Foreign Intrigue

Foreign Intrigue is as bland and generic as its title. Its scantily credentialed director/writer/producer, Sheldon Reynolds, did an early-1950s TV series with the same name, so this movie looks like a bid for big-screen immortality. Alas, it's one of those polyglot productions that suggests financing flowed from several European countries, with strings attached to several cast members; there's no other way to account for their presence.

A wealthy man of mystery drops dead in his villa on the Riviera. His American press agent (Robert Mitchum) finds him but suspicions grow when he's asked four times in succession if his employer `said anything' before he died. So Mitchum sets out to discover who the man was and how he accumulated his fortune. He starts with the merry widow (Genevieve Page) and travels on to Vienna and Stockholm, where he falls for the daughter (Ingrid Thulin) of a deceased industrialist whom may have been a blackmail target. Mitchum finds that he, too, is being followed....

Foreign Intrigue brings to mind Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin of the previous year, memories of which emphatically ought not to be freshened. There's little true suspense, though the score, by Paul Durand and Charlie Norman, insists that yes, there is. Reynolds tosses in a little Alfred Hitchock here, a little Carol Reed there, but to little avail. About three-quarters of the way through, the picture reaches a lugubrious crescendo by revealing a vast global conspiracy harking back to the Third Reich. The only sensible reaction to all this is Mitchum's, who knew a good paycheck when he saw one and saunters through the movie with his eyes half-shut, as only he could do. Even so, he remains the only reason to sit through this foreign travelogue devoid of intrigue.

In order to review this movie, you need to put yourself back into the 50s when it was made. WW2 was just a decade before (closer than Desert Storm is to us), and the cold war was raging. Tales of spies, traitors, and exotic locations were just the ticket for mid-50s audiences. FOREIGN INTRIGUE has plenty of interesting turns and surprises, but it seems to be trying too hard to mix THIRD MAN with MR ARKADIN and perhaps a bit of WW2 Hitchcock (Sabotage, Foreign Correspondent?). I'm not a big Mitchum fan, but he gives his usual looming, low-key performance, and the supporting players do well. My real reason for watching this film (and I've been waiting over 30 years to catch it) is to see Frederick O'Brady, who plays the heavy (he was reviewed at the time as "out-Lorrying Peter Lorre."). He was my French teacher in 1973-74 at the Eastman School of Music and a great raconteur. He had enormous talent in music, languages, writing, and of course acting (having worked with Orson Welles in ARKADIN, plus Jean Renoir, Roger Vadim, and others). If you can find his autobiography ALL TOLD, you'll be fascinated. He told us that Mitchum tried to teach him to drive during the making of this movie, resulting in a wrecked car. Some thought this would be O'Brady's ticket to Hollywood, but instead French directors dropped him, assuming he would be asking too much money for "lowly" French pictures. He spent many years on stage and never had another juicy film part like "Spring" in this picture. If you enjoy the spy genre and aren't in a big hurry for lots of blazing action, find this movie!

Robert Mitchum does not seem to be concerned about the situation .Ingrid Thulin (spelled Tulean (sic))does ,but it is a far cry from Bergman and Visconti.Genevieve Page is French and her best part in an English language movie is still to come : "the private life of Sherlock Holmes" by Billy Wilder.Another French thespian ,Jean Galland,has nothing to say and dies in the first sequence before collecting his money.The plot is complicated and undecipherable .Most of the time,we do not know why those people are bustling about and what they are looking for.When we understand the story deals with blackmail and former Nazis ,it's too late.Take "L'Affaire Nina B" by Robert Siodmak (1961) instead.That director knew what he was talking about.

Robert Mitchum, employee of a mysterious rich guy with a mysterious source of income, gets involved in FOREIGN INTRIGUE when he seeks out the source of his newly dead employer's seven figure lifestyle on the Riviera. Will the natural scenery of the Riviera, Sweeden and Vienna overwhelm the scenery provided by Bob's bodacious costars?

This is an entertaining enough movie -- and would have been a lot better without the atrocious musical score -- but it is slumming for Mitchum, who probably took the role for the free visits to European hotspots. The main interest IS Mitchum, who acts the role in an interesting fashion. By acting, in each scene, that he just can't quite believe the mother lode of BS that he has just been handed by some suspect, spy type, cute girl, or plot development, he sort of steps aside from the move, and whispers to us that he knows this is all nonsense, but bear with him, the movie won't be too bad. And, because he does that, it really isn't.

Now, frankly, this is a dead-end as an acting approach, and the cul-de-sac at the end is Roger Moore at the close of his James Bond period. But it works for this movie and this actor, where a straighter approach probably just would have failed. We should be grateful, though, that a sequel, suggested by the ending, was not produced.

When a reclusive , sinister millionaire called Victor Danemore dies suddenly of a heart attack on the Riviera, his press agent , Dave Bishop (Robert Mitchum) discovers his deceased body , but not even his enigmatic young wife (Genevieve Page) knows anything about her husband's background or how he earned his richness . As Bishop starts investigating and races from Stockholm to Vienna to the Riviera. As in Stockholm, a blonde (Ingrid Thulin) offered him an invitation: "Is it secrets you want to buy... Or Me!" . In Vienna, a master spy offers him an ultimatum: "I've been paid to kill you, can you better the price?" On the Riviera, a back-ally ambush drenched the cobblestones in blood! . Only one bullet ahead of half the secret agents of Europe . Robert Mitchum is the hunted . . . Europe is the hunting ground !. The most startling spy-hunt ever filmed! .Yesterday he held the world in the palm of his hand... Now it was about to explode in his face!.. And still he wouldn't let go of the deadliest secret a man ever carried!. A world in which a bullet fired in a Vienna slum is heard in London's Foreign Office... where a blonde's warm promise in Stockholm turns to cold on the Riviera... where you can hold the world right in the palm of your hard one minute - and have it explode right in your face the next!

Intriguing and surprising flick with decent performances , atmospheric cinematography and exciting score . A nice thriller with a show-world of traitors-for-hire , several surprises , suspense shattering the screen , twists and turns . A simple and plain premise becomes more and more confuse and twisted when starring carries out deep investigations and becomes romantically involved with two suspect women resulting in treachery . Being well-paced by writer/producer/filmmaker Sheldon Reynolds who in the 60s decade he produced and directed several films . Fine interpretation from trio of protagonists , as Robert Mitchum as the stubborn secretary who begins to investigate his employer's shady past and finds a large number of tracks leading an unexpected revelation . And introducing the attractive Genevieve Page and Igorgeous ngrid Thulin , along with the ordinarily effective secondaries, though they're really unknown.

It packs an adequate cinematography in Panavision by cameraman Bertil Palmgrenas shot on location in Riviera , Vienna , Stockholm , as well as atmospheric and thrilling musical score by Paul Durand. The motion picture was professionally written/produced/directed by Sheldon Reynolds, though it has some flaws , gaps and unfinished conclusion . He produced and directed some episodes about ¨Foreign Intrigue¨ series (1951-1955) that seems to be a precedent to this 1956 film . And about ¨Sherlock Holmes¨series , as he acquired a license to produce and direct adaptations of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and successfully formed a consortium which acquired the rights at auction. Reynolds also filmed a Western titled ¨A place called Glory¨ and some thrillers as ¨Assignment kill¨ , ¨Carnival's killer¨ and ¨Foreign intrigue¨.