Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

SnoopyStyle Naval ordinance engineer Howard Graham (Joseph Cotten) is in Istanbul overnight with his wife Stephanie as he tries to deal with the wartime arms trade. They're pestered by Kopeikin who claims to be from his company. He starts showing Howard around the night life when a performer is killed. Howard suspects the bullet was meant for him. They are brought before Turkish intelligence Colonel Haki (Orson Welles) who shows him a suspected Nazi agent. Howard is rushed onto a ship without his wife to escape the assassin. It's a ship full of unusual characters and the suspected Nazi agent has followed him.Orson Welles was involved in the writing, directing, and producing of this film. Difficulties with the schedule meant that Norman Foster had to take over most of the directing. Nevertheless, there are many Welles touches on the screen and it's hard to tell what is his contribution.. It's a bit of a forgotten Welles film. Besides Cotten, there are a few of the Welles crew. The mystery thriller has real tension. The rain-soaked ledge is well made. It's all well done.

classicsoncall With Orson Welles' attention torn between "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Journey Into Fear", and a three year affair with Dolores del Rio about to come to an end, the movie winds up pretty much a chaotic mess. Based on a novel by writer Eric Ambler, the task of writing the screenplay was handed off to Joseph Cotten who had never done one before, which goes a long way to explain why he had such a confused look on his face for a good part of the story.Which is not to say the picture is all bad. Viewing it, one might have the same reaction as watching the proverbial train wreck. The set up with Cotten's character is interesting enough, and the murder attempt on his life that's foiled by a magician's act hinted at an intriguing story, but most of what follows just doesn't flow very well. Naval engineer Howard Graham (Cotten) didn't seem to be particularly troubled by the idea that his life was in danger, and if Peter Banat (Jack Moss) was supposed to be an effective assassin, his prior victims must have been pretty dumb.In a way, this movie reminded me of well regarded Hitchcock films that many fans find praiseworthy but simply leave me baffled. "Shadow of a Doubt" immediately comes to mind, perhaps because Joseph Cotten happened to be the killer in that one, and conveniently fell off a train at the moment he was going to make his own niece his fourth victim. The ledge scene had me wondering if the gimmick was going to be used here, and sure enough, Banat loses his balance and takes a header into the pavement. What puzzles me even more though is why Graham thought it a good idea to pursue Banat out on that ledge in a torrential downpour, what sense did that make on any level? So it's not surprising then that novelist Ambler, after seeing the movie, remarked to Joseph Cotten that the picture so little resembled his book that he would be able to sell it as a movie all over again. In that event, I'd probably be willing to give the story another try, provided they keep the odd filming angles and claustrophobic atmosphere intact.

jarrodmcdonald-1 JOURNEY INTO FEAR is not as good as it could have been, probably because the studio trimmed some segments. Granted, it was not as much of a butcher job as RKO did on Ambersons, but there are some abrupt transitions and slight continuity problems.The main issue I have with JOURNEY INTO FEAR is that there are too many characters. But even so, we are not given enough of a chance to sympathize with their problems or understand their motives. Mostly it's a big stew of chaos and convoluted plot twists without any clear direction or relatable elements.The film is brimming with atmospheric touches, that is one point in its favor (with an uncredited Welles overseeing the direction). But too much style and too little decipherable substance makes for what is basically a flat movie. In a way, it's a high-brow freak show that only Welles & Company can deliver.

Robert J. Maxwell I don't know. It was directed by Norman Foster but it's got Orson Welles' fingerprints on it. It was the last cinematic gathering of the Murcury Theater crowd -- Everett Sloan, Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotton as a naval engineer trying to reach his destination across the Black Sea without being murdered first.There are occasional odd camera angles, a few shots from floor level, and sometimes strange lighting. It was co-written by Welles and Joseph Cotton. But it's not really Orson Welles. It's about one half of an Orson Welles which, by 1942, was already plenty.Stripped to its armature, it resembles one of Alfred Hitchcock's "ordinary-man-in-jeopardy" films of the period -- "The 39 Steps" or "Saboteur." Cotton is traveling through war-time Turkey with his wife, assigned to help Turkey improve its naval guns or something. The Nazis try to prevent this by the simple expedient of murdering him.Most of the film was shot aboard a mock up of a small freighter and there is little sense of being at sea. The passengers all seem to be lying about their identities and intentions. Welles himself comes on like a ton of bricks as Colonel Haki of the Turkish Secret Police. He seems to be enjoying himself immensely. Among the languages spoken are Turkish, French, English, Greek, and Russian.The sometimes dull proceedings are lightened by the performances. The ship's captain laughs insanely when he's not slurping soup through his phenomenal mustache. Some are plain grotesques. Agnes Moorehead hacks away at a French accent. As the Nazi hit man, Albert Moss, in ridiculous fedora and eyeglasses like Coke bottle bottoms, resembles some kind of slimy pallid thing you might find by turning over a large boulder.The final shoot out is pretty well handled. And Joseph Cotton does a respectable turn as the bewildered American swept up in a tangle of intrigue.A curiosity, more than anything else, it's still worth one watch.