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Foreign Intrigue

Director: Sheldon Reynolds (Dir) Release Date: May 1956 Production Date: 1 Jul--late Aug 1955 at Eclair Studios, Paris, France Duration (in mins): 100 or 110			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:		Robert Mitchum	(Dave Bishop)
	Introducing	Genevieve Page	(Dominique Danemore)
	and	Ingrid Tulean	(Brita Lindquist)
		Frederick O'Brady	(Jonathan Spring)
		Eugene Deckers	(Pierre Sandoz)
		Inga Tidblad	(Mrs. Lindquist)
		Lauritz Falk	(Jones)
		Frederick Schrecker	(Karl Mannheim)
		George Hubert	(Dr. Thibault)
		Peter Copley	(Brown)
		Lilly Kann	(Blind housekeeper)
		Ralph Brown	(Smith)
		Milo Sperber	(Baum)
		Jim Gerald	(Bistro owner)
		Jean Galland	(Victor Danemore)
		John Stark	(Starky)
		Gilbert Robin	(Dodo)
		John Padovano	(Tony Forrest)
		Valentine Camax	(Charwoman)
		Robert Le Beal	(Charles)
		Albert Simmons	(Information desk clerk)
		Eileen O'Casey

Summary:

In 1943 during World War II, Swedish industrialist Olaf Lindquist attends a secret meeting in Stockholm led by the mysterious Victor Danemore. Years later in the mid-1950s, Danemore dies of an apparent heart attack in his palatial villa in the French Riviera. He is discovered moments later by his American press agent, Dave Bishop, who informs Danemore’s young, dispassionate wife Dominique. Dave is approached at the funeral by a British tourist named Pierre Sandoz, whom he met while purchasing Danemore's airline tickets to Vienna. Sandoz repeats a question that Dominique also asked: Did Danemore say anything before he died? Dave is surprised by the stranger’s interest and confirms that Danemore said nothing. Afterward the medical examiner, Thibault, who also asks about Danemore’s dying words, gives Dave a letter from Viennese lawyer Karl Mannheim, who wants written verification of the cause of Danemore’s death. Dave returns to the villa, where insurance representative Jonathan Spring is waiting. After Spring confirms the nature of Danemore’s death, he is the fourth person to ask about Danemore’s last words. Dave learns from Dominique that Danemore had no insurance because he did not want anyone to have personal information about him. Dominique explains that she married Danemore to provide a respectable appearance for him, and consequently knew little about her husband’s true identity. Dominique, who is attracted to Dave, now plans to go to Paris and asks Dave to join her. Although Dave returns her affection, he is curious about Danemore’s true identity, and instead arranges to meet Mannheim, who has a sealed envelope he was instructed to open only if Danemore died of unnatural causes. Dave is met in Vienna, which Danemore visited a few times a year, by his friend, reporter Tony Forrest, who helps him gain access to Danemore’s immigration file. That evening, Dave goes to the address listed in Danemore’s file, which is in a slum, and encounters the elderly, blind housekeeper. She tells Dave that Danemore held meetings there three times a year, but she can only remember the name of one guest, Lindquist. Dave returns to his hotel and is approached in the café by Spring, who reveals that he is actually working for a prominent person, and has been instructed to follow Dave. The avaricious Spring suggests that Danemore was a blackmailer, and offers to join forces with Dave so that they both can find what they are seeking. Dave rejects his offer and confirms his appointment with Mannheim by telephone. Moments later, Dominique visits Mannheim and asks to see what is inside Danemore’s envelope. Mannheim refuses, but agrees to prove that the seal is intact, and withdraws the file from his safe. By the time that Dave arrives at Mannheim's, his dead body is lying on the floor, and the cleaning woman and several others believe Dave is the killer. Dave runs from the building and is chased by police, but Spring, who has been following him, purposely misdirects them. Unaware that Dominique is also following him, Dave poses as Danemore’s biographer and visits Lindquist’s home in Stockholm, where he meets Lindquist’s daughter Brita. She and Dave are immediately attracted to each other, and she reveals that her father died five years earlier. Brita invites him to their summer home on an island, where Dave meets her mother, who claims to know nothing about Danemore. However, she reveals that Lindquist was a philanthropist and industrialist and traveled to Vienna once a year. As the return ferry to the city is canceled due to fog, Dave spends the night at the Lindquist home, and his romance with Brita deepens. Upon returning to his Stockholm hotel the next day, Dave finds Spring waiting for him with orders to kill him because he contacted the Lindquists. When Spring offers to let Dave live if he agrees to cooperate with him, Dave refuses and Spring draws his gun, prompting Dave to react quickly and knocks him unconscious. Meanwhile, Dominique, who was fully aware of her husband's blackmail operation, visits the Lindquists and claims that Dave is a ruthless blackmailer who is attempting to take over Danemore’s business. Mrs. Lindquist admits that Danemore was blackmailing her husband, who was not a philanthropist, but a traitor whose death was caused by suicide. After Spring revives, he tells Dave that Tony has sent a cable saying he has learned more and requests that Dave return to Vienna. Dave then consents to join forces with Spring in reviving the blackmail scheme, and cancels lunch plans with Brita, who is relieved she does not have to confront him. When Dominique learns that Dave has cancelled his lunch date, she fears that he has discovered the names of the men who were blackmailed by her husband, and decides to offer him the same kind of partnership she had with Danemore. Dominique leaves, and Brita tries to contact Dave, but her mother disconnects the phone and locks her in a room. After arriving in Vienna, Spring arranges to meet Dave later. Dave is surprised when he is met by Sandoz, who forged the cable from Tony. Sandoz reveals he is actually a British counter-intelligence agent, and takes Dave to a remote location where he meets American intelligence agent Smith, Swedish government agent Jones, and Brown, from the British government. Dave learns that they have been following him since his first meeting with Sandoz, and that Danemore was one of several prominent men who secretly contracted with Adolf Hitler in 1938 to aid Hitler’s government after he invaded their countries. Following Germany’s defeat, the identities of four of the men remained unknown. Danemore, a Russian whose name was a pseudonym, knew who they were and blackmailed them to keep their identities secret. However, Lindquist was identified after his suicide, and the agents believe that Spring was hired by the English traitor to protect his identity. Although the agents warn Dave that Spring is a dangerous spy, he agrees to help them by working with Spring, who plans to blackmail his employer. Dave is accosted and beaten by some thugs while walking back to his hotel, and is brought to a basement where Jones tries to bribe Dave into giving him any information first. Dave pretends to agree to the arrangement, but then knocks out one of the thugs and shoots Jones, then calls an emergency number to summon the other agents. However, Jones is unharmed and Dave discovers that this was only a test of his loyalty. Having passed the test, Dave arranges to meet Spring alone at a deserted square later in the evening. Dave is surprised when Brita, who has defied her mother to fly to Vienna, meets him at his hotel to warn him about Dominique. Dave assures Brita that although his original intentions were blackmail, he has had a change of heart, and he urges her to leave for her own safety. Dominique arrives moments later, and outside the hotel, Brita overhears Dave reject Dominique’s offer. Both women independently follow Dave to the square, where Dominique admits to killing Mannheim and stealing the document that lists the four traitors. As Dominique holds Dave and Brita at gunpoint and demands that Dave abandon Spring and work with her, she is overpowered and silenced by Sandoz and the other agents. Dave then meets Spring in an alley nearby, and Sandoz explains to Brita that by partnering with Spring, Dave will soon unmask the other traitors.

Production Company:	Sheldon Reynolds Productions
Distribution Company:	United Artists Corp.
Director:	Sheldon Reynolds	(Dir)
	Tom Younger	(Asst dir)
	Michel Wyn	(Asst dir)
Producer:	Sheldon Reynolds	(Prod)
	Nicole Milinaire	(Assoc prod)
	John Padovano	(Assoc prod)
	Sacha Kamenka	(Prod supv)
Writer:	Sheldon Reynolds	(Wrt)
	Sheldon Reynolds	(Story based on orig trmt by)
	Harold Jack Bloom	(Story based on orig trmt by)
	Gene Levitt	(Story based on orig trmt by)
Photography:	Bertil Palmgren	(Photog)
	Roger Monteran	(Cam op)
Art Direction:	Maurice Petri	(Prod des)
Film Editor:	Lennart Wallen	(Film ed)
Costumes:	Pierre Balmain	(Dresses)
	Marie Claude Fouquet	(Ward supv)
Music:	Paul Durand	(Mus comp and arr)
Sound:	Jean Monchablon	(Sd eng)
Make Up:	Joseph Mejinsky	(Makeup supv)
Production Misc:	Philippe Senné	(Unit mgr)
	Kick Reeder	(Cont)
	Hamilton Keener	(Prod asst)
Country:	United States
Language:	English

Music:	" Foreign Intrigue Concerto" by Charles Norman.
Songs:
Composer:	Charles Norman
Source Text:

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number
Mandeville Films, S.A.	23/5/1956 dd/mm/yyyy	LP6696

PCA NO:	17620
Physical Properties:	Sd:	Poste Parisien
	col:	Eastman Color
	Lenses/Prints:	Processed at Eclair Studios & Laboratories
	Widescreen/ratio:	1.85:1


Genre:	Mystery

Subjects (Major):	Blackmail
	Espionage
	Impersonation and imposture
	Investigations
	Murder
	Romance

Subjects (Minor):	Americans in foreign countries
	Blindness
	Death and dying
	Fistfights
	Funerals
	Marriage of convenience
	Medical examiners (Law)
	Mothers and daughters
	Postwar life
	Press agents
	Riviera (France)
	Stockholm (Sweden)
	Vienna (Austria)
	Widows
	World War II

Note:	Footage for the opening scene, which depicts a house in Stockholm, Sweden in the winter of 1943, is in black and white. No dialogue is heard in this scene, which is accompanied by the following voice-over narration: "This is Stockholm. 1943. A neutral island in a world of war. A diplomatic center of plot and counter-plot. Of enemies and cautious friends. A meeting took place at the suburban home of Olaf Lindquist. A meeting led by a strange figure who later came to be known as Victor Danemore. That was the name he chose. That was the name by which the world believed they knew him. Victor Danemore was a master of intrigue, in a world where the forces of intrigue continue long after the armies have left the field of battle." No other narration is heard in the film. Opening title credits appear following the black-and-white sequence, and run over color footage of "Victor Danemore" in the garden at his villa. Sheldon Reynolds' credit appears as "Produced, Written & Directed by Sheldon Reynolds" in the viewed print. Cinematographer Bertil Palmgren's credit reads "Photographed in Eastman Color by Bertil Palmgren." No character names appeared in the credits, with the exception of the credit for actor John Padovano. The motion picture Foreign Intrigue was loosely based on Sheldon Reynolds' long-running television series of the same title, which was shot on location in Europe, and ran on NBC for 156 episodes between 1951 and 1955. Reynolds produced, wrote and directed some episodes, and cinematographer Bertil Palmgren was also the director of photography for the series. Other production crew working on the television series who also are credited on the feature film are John Padovano and Tom Younger. A 1 Jul 1955 HR production chart listed Steve Previn, who directed numerous television episodes, as the director of the feature film. However, Previn's name was replaced by Reynolds in the next production chart on 8 Jul 1955, and Previn's contribution to the final film has not been determined. The television series had different characters than the motion picture, although the format was similar, featuring a lead male character in a variety of European settings. Like the television series, the motion picture was shot on location in Europe, in Marseilles, at the Villa des Palmiers near Nice, and Paris, France, Monaco, Vienna, Austria, and Stockholm, Sweden. Foreign Intrigue marked the motion picture debut of Eileen O'Casey, and the American feature debuts of Genevieve Page and Ingrid Tulean, who was later known as Ingrid Thulin. According to modern sources, Mitchum was paid $150,000 for his appearance in the film, which had a total production cost of $625,000.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
Box Office	26 May 1956.
Daily Variety	23 May 56	p. 3.
The Exhibitor	30 May 1956	p. 4168.
Film Daily	31 May 56	p. 6.
Hollywood Reporter	2 May 1955	p. 2.
Hollywood Reporter	4 May 1955	p. 6.
Hollywood Reporter	1 Jul 1955	p. 15.
Hollywood Reporter	8 Jul 1955	p. 13.
Hollywood Reporter	14 Jul 1955	p. 7.
Hollywood Reporter	15 Jul 1955	p. 15.
Hollywood Reporter	27 Jul 1955	p. 3.
Hollywood Reporter	4 Aug 1955	p. 11.
Hollywood Reporter	5 Aug 1955	p. 13.
Hollywood Reporter	12 Aug 1955	p. 13.
Hollywood Reporter	19 Aug 1955	p. 15.
Hollywood Reporter	23 May 56	p. 3.
Los Angeles Times	14 Jun 1956.
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest	26 May 56	p. 913.
New York Times	13 Jul 56	p. 23.
Variety	23 May 56	p. 6.

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



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