Customer Ratings & Reviews

One of Hitchcock's classic films. A must for any Hitchcock collectors. Great film. Good quality On DVD. I, personally, don't see the need for the older films on Blu-ray.

Hitchcock always stated that "Rebecca" wasn't a Hitchcock picture because it lacked humor and was too gothic. Hitch felt "Rebecca" was a Selznick-Hitchcock picture. Hitchcock often would point to "Foreign Correspondent" as the first TRUE Hitchcock picture made in America. It certainly has his characteristic sense of humor in abundance courtesy of Robert Benchley who appears in the film AND co-wrote the dialog for the film. Hitch didn't get any of his first choices for the film--Gary Cooper, Joan Fontaine or Barbara Stanwyk--but Joel McCrea does a terrific job as Johnny Jones with able support from George Saunders. SPOILERS: Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) works the police beat for his newspaper but finds himself suddenly promoted to overseas correspondent when his publisher is frustrated with THEIR foreign correspondent (Robert Benchley). Jones gets a new name and a new beat--to uncover the risk of war in Europe. In the process Jones butts heads and falls for the daugher of a prominent member of a peace moment and discovers a conspiracy involving the murder of a diplomat. SPOILERS: Criterion does an exceptional job for the blu-ray/DVD release of this classic Hitchcock title. The Blu-ray looks very nice with a 2K transfer from the original 35mm negative. The film is presented as a vintage film of this type should be--it's in the orignal aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The mono audio sounds very nice with dialog crystal clear and subtitles in English. As with all Criterion releases, we get some very nice special features for this set. Critic Mark Harris dominates "The Hollywood Propaganda and World War II" an exceptionally good (if a bit dry) featurette. "Dick Cavett Interviews Hitchcock" is a little bit over an hour. Cavett interviewed Hitch when he was doing the promotional rounds for "Frenzy" and the Master touches on a number of his films. We also get a radio broadcast version of the film that was presented in 1946 with Joseph Cotten. Aside from the trailer, a Life magazine piece you can scroll through and an excellent booklet, we also get DVDs of the film and special features as part of the combo package that Criterion now offers. My only complaint--and it is a minor one--is that this is presented in a cardboard holder and sleever. While it has nice artwork on it, it won't stand up to wear and tear. Criterion also did this for "Night of the Hunter" and I really, really dislike them.