Foreign Intrigue (1956) User Reviews

Noirish, and not just because of Mitchum, but an early international intrigue film, too

[secondtake · 7/10 · 30 October 2010]

Foreign Intrigue (1956)

An underrated transition film, a low budget affair that is pure European color and style. Visually, it almost presages the Euro-American "Charade" which was decidedly more up budget. Here, the director, an unknown Sheldon Reynolds, takes advantage of all the empty spaces and long pauses the pace required. The lighting is flat, almost anti-noir, with widescreen grandness and yet an oddly impersonal intimacy. Not to be contradictory--the scenes are generally quiet, with close conversations, but everything is filmed from a certain, and constant, distance.

It is this steady, quiet pace that makes the film work. And Robert Mitchum. He needs no explanation. The first of the two or three main women he connects with is a bit false, but the main one is a caricature of the Nordic beauty, and with sincere energy and charm. At times it really does look like she is smiling at Mitchum, not his character, as if she can't believe she's touring Stockholm, etc., with this famous man, and the movie gets away with it. Mitchum for his part keeps his cool, except for the necessary fist fight once or twice.

It's 1956, and international intrigues like this are slowly rising into a genre of their own. People come and go, scenes are not what they seem at first, people have false identities and foreign accents. The big theme (too big to believe, but that's okay, it's supposed to be) is that realignment of global power after WWII. The real thing, made up of shadowy individuals who seem to be above nationality, and only know about intrigue, money, and winning at any cost.

I don't want to pump this up too much. It's slow at times, and the acting not always right on. The effects (the atmosphere, the fights, etc) are sometimes so archly false you can't quite accept it even as theatrical, but just a cheap. But that's the exception. Fall into the pace of it and it's not bad at all.

Not bad for its time...worth watching!

[LCShackley · 7/10 · 20 June 2006]

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, man of cool

[kuciak · 7/10 · 12 February 2008]

I first saw this film as a young boy, and then for years it could not be seen on television, or for that mater anywhere else. I saw the film for the last time in the early 70's, until it was released again early again in this century.

Others have gone into the plot of this film, and I will not do that. What is interesting for me is that the plot of the story is interesting, and it has one of the most unusual ending of any film made in the 1950's. Also while some have criticized Mitchums performance and if he is walking through this film, I think he plays it just right, a man of cool. Ela Fitzgerald once commented that she liked the way Mitchum walked. During the open sequence we see him, I am sure she is referring to this film. Watching him, you realize that if the opportunity had come, and he had wanted to, he could have been the American equivalent to James Bond. Perhaps he could have played the character that Dean Martin would play of Matt Helm, and in films that would have been more in keeping with the books. He really carries this film. His performance reminds me a little of the character he played in OUT OF THE PAST, a wiser Jeff Bailey perhaps.

I see parallels with MR. ARKADIN and THE THIRD MAN, it really tries to be the latter, though does not succeed. It does have the classic look of the film noir, darkness with light shinning through certain areas of the frame, unusual for a color film of the time, and can be quite enjoyable to watch. Also the traces of the Noir film come immediately through when he informs his employers sexy young wife that she now has to become the grieving widow.

Eastman color, while cheaper than the original Technicolor, does have a tendency to fade over time. When I first saw this film in color, it was rather gorgeous to look at. Perhaps the comment about the horrible Eastman color is due to the fading of these prints.

If you liked Robert Mitchum in other films, I highly recommend this film just to see him. Without him the film would not be worth seeing at all.

disappointing

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 22 November 2012]

"Foreign Intrigue," a 1956 film starring Robert Mitchum, starts out promisingly enough and peters out. Despite filming in color in France, Sweden, and Monaco, even the film's beauty can't overcome its slow pace and dull script.

Mitchum plays Dave Bishop, who works for an international man of mystery, Victor Danemore. Danemore dies of a heart attack suddenly, and Bishop wonders why every single person he encounters wants to know if Danemore said anything before he died. Even after working for him, Bishop doesn't know much about him, but he endeavors to find out. He learns that Danemore went to Vienna once a year and goes there. Danemore's home there is in a slum, his housekeeper is blind, and can only supply him with one name, Olaf Lindquist from Sweden. Bishop finds Lindquist's home, but the man himself is dead. Bishop and Lindquist's beautiful daughter Brita (Ingrid Thulin) fall for one another; meanwhile, it's obvious her mother is keeping a secret.

Soon Bishop finds himself being followed by one man, Spring (Frederic O'Brady) who won't tell him who he works for, bad-mouthed by Danemore's widow (Genevieve Page) to Brita and her mother, and approached by a group of men who want the names of the men Danemore met yearly in Vienna.

First of all, despite compliments on the music, it was totally overbearing, not to mention loud and intrusive. If you liked it, fine, it was just too over the top for me.

Secondly, this film took way too long to make its point. In the beginning, it was intriguing, but then it began to drag.

Thirdly, we think we're going to find something out and guess what, after all this, we don't.

Robert Mitchum is laid-back and sexy as usual - in this instance, I can't tell if his persona helped the movie or hurt it. He was always a very deliberate actor and perfect for noir - I realize some people call this a noir, and perhaps it was, but the payoff just wasn't there. It's hard for me to imagine Mitchum hurting a film - I think in this case, I'll have to blame the script and the fact that some time could have been edited out.

Promising start - disappointing finish - pretty to look at.

French-Swedish salad.

[dbdumonteil · 29 March 2009]

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.

Suspenseful and thrilling intrigue set in the French Riviera , Vienna and Stockholm

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 29 June 2021]

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¨.

Undiscovered competence here and there

[onepotato2 · 7/10 · 6 November 2010]

Though advertised as a noir, when this movie kicks off it feels like a feminine Douglas Sirk movie. And color noirs are extremely rare & problematic. After an unpromising, hazy, faded opening sequence, and after it abandons 'travelogue,' and 'class-envy feature,' the noir part finally arrives and it's shot really nicely. The compositions get nice and dark. A sequence with Mitchum in a dark house in Germany with a blind housekeeper is pretty striking and dreamlike.

There's so much right about this movie that the two major things wrong with it are very disappointing;

1) The movie traipses through genre after genre, unsure if the Noir angle (so popular in the 40s) is enough/still salable to '50s audiences. It goes through romance, cloak-and-dagger movie, Hitchcock flick, Swedish woo-woo film (horny, easy blonds), etc. It gets very uneven as it tries to be all things to all viewers.

2) It has the worst score in all of film history. Here's the irritating, percussive theme you have to listen to ad nauseum: "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Tense moment? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Romantic moment? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Tense negotiations? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Police chase? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" It's beyond inept. It even plays as background music about 11 times. Brilliant though the theme is (sarcasm), it does nothing to underscore romance, tension etc. You've spent the money to film in European locations. Spend a buck on the score.

Give it a look. Bring some earplugs.

Some Nice Surprises

[mrdonleone · 7/10 · 12 December 2019]

There is something fascinating about foreign intrigue which is a movie with Robert Mitchum and in Ritalin and then return and we love very much and the name makes a thing back about those French movies and those German movies and does Norwegian movies already swedish and a bit p*** movies as well but on the other hand we always love movies beginning with the line and then on the other way but can we see what can we do it is the way it is and we love this movie so very much especially the film Verizon this is one of the letter. But can you ask where almost no longer existing and then of course that the whole point is is it good and unfortunately it's not like the last remain does lack of Orson Welles or Jacques tuner or whatever the whole point is that this one is not a good film Noir it's good in certain surprises like near the ending and at the beginning that are some great surprise as well but in general the movie is a bit of a boy I'm more of a drama about romance and love affair than anything else and this is for the movie starts to bore us Muslims and be prayer to all of the fish see better movies than this but then again it was better than the normal movies where and then of course we can complain about it but we don't need to complain about it because of course it wasn't that bad movie but it was disappointing to us and because of this we couldn't agree with it totally the way it was in Shalimar

A nice racket made our victim rich

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 9 November 2012]

I saw Foreign Intrigue years ago and it was on a black and white set and I found the film then excruciatingly dull. Seeing it now I missed the beautiful color cinematography of French, Austrian, and Swedish locations that the film was done. They helped lift Foreign Intrigue a bit in my eyes.

But not enough to raise it to some of the better films that Robert Mitchum did. At least he got a nice European tour in the making of this film.

Mitchum plays a press agent who works for Jean Galland one of those international jet setters whose origins and money are a mystery. When Galland dies of a heart attack suddenly, Mitchum who was a press agent takes it on himself to investigate his former boss, especially after a variety of strange people keep asking him whether Galland had any dying last words.

He's also got the late man's widow Genevieve Page who made it clear they were married in name only on his case, eying Mitchum like a rack of lamb done at the expensive steakhouse where I ate last night. The implication is quite clear that Galland was gay and Page is hot to gallop.

Turns out that the late employer made his living as a blackmailer with a select clientèle of people who paid him annual tribute to keep their common dirty secret. All of them were potential fifth columnists in the USA, the UK, Switzerland, and Sweden. Mr. Galland was the Russian part of this elite group of quislings in their respective countries.

Mitchum has another love interest in Ingrid Thulin the daughter of the potential Swedish collaborator who had committed suicide a few years back. And he's got one Frederick O'Brady who had orders to kill Mitchum but decides to go into business with him instead. He's a mysterious and malevolent sort.

Seeing it again after decades I found Foreign Intrigue still didn't quite sustain my interest. I couldn't quite believe that the Soviets would have let this guy live and accumulate all his wealth. They were not squeamish in the slightest about eliminating Nazi collaborators.

Ingrid Thulin made a few films in the English language, but mostly was queen of her native Swedish cinema. She never became the successor to Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman as an international star. During the making of The Four Horseman Of The Apocalypse with Glenn Ford with whom she co-starred with her Swedish accent was so thick that Angela Lansbury was called in Thulin's entire part was dubbed over. Now if it was that bad for that film, I'm wondering if this was her voice here?

Nice photography attached to a not terribly convincing story is my assessment now of Foreign Intrigue.

gone by the flowers

[foxmasters · 7/10 · 22 February 2021]

A very wealthy man, Mr. Denimore, dies unexpectedly. His relative, Mr. Bishop (Robert Mitchum), finds him but too late. He informs Dominique, Denimors ex-wife and arranges a funeral. Soon after, the a policeman shows up and beginns to ask questons.

Then another man becomes important, he has received a letter from his lawyer in Vienna. The lawyer wants an official statement for some reasons.

How Does an Actor Handle A Just For the Paycheck Role?

[alonzoiii-1 · 5/10 · 30 July 2012]

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.

Intelligent and Beautifully-Photographed Noir Mystery; Classic Sleeper

[silverscreen888 · 8/10 · 29 June 2005]

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.

Maybe a great story and great acting, but...

[thielrj · 6/10 · 27 December 2023]

The musical score almost makes it unwatchable. The same transition music throughout the film consists of a tom-tom and Gilligan knocking on a coconut with two wooden dowels. It's enough to cause a coma. That being said, the rest of the film's attributes out-weigh the migraine-inducing music.

Mitchum is classic, using his debonair best to woo admirers of his old-school, Hitchcockian style. (Wonder why Hitchcock never really used him?)

The cinematography uses the 1956 color like an oil painting, still incorporating the contrast and shadows of a black and white noir classic.

It's worth a watch.

A heavily accented foreign travelogue devoid of intrigue

[bmacv · 5/10 · 12 September 2002]

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.

disappointing

[mw1561 · 7 April 2010]

I just saw this film for the first time and I was disappointed. I was expecting more of a "film noir" type of movie. Instead I got a too-complicated plot that made less and less sense as the film went along. And the love angle was far too weak. Robert Mitchum goes to Stockholm, meats a girl, and less than 24 hours later she is madly in love with him, and the film makes scant effort to explain why.

Basically the plot involves the blackmail of men who were closet supporters of Hitler. But after the demise of the Third Reich one could assume that uncovering their identities would take on less importance, but if that were the case then there would be no movie.

This movie is spy vs. Spy vs. Spy, with good guys appearing as bad guys, and so forth. It's been done many time before and in much better ways, such as The Third Man.

A movie about tainted riches

[myriamlenys · 7/10 · 29 March 2023]

In the Riviera, everybody knows millionaire Victor Danemore. The famous socialite and sportsman is welcome wherever he goes, as is his wife, a fashionable beauty. Almost nobody suspects that the millionaire's smiling, debonair persona is an invention of a clever PR man. After Danemore's sudden death, strangers show up in order to ask probing questions. Even the PR man begins to wonder (and worry) about his late employer's real past...

"Foreign intrigue" is probably best described as a mix of thriller, action/adventure and espionage movie. The plot deals with an intelligent man who grows interested in the life and times of his late employer. (Many people would have grown curious far earlier on - but better late than never, I suppose.) His quest for the truth, or at least some measure of truth, will lead him on a serpentine voyage through Europe. Along the way he will encounter or re-encounter friends, enemies and individuals who might fit into both categories at once.

Although the movie was filmed in sumptuous color it contains a number of "noir" characteristics, such as a creeping atmosphere of paranoia and distrust. This is one of those movies where the watchers in the shadows are observed by other watchers in the shadows...

Unfortunately the ending of the movie disappoints. Our PR man, who has survived a number of adventures, gets ready to embark upon a new and more portentous part of his quest - and that's it. "Tune in next week", but unless I'm mistaken this movie stands on its own, without a sequel.

A likeable lead performance by Robert Mitchum.

A good spy yarn

[RIO-15 · 5/10 · 26 May 1999]

A wealthy industrialist dies of a heart attack.His closest employee (Robert Mitchum) suspects foul play when strangers take a too keen interest in his death.He starts digging into his employers past,which leads him through most of Europe.Suddenly the most peculiar persons are interested in his detective work,even the CIA and British Intelligence.

A good spy yarn with a complex plot.Not a good film but always interesting.

Mediocre suspense yarn

[funkyfry · 4/10 · 10 October 2002]

Well written, too earnest suspense story that tries to create the atmosphere of a Hitchcock movie, but has no surprises. It's a very straightforward story of blackmail, in which Mitchum plays a press agent who tries to ferret out the source of his employer's wealth. This leads him to a wealthy Swede, who has passed on, but who, he learns, was involved in a conspiracy with the nazis which was the subject of the blackmail. A superficial love story and a femme fatale don't raise this above the norm, but some juicy dialogue and decent music do add nice touches. Remarkably poor direction. Hideous Eastmancolor photography.

A great tale of intrigue that belies its generic title

[dr-don · 10/10 · 6 August 2007]

This tale of intrigue concerns the American business manager (Robert Mitchum playing "David Bishop") of wealthy European Viktor Dannamore in post-WWII Europe. Without the barest introduction, the action draws the protagonist into a whirlpool of downward-spiraling intrigue surrounding the death of his boss. One learns first that there is something going on between Mitchum and the dead man's wife. The wife then turns out to be "in the game" as well, and from this point--with Mitchum fleeing the Austrian police only to fall into the arms of a beautiful girl (whose late father was an associate of Dannamore). A dizzying array of characters enters this swirling, yet understated drama, either singly or in pairs. And while seem drawn straight out of period spy and intrigue, not one is stereotypical or boring, but highly individualistic and perfect in his (or her) role. The spare, refined dialogue, set against the backdrop of great post-war capitals such as Vienna and Stockholm, is enticing and convincing. And despite the intrigue everywhere, the film's most striking undertone is romantic.

A real surprise was that the film moved quickly without the help of modern gaudy action sequences, riveting the viewer to the screen. Not one step or one turn is predictable, and the perfect casting lends an intense attractiveness to this period film. Although not nearly as well-known as other spy-films of the era, "Foreign Intrigue" should rank with great espionage thrillers such as "The 39 Steps" and the far bleaker and more realistic "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold".

I was not prepared at 2:30 in the afternoon for a film of this quality and have never seen a surprise ending of this caliber.

Well, the title got it half right!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 19 March 2011]

I would love to know the story behind "Foreign Intrigue". After all, why would a star like Robert Mitchum agree to be in such a dull international film? Perhaps he just wanted an all expense paid vacation! All I know is that the film is clearly a dull misfire.

The film begins with some rich guy dying. Oddly, again and again, strangers come up to the dead man's assistant (Mitchum) to ask him if his boss said anything as he died--as Mitchum was there with him. The man had said nothing--but why were so many people worried about what he might have said?! So, Mitchum investigates--traveling to locales from France to Sweden. Not at all surprisingly, the boss turned out to be a blackmailer and as the story unfolds, the viewer is left wondering if this movie could have been any more dull and listless--and how the writers could have done so little with the story idea. After all, apart from some nice color scenes of various pretty locations, the film has nothing to recommend it. And, surprisingly, Mitchum has very, very little personality in the film--something that is practically impossible to imagine.

By the way, when Mitchum speaks French in the film, it's pretty obvious that someone is dubbing voice.

Did he have any last words?

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 12 March 2015]

***SPOILERS*** The sleepy looking Robert Mitchum has a hard time staying awake here as press agent Dave Bishop for the extremely rich, he's worth hundreds of millions, and secretive Howard Hughes like Victor Danemore, Jean Gallard, who died of a sudden heart-attack at his villa on the French Rivera. With everyone he comes in contact with in knowing that he was the last person to see the great but elusive Danemore alive Bishop is constantly asked what were the last words that the great man said before he expired? The only words that we as well as Bishop herd Danemore say was some kind of gargling sounds that were totally unintelligible. Finding out that Danemore made a number of trips to Vienna a couple of times a year Bishop travels there to find out what they were all about and if they and anything to do with his untimely death.

This all leads to some cock & bull story about Denemore's past in him finding out that before WWII he was very active in sniffing out stories about Hitler and those he dealt with. It's then where he somehow got information about a number of important persons in different European countries who made a deal with Hiter to sell their countries out to the Nazis. And when Hitler and his Nazis took over make them the heads of state as a reward for their treasonous actions. Now with the war over and Hitler being dead and no threat to anyone Denemore is still using that knowledge to blackmail them to pay for his high flying lifestyle! Bishop finds out one of those his former boss Danemore was blackmailing Swedish industrialist OIaf Lindquist who committed suicide, in not being able to take it anymore, five years ago. Smelling a big story Bishop takes the first plane out of the Vienna airport to Sweden to interview Lindquist's widowed wife ,Inga Tidblad, in an attempt to find out what he was being blackmailed for.

It's in Sweden that Bishop also meets Lindquist daughter Brita, Ingrid Tulean, and starts to, in having noting else on his mind, romance her. The complected plot also involves the late Danemore's gold digging wife Dominique, Genevieve Page, who despite losing her meal ticket wants to keep the money, from her husbands blackmailing, rolling in. It's Dominique who uses the naive Bushop to find the names of the persons he's been blackmailing all these years. There's also the mysterious Johnathan Spring,Frederick O'Brady, who's working for one of those whom Denemore was blackmailing who keeps springing up in the movie to give Bishop a hard time and even tells the , what looks like, barley awakened conscious Bishop that he's to assassinate him! That's after he gets his hands on the information about those whom he's blackmailing. Whom unknown to both Spring & Bishop Dominique already got her hands on!

****SPOILERS***** The film goes on an on with a number of mindless sub-plots about nothing that makes any sense at all and ends with the hero, who's desperately trying to stay awake, Dave Bishop taking off not with the girl,Brita Lindquist, but the man who's sworn to murder him Jonhatan Spring into the sunset or, like at the end of the movie, moon-set. Robert Mitchum being as popular as he was back then just had to sleepwalk, which he did an excellent job of, in his part of press agent Dave Bishop to make the movie a smashing success in the box office. But as things turned out the film attended at, back in 1956, a premium $2.50 ticket price barley broke even in the box-office that within two years after its release it was sold to network TV to be seen, for the few who were still interested in seeing it, for free.

Blackmailers

[jotix100 · 5/10 · 14 October 2010]

Dave Bishop's job as assistant to Victor Danemore comes to an abrupt end when he finds his boss dying at the library of his well appointed house in the French Riviera. Dave cannot get over his surprise every time someone asks him whether the dead man said anything to him before he passed away. Even the dead man's wife does not appear to have been shocked by his sudden demise.

Dave, following a hunch, goes on to Germany to meet with a lawyer who has a letter that was to be opened in case of foul play. Alas, someone gets to this man before he does, making Dave Bishop the suspect for the investigation that follows. The only other clue is in Stockholm, where the figure of a certain Mr. Lindquist is tied to the mystery that Dave is trying to uncover.

Our only interest in watching this 1956 film was because of Robert Mitchum, the star. Basically, this film's plot makes not much sense with complications that will confuse viewers not paying attention to what is going on. Directed by Sheldon Reynolds, who was involved in television, so the acting is by the numbers. This was the era when Europe was a cheap way to get fantastic backgrounds to set their films. It can clearly be seen in this production.

Forgotten gem

[jdwilcox · 8/10 · 22 November 2005]

Why this film has not been issued on video is puzzling. It has an unusual and compelling plot, attractive locales (shot on location in Europe) and features the inimitable Robert Mitchum. Derived from the television series of the same name, it captures the "take me somewhere far away and adventuresome" escapism of the time. The musical underscore (the original TV introductory piano concerto and a coronet forward jazz theme) continues to this day to swim in my head. Mitchum plays a reluctant investigative patsy persuaded against his better judgment by interpol intelligence to help track down the perpetrators of a scheme to blackmail various politicians who had secretly agreed to ease the invasion of their respective countries by the Nazis. While the film lacks a true denouement (it ends with the Mitchum character about to rendezvous with the prime suspect), the photography, the acting and above all its ingratiating style certainly have made it memorable in the mind of this viewer.

strangely passive movie

[tireless_crank · 3/10 · 25 August 2005]

The plot of this movie has been reviewed before and I have no surprises to add to these summaries, since there are are very few surprises. Several strange characters asking questions, yet it all comes to little. Even then big 'surprise' of the source of the financier's money was predictable.

The only surprise - and it wan't planned by the director - for those of us like me who were born in the last 50 years, was Genevieve Page as a semi-sexy mistress. I have always associated her with 'mature-women' roles and have assumed she was born "mature".

Other reviewers saw the background music as a plus. I saw it as a decided negative, way too overwrought and intrusive. In the Third Man the noticeable theme music added to the suspense, emphasizing the dynamism what was on the screen. In this movie, the loud flourishes seemed out of place against the wooden movements of the actors. This entire thing was a throwaway.

My score of 3 points was given because the picture was in focusand it wasn't too long. It was not quite as bad as The Curse of the Aztec Mummy but close.

Look Behind You.

[rmax304823 · 4/10 · 6 August 2016]

The women in this lackadaisical mystery are Genevieve Page and Ingrid Thulin, two perfect noses, as if designed by a sculptor of exquisite taste or by a cartoonist suffering from OCD. Cripes they are two good-looking babes. Page is French and she seemed to look more ravishing with the passing years. Catch her some twenty years later in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes." Thulin, a Swedish ung flicka, was part of Ingmar Bergman's company. She was as somber with him as she is cheerful here. Her voice with its Nordic overtones is a treat to listen to. Some syllables sound like those gracefully arching bridges held up by spiderwebs look.

Both of these women fling themselves at the trench-coated Robert Mitchum, Page as casually as she might use a Kleenex and Thulin, later, with more serious intent, although she's known Mitchum for less than a day. I know this is hard to believe but things like this do happen. Just the other day a beautiful Swedish blond in the supermarket glanced at me and swooned with delight. Pheromones, I guess.

Actually, I don't know what the hell Mitchum is looking for in this vertiginous plot. He's been a full-time press agent for an uber-rich philanthropist in France. The old fellow drops dead and all sorts of mysterious figures approach Mitchum, asking if the departed uttered any last words. Mitchum devotes the rest of the film to finding out what this character was up to. Something to do with blackmail. The search takes him from the Riviera to Germany and Sweden. Along the way he bumps into more mysterious oddballs, stumbles across a murder, and so on -- very noirish. But I don't know why he involved himself in this mystery in the first place or who is paying him for doing it.

But despite the trappings and the central figure, it's not really a classsical noir film. It's in color, nobody carries a gun, everyone is too neatly dressed and groomed, the air doesn't reek of desperation. The ladies are gloriously made up. The musical score is an over-ripe symphony that sometimes complements the events on screen and more often draws attention to itself. Mitchum, with his bulk and stature, is a commanding presence but he isn't a tough guy here, not a cynical brute, and nothing in his dialog -- or anybody else's -- is worth remembering. The direction is straightforward, functional, and a little leaden. And, alas, the ending solves nothing but paves the way for a sequel or a television series.