Joel McCrea is no Cary Grant, lacking charisma as the lead of this Hitchcock thriller, but then I suppose he is supposed to - an American crime reporter in London seconded as a foreign correspondent in Amsterdam, he is both a man out of his league and a fish out of water tasked with investigating the potential for war in Europe - but the other problem is the plot is rambly and loose and barely holds Hitchcock's setpieces together, so thank goodness those setpieces - an assassination, thrills inside a windmill, dizzying scenes atop a hotel and a chapel, and a spectacular plane crash - are so, so memorable!
★★★★☆
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