McCrea gives a nuanced performance, projecting an American innocence that awakens to the reality of what’s playing out on the world stage, with just the right mixture of intensity and humor to make us grateful Cooper bowed out.
Please join us at the Easton Public Library on Sept. 17 for what should prove to be an informative and exciting evening of behind-the-scenes stories and film.
