Reception
Foreign Correspondent opened on 16 August 1940 in the United States and on 11 October of that year in the U.K. The film, which ends with London being bombed, opened in the U.S. at the dawn of the Battle of Britain, just three days after the Luftwaffe began bombing British coastal airfields in the early Adlerangriff phase of the Battle of Britain, and a week before Germany actually began bombing London on 24 August.
The film did well at the box office, but its high cost meant it incurred a loss of $369,973. It was generally praised by the critics – although some saw it as a glorified B movie. It also attracted attention from at least one professional propagandist: Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who called Foreign Correspondent:
A masterpiece of propaganda, a first-class production which no doubt will make a certain impression upon the broad masses of the people in enemy countries.
The film has a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Read more about this topic: Foreign Correspondent (film)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)