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Day is the hottest thing on two legs, which naturally causes McCrea to fall in love with her. Because it is a movie, the feeling is mutual. Can McCrea win the girl, break the Nazi spy ring, and save the life of kindly diplomat Van Meer (Albert Bassermann)? Is there any doubt?
How others will see it. This is not Hitchcock's most celebrated movie, and it's not in the same class as Rebecca, which he also directed in 1940. Both films co-starred George Sanders, who was a villain in Rebecca and a hero in Foreign Correspondent. But the latter film remains a good effort, with plenty of Hitchcockian elements, which generally involve the all-important leading man. He has a complicating and stormy romance, a number of scenes that put the hero's life in peril, and a significant mission, which this time involves the fate of nations, rather than merely trying to find the true killer.
Hitchcock knew as early as 1940 that audiences loved this sort of thing, and little has changed over the years. They still like the drama and romance of a Hitchcock thriller. The only ones who won't like this film are the uninitiated who believe all black and white movies are merely historical curiosities, on the level of hand-cranked nickelodeon peep shows. And they won't consider the odds against the car that McCrea enters being the one occupied by Laraine Day. Who, of course, is delighted to see him. And the car they are following "disappears" into a windmill, even though they are following only a few yards behind.
There does seem to be an event in common between the vocations of reporter and government agent: the ability to unravel a cover story. This at least makes McCrea more credible than Cary Grant in North by Northwest, who was just an ordinary businessman before his adventure begins.
How I felt about it. When the diplomat is shot with McCrea standing nearby, for a brief moment it looks like this might be another one of Hitchcock's "wrong man" films, like the then-recent The 39 Steps. Fortunately for him, the police merely think McCrea is a nutcase. Day believes so too, but since this is a movie, it doesn't keep her from falling in love with him anyway. Well, he is a tall and handsome movie star.
This movie benefits from the occasional presence of Robert Benchley, one of the great unsung humorists of the day. It also helps that Day is a knockout, and McCrea never lets on how silly the story is. George Sanders knows better, at one point instructing Benchley to cancel his Rhumba lesson. The sacrifices one must make for one's country!