"Intrigue"-ing

During the recent shelter-in-place due to COVID-19, it's been a dizzying time for me. Work has reached an all-time level of cray-cray and when I'm finished, I only want to veg out, often with undemanding, stringently-formatted programming like Flea Market Flip, Going RV or Lakeside Living (all 30-minute non-think shows found in marathon form on the Great American Country channel.) But there have also been some nights when I've taken time to watch movies that I otherwise might have skipped over or wouldn't have ordinarily DVR-ed. I've seen a LOT of movies, good and bad, during this lockdown. One movie that found its way onto my widescreen TV was a lesser-known 1956 Robert Mitchum picture called Foreign Intrigue.

The film was produced by a man named Sheldon Reynolds. Interestingly, he had previously created a syndicated spy TV series called Foreign Intrigue, of which there were 78 episodes and a few cast changes (and series name changes) along the way. This film is tied to the series in the remotest of ways with one supporting character from the show appearing in the movie. I found Reynolds' penchant for having his name appear in fancy-pants script (twice!) amid the otherwise standard typeface in the opening credits to be about the gayest thing evah, but he was apparently heterosexual. As producer, writer and director, it's more than clear who was in charge!

I'm not going to delve into the myriad plot details of this movie, but instead am merely going to point out a few points of interest and make a few comparisons that occurred to me while watching it. From the very start, Intrigue takes on the feel of a Hitchcock thriller. It's got portentous music (a concerto, in fact, created for it), eye-popping locations, unusual camera angles, deliberate use of color and - a particular Hitchcock motif - an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Mitchum, as a press agent for a mysterious millionaire, finds himself mired in mystery and danger upon the man's death and skips around Europe as several bodies pile up.

Mitchum is hardly an "everyman" and is sort of out of his comfort zone here, but gives it a college try. 

The film also contains a woman whose motives and morality aren't always made clear. The widow of the fallen (and rather aged) millionaire isn't exactly crestfallen over his demise.

This gal is portrayed by auburn-haired Genevieve Page. Decked out in a variety of carefully structured Pierre Balmain designs, she cuts quite a lithe figure throughout. One big blooper stood out to me, however, in one scene. She is seen wearing a lovely pair of brooches along her right shoulder, whose color complements her red gown. However, mid-scene, the brooches are suddenly facing the opposite direction! It's surprising that no one caught this gaffe on set.

A change of direction...

But no Hitchcock-style suspense film, actual or faux, would be complete without a blonde on hand. In this case, the young lady is portrayed by Ingrid Thulin. (She's billed as Ingrid Tuelin in this early role.) Strangely, both Thulin and Page receive "Introducing" credit in the film's opening even though they had both been working in movies for a period of years!

In time, Thulin would emerge as a highly-regarded actress in quite a few Ingmar Bergman films along with some decidedly cutting edge movies such as The Damned (1969) for Luchino Visconti. And she is a member of our very own (imaginary) Disaster Movie Club thanks to her appearance in 1976's The Cassandra Crossing.

Mitchum has a vaguely amusing cat & mouse association with a diminutive, bald man of espionage played by Frederic O'Brady. O'Brady's role is showy, unusual and pretty entertaining. He and the much bigger and brawnier Mitchum establish a certain degree of chemistry (and had fun palling around off-screen during filming as well.)

One thing Hitchcock films are decidedly NOT known for is beefcake. One is usually lucky to see a glimpse of the male form in one of Hitch's movies. Not so the case here as one sequence contains the sight of our hero removing his shirt (as O'Brady looks on with interest.)

"See somethin' ya like?"

Mitchum proceeds to shave while O'Brady looks on. There's a mild element of homoerotica, intentional or not, within the scene. The two eventually square off for a scuffle, though it isn't hard to guess who wins that one!

Peculiarly, Mitchum winds up in the unusual outfit of a suit jacket with no shirt underneath...!

There's a chase sequence that starts off on a winding stairwell. One might look down the middle and experience vertigo. But as I watched his film, whose plot admittedly has nothing whatsoever to do with Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), I couldn't help but take note of some visual similarities. Now I'm not accusing Hitch or anyone else of plagiarism. I'm merely saying that some of the visual (and marketing) elements of Foreign Intrigue seem to have perhaps, consciously or not, influenced artistic choices made in Vertigo.

It's easy enough to point to the ice cool, very lovely Grace kelly-ish blonde - a Hitchcock staple. (And Thulin might really have shone had she ever wound up working for the Master of Suspense. He is on record as having admired her and finding her understatedly sexy.)

But what of this? The spiraling twist of white-blonde hair, curving up and around in a whirlpool to nowhere...

...that emerged as a key motif in Vertigo with mystery woman Kim Novak.

Novak was styled (and lit) in a far more "Hollywood" way than Thulin, with heavier brows, but lighter lips. However the general visual aura is similar in many ways.

Still not convinced? Take a look at the tightly-structured, grey-toned suit that Miss Thulin wears in Intrigue and compare it to Novak's from Vertigo. Different fabric, yes, and different detailing, but with the same basic silhouette and with turned up cuffs on the sleeves.

Thulin as an actress bears little similarity to Novak, but the overall type of look she was given in this film does lend itself to comparison to famous Hitchcock blondes, notably the heroine of Vertigo. To me she looks at times much like one Kristin Scott Thomas (the merits of who I am occasionally debating with a good pal of mine!)

"The Swedish Patient?"

Thulin's mother is one of those highly elegant, but rather controlling, types that Hitch liked to use in some of his films. Think Leopoldine Konstantin in Notorious (1946) or even Miss Jessica Tandy in The Birds (1963.)

Like I say, the scenarios are vastly different, as are the personalities involved, but there's just that certain something that made me associate one film with the other.

Vertigo is a top ten favorite film of mine and, though it was a sometimes difficult role and experience for Novak, I don't think she was ever better in a movie. And as most of us know, she was a replacement for Vera Miles, who'd already been planned for the film from practically the start.

The uncanny or coincidental similarities I've been remarking upon in this post extend beyond the films to even the marketing portraits that were generated to sell them to the public:

Or how about this?

I leave it in your hands to decide whether one film may have influenced another.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Editor's Note~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I was (finally) getting around to posting again, I was informed by my company that I'm going to have to take on even MORE work than I already am. As a result, it's going to make posting here regularly even more scarce than it has been (and that's saying something!) I am going to attempt to switch formats for a while, putting up briefer posts but hopefully with more frequency. Also, as a turd cherry atop the shit sundae I'm already going through, blogger suddenly will not let me upload multiple pictures at one time, allowing me to then click on the ones I want and putting them where I choose. I have to do each. one. singly. So that's another reason why I'm going to have to switch to less labor-intensive posts for a while. Wish me luck! Thanks for reading.