Foreign Intrigue (1956)

Memorable, crazy movie

Expected more

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

***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.

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.

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.

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.