Journey Into Fear

Brief and economical thriller. There are pretty much four scenes in the entire movie - hotel, nightclub, boat, hotel climax - but the pacing is fast, the story is simple and the suspense is kept at a reasonably high level throughout. The fat assassin was pretty cool, and the strange broken record leitmotif that accompanied his character was a nice touch.

Another pretty fun noir. Welles isn't in this a lot but he's his usual self in the few scenes he does appear, casting a dominating presence over everything. The rest is Cotten in a very well paced little thriller where you genuinely feel for the bind he's in. There's a slathering of wartime propaganda all over the film, but it just adds to the tension and the weight of the film's final line. It's pretty fun, but feels a tad slight.

Enjoyable film in which Welles gives a very entertaining performance. There are a lot of distinctive Wellesian touches in the direction too.

Solid but relatively run of the mill wartime espionage noir/thriller. The scene on the ledge is really good. It's unclear to what extent Welles directed parts of it, though he stars, produces, and had a hand in writing the screenplay (credited to lead Joseph Cotten). Welles' business agent Jack Moss has a great look as the Nazi assassin. It would have been interesting to see what this looked like as a film fully directed by Welles. It's still enjoyable stuff, but feels rushed and a bit cheap.

Exciting in parts, but quite uneven.

Decent B movie spy thriller with some nice seedy atmosphere. Could have been really good but flubs the ending.

Journey Into Fear (1943) has some incredibly haunting scenes along with a lot of incredible pedestrian moments. Felt like there was two different visions trying to get along. Creates a rather frustrating feeling since you can see how good this could be, yet how the plot is driven doesn't deliver on it's potential.

Quite a few plot elements--and the overall style--remind me of Hitchcock: the red herrings, the colorful characters in enclosed spaces, and the changes in whom you can and cannot trust. But it's more flamboyant, and more fun. The whole cast is excellent, and, although he denied it, Welles's directorial touches can be seen frequently--much more than in, say, "Black Magic". A highly entertaining hour-and-(very little) change.

Well done, despite the weak story.

Breezy fluff with a cool, menacing fat guy as the villain (even when Welles was an idol type, he had an affinity for the big-boned). Not quite as gripping as Hitchcock's very similar Saboteur. Hilarious ending, though.

This didn't really make much of an impression.

Most of my interest in this movie stems from Orson Welles' involvement. If he did actually direct the thing, he didn't enhance it much, utilizing plenty of low angles but none of the inventiveness that characterized his movies. The whole thing is serviceable but never wholly engaging, in my eyes. Worth a look if you like the Mercury cast (Hard to dislike Joseph Cotten, who is merely decent here), and the perilous, rain-soaked finale is a lot of fun.

A short (not even clearing 70 minutes) yet tangled and plot heavy noir. The Mercury cast is predictably good, the visuals are appropriately shadowy (and occasionally off-kilter), and there's plenty of suspense to maintain interest. There are a few distinctive touches but all the same I feel like this could have been better.

Dry film noir featuring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. It sounds better than it is but it only clocks in at a little over an hour so it's worth a look for fans.

It's rumored that Orson Welles had his hand in the writing and direction, and it shows. The film has Wellesian eccentricities -- off-kilter performances, use of extreme camera angles, and a protagonist in way over his head. Some people seem to find the plot very confusing, but I had no problem following it at all. It's an entertaining film with very strong visuals, claustrophobic paranoia and some wonderful characters. Cotten isn't really at his best here, but he won't disappoint fans.

Watch this half-drunk on a rainy night for augmented reality experience.

There's a good movie somewhere in this tangled mess of a narrative. I just know it.