BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
Unlimitedia
Sick Product of a Sick System
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Syl
The late legendary actor Robert Mitchum stars in this film where his employer dies under mysterious circumstances. Genevieve Page was wonderful as the widow. She played the role perfectly and I'm surprised that I haven't seen much of her work before. She played the widow with a complexity rather than the silliness often accompanied with films of the time period. The other actresses who played Mrs. Lindquist and her daughter also done a brilliant job. The film is set on the French RIviera where they go to Vienna, Austria and later Stockholm, Sweden. Mitchum was the perfect actor to play this role as Bishop. He is leading man material with his appearance. His performance is perfectly under-rated where he tries to solve the mystery of his late employer. The foreign intrigue adds especially only after a decade later than the end of World War II. This film is a gem to watch where movies were just an escape but filled with romance, adventure, and intrigue.
blanche-2
"Foreign Intrigue," a 1956 film starring Robert Mitchum, starts out promisingly enough and peters out. Despite filming in color in France, Sweden, and Monaco, even the film's beauty can't overcome its slow pace and dull script.Mitchum plays Dave Bishop, who works for an international man of mystery, Victor Danemore. Danemore dies of a heart attack suddenly, and Bishop wonders why every single person he encounters wants to know if Danemore said anything before he died. Even after working for him, Bishop doesn't know much about him, but he endeavors to find out. He learns that Danemore went to Vienna once a year and goes there. Danemore's home there is in a slum, his housekeeper is blind, and can only supply him with one name, Olaf Lindquist from Sweden. Bishop finds Lindquist's home, but the man himself is dead. Bishop and Lindquist's beautiful daughter Brita (Ingrid Thulin) fall for one another; meanwhile, it's obvious her mother is keeping a secret.Soon Bishop finds himself being followed by one man, Spring (Frederic O'Brady) who won't tell him who he works for, bad-mouthed by Danemore's widow (Genevieve Page) to Brita and her mother, and approached by a group of men who want the names of the men Danemore met yearly in Vienna.First of all, despite compliments on the music, it was totally overbearing, not to mention loud and intrusive. If you liked it, fine, it was just too over the top for me.Secondly, this film took way too long to make its point. In the beginning, it was intriguing, but then it began to drag.Thirdly, we think we're going to find something out and guess what, after all this, we don't.Robert Mitchum is laid-back and sexy as usual - in this instance, I can't tell if his persona helped the movie or hurt it. He was always a very deliberate actor and perfect for noir - I realize some people call this a noir, and perhaps it was, but the payoff just wasn't there. It's hard for me to imagine Mitchum hurting a film - I think in this case, I'll have to blame the script and the fact that some time could have been edited out.Promising start - disappointing finish - pretty to look at.
bmacv
Foreign Intrigue is as bland and generic as its title. Its scantily credentialed director/writer/producer, Sheldon Reynolds, did an early-1950s TV series with the same name, so this movie looks like a bid for big-screen immortality. Alas, it's one of those polyglot productions that suggests financing flowed from several European countries, with strings attached to several cast members; there's no other way to account for their presence.A wealthy man of mystery drops dead in his villa on the Riviera. His American press agent (Robert Mitchum) finds him but suspicions grow when he's asked four times in succession if his employer `said anything' before he died. So Mitchum sets out to discover who the man was and how he accumulated his fortune. He starts with the merry widow (Genevieve Page) and travels on to Vienna and Stockholm, where he falls for the daughter (Ingrid Thulin) of a deceased industrialist whom may have been a blackmail target. Mitchum finds that he, too, is being followed....Foreign Intrigue brings to mind Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin of the previous year, memories of which emphatically ought not to be freshened. There's little true suspense, though the score, by Paul Durand and Charlie Norman, insists that yes, there is. Reynolds tosses in a little Alfred Hitchock here, a little Carol Reed there, but to little avail. About three-quarters of the way through, the picture reaches a lugubrious crescendo by revealing a vast global conspiracy harking back to the Third Reich. The only sensible reaction to all this is Mitchum's, who knew a good paycheck when he saw one and saunters through the movie with his eyes half-shut, as only he could do. Even so, he remains the only reason to sit through this foreign travelogue devoid of intrigue.
RIO-15
A wealthy industrialist dies of a heart attack.His closest employee (Robert Mitchum) suspects foul play when strangers take a too keen interest in his death.He starts digging into his employers past,which leads him through most of Europe.Suddenly the most peculiar persons are interested in his detective work,even the CIA and British Intelligence.A good spy yarn with a complex plot.Not a good film but always interesting.
