Journey Into Fear (1943)

An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by Nazi agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.

Directors:

Norman Foster, Orson Welles (uncredited)

Writers:

Joseph Cotten (screenplay), Eric Ambler (novel)

Stars:

Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dolores del Rio

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Joseph Cotten	...	Howard Graham
Dolores del Rio	...	Josette Martel (as Dolores Del Rio)
Ruth Warrick	...	Mrs. Stephanie Graham
Agnes Moorehead	...	Mrs. Mathews
Jack Durant	...	Gogo Martel
Everett Sloane	...	Kopeikin
Eustace Wyatt	...	Prof. Haller / Muller
Frank Readick	...	Matthews
Edgar Barrier	...	Kuvetli
Jack Moss	...	Peter Banat
Stefan Schnabel	...	Translator for Ship's Captain
Hans Conried	...	Swami Magician
Robert Meltzer	...	Ship Baggageman
Richard Bennett	...	Ship's Captain
Orson Welles	...	Colonel Haki

Storyline

A Navy engineer, returning to the U.S. with his wife from a conference, finds himself pursued by Nazi agents, who are out to kill him. Without a word to his wife, he flees the hotel the couple is staying in and boards a ship, only to find, after the ship sails, that the agents have followed him.

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Plot Keywords:

wellesian | secret agent | nazi spy | held at gunpoint | espionage | 

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Taglines:

Welles and Del Rio together! as Terror Man vs. Leopard Woman--for possession of a mysterious stranger in the powder-keg Middle East...a man with a military secret worth more than his love and his life!...It's menace melodrama thrilled with mighty mystery and suspense...SEE IT!

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Turkish French German

Release Date:

12 February 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Jornada do Medo

Filming Locations:

RKO Studios - 780 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures, Mercury Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In late August 1942, RKO decided to delay the release of the movie because critics disliked it in press previews. By that time, Orson Welles' contract was terminated by a new studio head. As part of the settlement, Welles agreed to edit the last reel, and film additional scenes. He added the voice-over by Joseph Cotten throughout the movie, and designed the sequence before the credits.

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Goofs

At c.33 minutes we see the ship's first aid cabinet on the wall of the captain's berth marked with a Red Cross symbol. In a Turkish ship the marking would be a Red Crescent (or, commonly, a Red Cross and a Red Crescent side by side) but never solely a Red Cross motif.

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Quotes

Kopeikin: [seeing Graham off at the dock] Oh, by the way, have you a gun in your luggage?
Howard Graham: I haven't got any luggage!
Kopeikin: [pulls a loaded revolver from his coat] Then, uh, you better take this. I picked it up on my way to see your wife. It is completely loaded.
Howard Graham: What did she say?
Kopeikin: [hands the gun to Graham] Here.
Howard Graham: Well, I don't need this!
Kopeikin: Put it in your pocket. It will make you feel nicer to have it.
Howard Graham: I never fired one of these things, you know?
Kopeikin: [laughs] That's a good one, Howard. You are a ballistics expert, and you ...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

In 2005 an alternate cut was shown at the Welles film retrospective in Locarno, Switzerland. It was the original European release print, lacking the narration and ending of the US version but including about six minutes of footage later deleted by RKO.

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Connections

Referenced in It's All True (1993)

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Soundtracks

Three Little Words
(1930) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Ruby
Lyrics by Bert Kalmar

User Reviews

Good illustration/adaptation of the classic suspense novel

`Journey Into Fear' certainly has an Orson Welles look. Although he received neither directing nor writing credit (credit went to Norman Foster and Joseph Cotten, respectively), I think that most of what is there is his. The problem is that there is not enough there there. The on-board relationships should have been developed more. All of them seem perfunctory.

Combining the shooting by a good marksman who misses his target and stalking him in the nightclub are combined into an altogether more satisfying single event.The escape from the Nazis is more protracted and less violent than in Eric Ambler's book. It is very noirish and photogenic, and the combination of wet chase and the presence of a murky character played by Orson Welles and an all-American one played by Joseph Cotten prefigure `The Third Man.' Joseph Cotten had some of the same American innocence and ready outrage in both films. He's an important munitions engineer here and a hack western writing there. He doesn't get the dark beauty (Alida Valli or Dolores del Rio) in either, though he has and keeps a wife in `Journey.'

The film probably makes sense to those unfamiliar with the book (and such viewers aren't distracted by thinking about what's been changed). It is suspenseful even for someone like me who recently read the book