Foreign Correspondent (film)

Foreign Correspondent
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Written by	James Hilton (dialogue) Robert Benchley (dialogue)
Screenplay by	Charles Bennett Joan Harrison
Produced by	Walter Wanger
Starring	Joel McCrea Laraine Day Herbert Marshall George Sanders Albert Bassermann Robert Benchley
Cinematography	Rudolph Maté, A.S.C.
Edited by	Dorothy Spencer
Music by	Alfred Newman
Production company	Walter Wanger Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	August 16, 1940 (1940-08-16) (U.S.)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,484,167[1]
Box office	$1,598,435[1]

Foreign Correspondent is a 1940 American black-and-white spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It tells the story of an American reporter based in Britain who tries to expose enemy spies involved in a fictional continent-wide conspiracy in the prelude to World War II. It stars Joel McCrea and features 19-year-old Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann, and Robert Benchley, along with Edmund Gwenn.

Foreign Correspondent was Hitchcock's second Hollywood production after leaving the United Kingdom in 1939 (the first was Rebecca) and had an unusually large number of writers: Robert Benchley, Charles Bennett, Harold Clurman, Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht, James Hilton, John Howard Lawson, John Lee Mahin, Richard Maibaum, and Budd Schulberg, with Bennett, Harrison, Hilton and Benchley the only writers credited in the finished film. It was based on Vincent Sheean's political memoir Personal History (1935), the rights to which were purchased by producer Walter Wanger for $10,000.

The film was one of two Hitchcock films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1940, the other being Rebecca, which went on to win the award. Foreign Correspondent was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Albert Bassermann for Best Supporting Actor, but did not win any.