A Foreign Affair (1948)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Charles Brackett (screenplay)
Richard L. Breen (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 August 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

It would make a cigar store Indian laugh ...

Plot:

In occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi cafe singer and the U.S. congresswoman investigating her.

Plot Keywords:

Congresswoman | Singer | Military | Post War | Birthday Cake

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Jean Arthur	...	Congresswoman Phoebe Frost
Marlene Dietrich	...	Erika Von Schluetow
John Lund	...	Captain John Pringle
Millard Mitchell	...	Col. Rufus J. Plummer
Peter von Zerneck	...	Hans Otto Birgel
Stanley Prager	...	Mike
William Murphy	...	Joe (as Bill Murphy)
Raymond Bond	...	Congressman Pennecot
Boyd Davis	...	Congressman Giffin
Robert Malcolm	...	Congressman Kramer
Charles Meredith	...	Congressman Yandell
Michael Raffetto	...	Congressman Salvatore
Damian O'Flynn	...	Lieutenant Colonel
Frank Fenton	...	Major Mathews
James Larmore	...	Lieutenant Hornby

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Hungary:14 | Australia:G | Germany:12 | USA:Approved (PCA #12791)

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Though the character played by Jean Arthur is an 'unmarried' American Congresswoman, the actress's real life wedding ring is visible in many scenes especially close-ups during the latter part of the film.

Quotes:

Captain John Pringle: Don't tell me it's subversive to kiss a Republican!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Billy Wilder Speaks (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

ISN'T IT ROMANTIC

An outstanding, interesting, entertaining movie

The main impression left by "A Foreign Affair" is Billy Wilder's nobility toward German people. With authentic magnanimity, he chooses to represent Germans as a pitiful people struggling to survive, not a cruel enemy to hate. The movie has an intrinsic historical interest, since it was filmed in 1948 Berlin, completely destroyed by bombs. As usual in Wilder's works, the plot is beautifully constructed, the dialogue is witty and funny, irony, sarcasm and anti-rhetoric are spread along the movie. In the opening scenes we see army captain John Lund at the black-market, selling a cake, hand-made by his American sweetheart and coming from the States, to buy a gift for his Berliner lover Marlene Dietrich. By the way, Dietrich and most Berliner women seem to be on the verge of prostitution, just to get primary goods to survive in post-war disaster. Lund meets Jean Arthur, a US congresswoman committed in hunting nazi war criminals. As a matter of fact, we follow Lund's attempts to destroy evidence of Dietrich's nazi past: a behavior by the captain not exactly patriotic, nor ethic. The finale is deeper than it appears at a first sight: brutal tyranny, based on terror and slaughter, is doomed to be annihilated, buried under the rubble; pretty girls remain, helping us to spend our life on this unhappy earth.