Journey Into Fear (1943)

Approved   |    |  Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller

Journey Into Fear (1943) Poster

An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by Nazi agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.

6.5/10
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  • Joseph Cotten in Journey Into Fear (1943)
  • Jack Moss in Journey Into Fear (1943)
  • Jack Moss in Journey Into Fear (1943)
  • Joseph Cotten in Journey Into Fear (1943)
  • Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead in Journey Into Fear (1943)
  • Joseph Cotten in Journey Into Fear (1943)

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Reviews & Commentary

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User Reviews
12 September 2000 | ricardoramos
7
| Good illustration/adaptation of the classic suspense novel
`Journey Into Fear' certainly has an Orson Welles look. Although he received neither directing nor writing credit (credit went to Norman Foster and Joseph Cotten, respectively), I think that most of what is there is his. The problem is that there is not enough there there. The on-board relationships should have been developed more. All of them seem perfunctory.

Combining the shooting by a good marksman who misses his target and stalking him in the nightclub are combined into an altogether more satisfying single event.The escape from the Nazis is more protracted and less violent than in Eric Ambler's book. It is very noirish and photogenic, and the combination of wet chase and the presence of a murky character played by Orson Welles and an all-American one played by Joseph Cotten prefigure `The Third Man.' Joseph Cotten had some of the same American innocence and ready outrage in both films. He's an important munitions engineer here and a hack western writing there. He doesn't get the dark beauty (Alida Valli or Dolores del Rio) in either, though he has and keeps a wife in `Journey.'

The film probably makes sense to those unfamiliar with the book (and such viewers aren't distracted by thinking about what's been changed). It is suspenseful even for someone like me who recently read the book

Critic Reviews

Did You Know?

Trivia

The great stage actor Richard Bennett had been brought back to films by Orson Welles for "The Magnificent Ambersons". Although his performance as old Major Amberson has become legendary, it was achieved with great difficulty, as Bennett, by then an old man near death, found it hard to remember his lines and his eyesight was too poor for him to be able to read them off cue-cards. Welles's patience in dealing with these problems has been widely described. When he cast Bennett again in this film, as the ship's captain, he overcame the problems very simply, by giving Bennett no actual dialogue at all, although the character has several memorable scenes. It was to be Bennett's final film role.

Quotes

Howard Graham: You've been long in Turkey?
Prof. Haller: A few weeks. I came there from Persia.
Howard Graham: Oil?
Prof. Haller: No, Mr. Graham. Archeology.
Howard Graham: Oh.
Prof. Haller: I was investigating the early pre-Islamic cultures. Forgive me, I am boring you already.

Goofs

Near the end of the movie, Joseph Cotten is seen walking in the rain and entering a hotel. When he walks up to the front desk his suit looks hardly touched by the rain. However, in the next scene, when he enters his wife's room his suit is drenched.

Alternate Versions

In 2005 an alternate cut was shown at the Welles film retrospective in Locarno, Switzerland. It was the original European release print, lacking the narration and ending of the US version but including about eight minutes of footage later deleted by RKO, reportedly for political and censorship reasons. This alternate version, assembled by Stefan Droessler of the Munich Filmmuseum, was shown at the Museum of Modern Art on Sat, Nov 21, 2015

Soundtracks

I'd Know You Anywhere
(uncredited)
Music by Jimmy McHugh
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Storyline

Plot Summary

Genres

Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Details

Release Date:

12 February 1943

Language

English, Turkish, French, German

Country of Origin

USA

Filming Locations

RKO Studios - 780 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

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