It is well known that Hitchcock's films are more entertaining, and suspense, thriller and the love of handsome men and beautiful women are the main themes of his films. Perhaps it was the mother country under the cloud of war that was in a real crisis of survival, or perhaps it was the political needs of the big beautiful country that had to obey the new Hollywood, and the movie "Overseas Commissioner" became a rare political propaganda film in Xi Fat.
In 1940, Hitchcock entered Hollywood and filmed his first American film, Butterfly Dream, and in the same year he made a second film, Overseas Commissioner. I had mistakenly thought that 1941's "Deep Doubt" was his second film in the United States, which was an underestimation of the prolific nature of the Hee Fat movie.
Although "Overseas Commissioner" is a political propaganda film, in fact, Hitchcock did not make more changes in the film style for the effect of political propaganda, and the characteristics of Hitchcock's film still dominate the film.
The cloud of war and political intrigue in this film, like many of Hitchcock's spy films, still only serves as a background board for the film.
In the movie, the crucial secret treaty content is only another of his many films in his "MacGuffin expression method".
There isn't much real political propaganda in the film, and the only obvious thing is at the end of the film: the sensational speech of journalist Jones amid the gunfire in England and Germany.
The original purpose of the film was to hope that the so-called "lighthouse country" would rescue the European continent trapped under the iron heel of fascism, and such an important thing was only shown at the end of the film, which was obviously insufficient in sincerity and willingness! Obviously, this so-called propaganda film is still a Hitchcock-esque suspense thriller and an adventure story with black humor characteristics.
Perhaps this is why the evaluation of the film is mixed.
In addition, the male protagonist image that the film focuses on is not brilliant, but makes the villain German spy image shine, which is also another major reason for the controversy of the movie.
In addition to his many protagonist auras, Jones, the male protagonist journalist with a sense of justice, has a very general image shaping, and his love story with the beautiful heroine is even more inexplicable. Jones is like a tool man, he perfectly witnessed a classic assassination scene in the rain, and inexplicably experienced a thrilling Dutch windmill adventure, while fortunately escaping the comedic assassination and thrilling shipwreck accident, and finally winning the beauty return and completing the brilliant moments of his exotic journalist career, as a result, his own image is still very pale.
The villain, ostensibly the leader of a hypocritical peace organization, is actually a sinister and cunning German spy. Spy Fisher was originally a nasty character, but he did not expect to present the impression of a rather attractive image. As a daughter slave, he is a good father who always puts the interests of his daughter first. In a life-and-death situation, Fisher perfectly reverses his repulsive villain image by sacrificing himself to save the lives of others.
In the film, Fisher gives a plausible reason for "fighting for the country in his own special way" to whitewash Fisher's behavior for the tiger. The only scene in the film that shows his vicious torture is also shown in a subtle way by Hitchcock.
What is this for?! What about the vicious image of fascism? Isn't it necessary to save the failed European countries in great beauty? If the enemies are not the most vicious people, what is the point of the movie advocating the United States entering the war, hoping that they will participate in the defeat of fascism?! Seriously doubt what the real purpose of Xi Fat is?!
Although the evaluation of the film is different, it has to be said that it still contributes many wonderful bridges:
1. Assassination scene in the rain, a very classic bridge section;
2. Windmill adventure scene, quite a shadow of similar fragments of Hitchcock's later film "Ecstasy";
3. Sightseeing tower assassination, thrilling with joy;
4. The plane crash scene is a bit of a disaster movie.
All in all, it is still a movie worth watching.
(Text/Qin Shi Xiaoge finished at 17:05 on November 30, 2021)
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