Journey Into Fear (1943)

Director:

Norman Foster
(more)

Writers:

Eric Ambler (novel)
Joseph Cotten (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

12 February 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Drama | War

Tagline:

Welles and Del Rio together! as Terror Man vs. Leopard Woman--for possession of a mysterious stranger in the powder-keg Middle East...a man with a military secret worth more than his love and his life!...It's menace melodrama thrilled with mighty mystery and suspense...SEE IT!

Plot:

A US Navy engineer, returning to the US with his wife from a conference, finds himself pursued by Nazi agents...

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Nazi | Hotel | Engineer | Rainstorm

Cast

Joseph Cotten	...	Howard Graham
Dolores del Rio	...	Josette Martel
Ruth Warrick	...	Mrs. Stephanie Graham
Agnes Moorehead	...	Mrs. Mathews
Jack Durant	...	Gogo Martel
Everett Sloane	...	Kopeikin
Eustace Wyatt	...	Prof Haller
Frank Readick	...	Matthews
Edgar Barrier	...	Kuvetli
Jack Moss	...	Peter Banat
Stefan Schnabel	...	Translator for ships captain
Hans Conried	...	Swami magician
Robert Meltzer	...	Ship baggageman
Richard Bennett	...	Ship's Captain
Orson Welles	...	Colonel Haki
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Torben Meyer	...	Waiter (unconfirmed)
Anna De Linsky	...	Russian maid at Batumi hotel (uncredited)
Herbert Drake	...	Ship's Steward (uncredited)
Shifra Haran	...	Mrs. Haller (uncredited)
Edward Howard	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Ivan Lebedeff	...	Witness (uncredited)
Alex Melesh	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Frank Puglia	...	Colonel Haki's office aide (uncredited)
Bill Roberts	...	Ship's Steward (uncredited)
Harry Semels	...	Nightclub Extra (uncredited)
George Sorel	...	Hotel Desk Clerk (uncredited)
Irene Tedrow	...	Greek Woman (uncredited)
Robert Willey	...	Man (uncredited)
William Yetter Sr.	...	Nazi Driver (uncredited)

Directed by
Norman Foster
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Eric Ambler		(novel)
Joseph Cotten		(screenplay)
Richard Collins		uncredited
Ben Hecht		uncredited
Orson Welles		uncredited

Produced by
Jack Moss	....	associate producer (uncredited)
George Schaefer	....	executive producer (uncredited)
Orson Welles	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Roy Webb
Rex Dunn		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Karl Struss		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Mark Robson

Art Direction by
Albert S. D'Agostino
Mark-Lee Kirk

Set Decoration by
Ross Dowd
Darrell Silvera

Costume Design by
Edward Stevenson		(gowns)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dewey Starkey	....	assistant director

Sound Department
James G. Stewart	....	sound re-recordist
Richard Van Hessen	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Vernon L. Walker	....	special effects

Music Department
C. Bakaleinikoff	....	musical director
Robert Russell Bennett	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Nathaniel Shilkret	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Frank Tours	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
Sammy Blum	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Tom Casey	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Harry Cornbleth	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Jack Dumont	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Kathleen Ellis	....	stand-in (uncredited)
John Huettner	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Jerry Martin	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Tony Rice	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Eugen Sharin	....	technical advisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Mercury Productions (for)
• RKO Radio Pictures

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1943) (USA) (theatrical)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2004) (Italy) (DVD)

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Turkish | French | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #8048) | Australia:G | Finland:K-16

Company:

Mercury Productions

Trivia:

It is widely believed that Orson Welles directed this film, or at least large portions of it. However, in "This Is Orson Welles", he states he only acted in it and the directing credit should go to Norman Foster.

Goofs:

Factual errors: During the chase outside the hotel in the rain, Banat's pistol, a P-08 "Luger" runs out of ammunition but the action closes normally after he fires the last shot. This particular pistol was designed so that the action stays open after the last round is fired, giving a clear indication to the user that the gun is empty.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Suburban Girl (2007)

Soundtrack:

C'est mon couer

Good illustration/adaptation of the classic suspense novel

`Journey Into Fear' certainly has an Orson Welles look. Although he received neither directing nor writing credit (credit went to Norman Foster and Joseph Cotten, respectively), I think that most of what is there is his. The problem is that there is not enough there there. The on-board relationships should have been developed more. All of them seem perfunctory.

Combining the shooting by a good marksman who misses his target and stalking him in the nightclub are combined into an altogether more satisfying single event.The escape from the Nazis is more protracted and less violent than in Eric Ambler's book. It is very noirish and photogenic, and the combination of wet chase and the presence of a murky character played by Orson Welles and an all-American one played by Joseph Cotten prefigure `The Third Man.' Joseph Cotten had some of the same American innocence and ready outrage in both films. He's an important munitions engineer here and a hack western writing there. He doesn't get the dark beauty (Alida Valli or Dolores del Rio) in either, though he has and keeps a wife in `Journey.'

The film probably makes sense to those unfamiliar with the book (and such viewers aren't distracted by thinking about what's been changed). It is suspenseful even for someone like me who recently read the book