To me, this movie is perfection.

Thanks for the memories!

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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.

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.

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.

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.