A rather innocuous collaboration between Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, the final and weakest of the trio of films released by Welles' Mercury studio (the other two being "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons").
"Journey Into Fear" plays like second-rate Graham Greene, with Cotten playing an American munitions dealer who finds himself the target of an assassination attempt by a group of Nazis. Much of the picture takes place on a seedy steamer intended to carry Cotten to safety. The film's got some nice touches, and there's a pretty exciting shoot-out finale that's something right out of Hitchcock, but the overall package isn't that memorable.
Welles has a supporting role as a Turkish police chief and Welles regular Agnes Moorehead appears as a grumpy French woman. Cotten, the go-to actor for playing Americans stuck in the middle of foreign intrigues, wrote the screenplay.
Grade: B
"Journey Into Fear" plays like second-rate Graham Greene, with Cotten playing an American munitions dealer who finds himself the target of an assassination attempt by a group of Nazis. Much of the picture takes place on a seedy steamer intended to carry Cotten to safety. The film's got some nice touches, and there's a pretty exciting shoot-out finale that's something right out of Hitchcock, but the overall package isn't that memorable.
Welles has a supporting role as a Turkish police chief and Welles regular Agnes Moorehead appears as a grumpy French woman. Cotten, the go-to actor for playing Americans stuck in the middle of foreign intrigues, wrote the screenplay.
Grade: B