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A Foreign Affair (1948)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
20 August 1948 (USA) moreTagline:
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. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination moreUser Comments:
An outstanding, interesting, entertaining movie more (29 total)Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
116 minCountry:
USAColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)Filming Locations:
Berlin, GermanyFun Stuff
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. moreGoofs:
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. moreSoundtrack:
ISN'T IT ROMANTIC moreFAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (29 total)
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for A Foreign Affair (1948)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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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.