Foreign Intrigue is another one of those movies that I had never heard of until I saw it on Netflix WI. But it starred Robert Mitchum, was in full color (unusual for the time), and the poster is aces. How could I go wrong?
The film opens with millionaire Victor Danemore (Jean Galland) leisurely strolling his estate when he has a massive heart attack, dropping him to the floor. Moments later, Danemore's publicist, Dave Bishop (Mitchum) visits and finds him, and is the last to see him alive.
Everything seems fairly normal, until we learn that Bishop knows almost nothing about his employer. It turns out that Danemore was a mysterious figure, and hired Bishop to basically create a public persona for him, out of nothing. Bishop decides to investigate, but no one seems to know anything about the man--including his wife Dominique (Genevieve Page), who seems to have barely any reaction upon hearing her husband has died:
Bishop is repeatedly approached by various shady figures, all of whom want to know the same thing: what did Danemore say, if anything, before he died? The more Bishop is asked this question, the more he investigates as to why so many strangers seem to care.
One of the more persistent is Jonathan Spring (Frederic O'Brady), who seems to keep falling just short of threatening Bishop:
There is a lot of talking in Foreign Intrigue. A lot. In fact, except for one brief punch thrown by Mitchum (at O'Brady), there are no action scenes in the movies at all. Bishop meets another woman named Mrs. Lindquist (Ingrid Thulin) who he seems attracted to. They're all involved with Danemore, and Bishop learns that his former boss was blackmailing different people who were once Nazis, all of whom were of course desperate to keep that little part of their lives under wraps.
...not The End?
Foreign Intrigue is a supremely strange film. It feels like its setting up to be a fairly standard Europe-hopping film noir, but the pace is so relaxed that there's never much of a feeling of menace or danger to Bishop. The main bad guy, if he can be called that, is O'Brady as Jonathan Spring, but even after their brief action scene, they're back to joking around with one another. The guys threatening Bishop are okay enough, but this is Robert Mitchum we're talking about--it takes a lot to make it seem like he's in danger. And these slightly nerdy Euro guys just can't pull it off.
Another odd element is the music--there's very little in the film, except for this bossanova-type thing, which is used over and over, and it cuts whatever little tension is to be found in the movie. There are scenes of Mitchum draped in deep shadows, which look great, but then there's a moment of silence and the music kicks in, bringing the scene to a dead stop.
The film was directed, written, and produced by Sheldon Reynolds, who was simultaneously producing a syndicated TV series of the same name. It ran from 1951-1955, and apparently part of its appeal was its real European settings, which of course were still fairly novel in the era just before mass air travel. Foreign Intrigue the movie provides a lot of beautiful scenery as well, and I'm sure Mitchum had a blast making this movie. But I feel like a documentary following Bob around while shooting might have produced something a little more compelling.
One of the more persistent is Jonathan Spring (Frederic O'Brady), who seems to keep falling just short of threatening Bishop:
There's a fairly neat scene of a bunch of guys meeting with Bishop in a sort of subterranean vault, where the truth about Danemore's dealings come out. Unfortunately, by this point the plothas gotten so complicated, with so many characters double-dealing, that I was pretty confused as to what the hell was going on.
The film ends on an odd note, with Bishop and Spring meeting up again and heading off together, talking of further adventures they're going to have but of course we'll never see:
The film ends on an odd note, with Bishop and Spring meeting up again and heading off together, talking of further adventures they're going to have but of course we'll never see:
Foreign Intrigue is a supremely strange film. It feels like its setting up to be a fairly standard Europe-hopping film noir, but the pace is so relaxed that there's never much of a feeling of menace or danger to Bishop. The main bad guy, if he can be called that, is O'Brady as Jonathan Spring, but even after their brief action scene, they're back to joking around with one another. The guys threatening Bishop are okay enough, but this is Robert Mitchum we're talking about--it takes a lot to make it seem like he's in danger. And these slightly nerdy Euro guys just can't pull it off.
Another odd element is the music--there's very little in the film, except for this bossanova-type thing, which is used over and over, and it cuts whatever little tension is to be found in the movie. There are scenes of Mitchum draped in deep shadows, which look great, but then there's a moment of silence and the music kicks in, bringing the scene to a dead stop.
The film was directed, written, and produced by Sheldon Reynolds, who was simultaneously producing a syndicated TV series of the same name. It ran from 1951-1955, and apparently part of its appeal was its real European settings, which of course were still fairly novel in the era just before mass air travel. Foreign Intrigue the movie provides a lot of beautiful scenery as well, and I'm sure Mitchum had a blast making this movie. But I feel like a documentary following Bob around while shooting might have produced something a little more compelling.
1 comment:
Kinda glad I've skipped this one so far...
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