Foreign Intrigue (1956)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Sheldon Reynolds

Writers:

Harold Jack Bloom (writer)
Gene Levitt (writer)

Release Date:

12 July 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

Robert Mitchum is the hunted . . . Europe is the hunting ground !

Plot:

Millionaire Victor Danemore, living on the French Riviera, dies suddenly of a heart attack. His secretary...

Plot Keywords:

Employer | Nazi | Press Agent | Past | Traveling

Cast

Robert Mitchum	...	Dave Bishop
Geneviève Page	...	Dominique Danemore
Ingrid Thulin	...	Brita Lindquist (as Ingrid Tulean)
Frédéric O'Brady	...	Jonathan Spring
Eugene Deckers	...	Pierre Sandoz
Inga Tidblad	...	Mrs. Lindquist
Lauritz Falk	...	Jones
Frederick Schreicker	...	Karl Mannheim
Georges Hubert	...	Dr. Thibault
Peter Copley	...	Brown
Lily Kann	...	Blind Housekeeper
Ralph Brown	...	Smith
Milo Sperber	...	Sergeant Baum
Jim Gérald	...	Cafe Owner
Jean Galland	...	Victor Danemore

Runtime:

Germany:95 min | USA:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Company:

Mandeville Productions (I)

Movie Connections:

Follows "Foreign Intrigue" (1951)

Soundtrack:

FOREIGN INTRIGUE CONCERTO

Intelligent and Beautifully-Photographed Noir Mystery; Classic Sleeper

This is my idea, as a writer, of a great ethical mystery. The intelligent narrative tells the story of an American working for a mysterious and very wealthy man named Victor Danemore. One day at his estate on the French Riviera, the great man, played by Jean Galland, dies. Robert Mitchum as Dave, the assistant, goes to the man's wife, lovely Genevive Page, for information; she knows nothing either. His odyssey to try to find out what he needs to know about his mysterious employer leads him to Vienna and to Stockholm--and finally to the fact that Danemore had been blackmailing Nazi collaborators who were afraid their wartime crimes would be discovered. At the end, having been saved narrowly from the bad guys, who are actually good guys testing his ethics, he goes off to seek out the real ex-Nazi collaborator bad guys in as many countries as he must; by then the lovely young woman he has fallen in love with, Ingrid Thulin (brilliant as always) is going to be waiting for him. This is a project conceived by Sheldon Reynolds, who wrote the script along with Gene Levitt and Harold Jack Bloom and also directed this fascinating movie. He was also the mind behind another Euro-American on-location project, "Dateline:Europe", one of the best half-hour TV series of all time,one which utilized (as this feature movie) does European technicians, actors, locations and artists. (When people talk about " the sorts of movies 'they' used to make and don't or can't any more", this is the sort of international, intelligent, adult and well-scripted film to which the disappointed are referring). The music here by Paul Durand is good, the cinematography by Bertil Palmgren frequently stunning. The piece also has many actors in small but telling parts, including Inga Tingblad as Thulin's mother, George Hubert, Frederick Schreidler, etc. They are all professional and exactly right for their parts; and all the parts contribute to a whole that moves with the inexorability of a tide toward a satisfying climax and an unforgettable ending. A personal favorite.