Journey into Fear (film)

Infobox Film
name = Journey Into Fear


caption = Journey Into Fear movie poster
director = Norman Foster
producer = Orson Welles (uncredited)
writer = Eric Ambler (novel)
Joseph Cotten (screenplay)
Richard Collins (uncredited)
Ben Hecht (uncredited)
Orson Welles (uncredited)
starring =Joseph Cotten
Dolores del Rio
Ruth Warrick
Orson Welles
music = Roy Webb
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
released = February 12, 1943 (U.S.)
runtime = 68-71 minutes
country = US
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:26575
imdb_id = 0034922

"Journey into Fear" is a spy film based on the Eric Ambler novel of the same name. The 1943 film broadly follows the plot of the book, but the protagonist was changed to an American engineer.

In addition to acting in and producing the film, Orson Welles was to direct, but had to leave that aspect to Norman Foster due to other commitments. Many of Welles' Mercury Theatre associates were cast, including Joseph Cotten, who played the lead role and also co-wrote the screenplay.

In 2005, an alternate cut was shown at a Welles film retrospective at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. It was the original European release print, lacking the narration and ending of the U.S. version but including about six minutes of footage deleted by RKO.

Plot

Naive American engineer Howard Graham (Joseph Cotton) is taken by a fellow employee to an Istanbul nightclub, where he becomes attracted to dancer Josette Martel (Dolores del Rio). An attempt to murder him results in the death of an unfortunate magician instead. When Colonel Haki (Orson Wells) of the Turkish police investigates, he discovers that Graham is vital to the upgrading of the Turkish navy and that the Nazis have assigned Peter Banat (Welles' partner Jack Moss) to dispose of him.

Haki arranges a supposedly secret passage for Graham on a tramp steamer. Among his fellow passengers are Josette and her partner Gogo Martel (Jack Durant)...and Banat. Unable to convince the captain to turn around, Graham is trapped aboard the ship, not knowing whom he can trust.

At the end of the journey, Banat and his confederates take Graham away in a car. Fortunately, a flat tire forces a stop in a crowded street, and Graham is able to escape. He makes his way to the hotel where his wife Stephanie (Ruth Warrick) is staying, only to find his enemies also waiting there. Graham escapes once more, aided by the unexpected arrival of Martel (looking to extract money from him in return for Josette's favors). A chase ensues. Colonel Haki makes a timely appearance and engages in a gunfight with Banat. After Haki is wounded, Graham goes out on the ledge of the building after Banat during a rainstorm. When his ammunition runs out, Banat tries to knock Graham off the ledge and falls to his death.

Cast

*Joseph Cotten as Howard Graham
*Dolores del Rio as Josette Martel
*Ruth Warrick as Stephanie Graham
*Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Mathews
*Jack Durant as Gogo Martel
*Everett Sloane as Kopeikin
*Eustace Wyatt as Professor Haller
*Frank Readick as Matthews
*Edgar Barrier as Kuvetli
*Jack Moss as Peter Banat
*Stefan Schnabel as Purser
*Hans Conreid as Oo Lang Sang, the magician
*Robert Meltzer as Steward
*Richard Bennett as Ship's Captain
*Orson Welles as Colonel Haki

Production

The film was directed by Norman Foster, but many have speculated that there was directorial input by Orson Welles. Welles told Peter Bogdanovich that they were in such a rush to complete his scenes before Welles departed for Brazil to film "It's All True" that the person directing was whoever was closest to the camera, but Welles also stated in the very same book that he did not direct any part of the film and his friend Foster was the director.

Welles did produce and design the picture and wrote the script with Joseph Cotten. Welles' main contribution as producer was the beginning pre-credit sequence showing the assassin listening to an old phonograph, which then starts to skip. The camera "floats" up to his apartment room from outside, much in the style of certain crane shots in "Citizen Kane". In the book "This is Orson Welles", Welles states that he thought he was the first to come up with a scene before the credits; he later learned that there were a couple of movies that did this in the late thirties.

External links

*tcmdb title|id=2466|title=Journey into Fear