A Foreign Affair (1948)

A Foreign Affair (1948) (DVD) (*)

Out of Stock

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Oscar Academy Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Mono )
French ( Mono )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
111 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Featurette
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1948 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Billy Wilder

Written By:
Charles Brackett
Richard L. Breen

Actors:
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

Synopsis:

Writer/director Billy Wilder (in collaboration with producer/writer Charles Brackett) earned his first critical condemnation with A Foreign Affair. Reviewers accused Wilder (as they would so often in the future) of moral bankruptcy, challenging him to prove what could possibly be funny about the Nazi war guilt, the bombed-out city of Berlin, the postwar European black market or attempted suicide. All of these elements are in Foreign Affair, and all are very funny. John Lund is an American army captain carrying on a casual affair with Berlin songstress Marlene Dietrich, who accepts Lund's attentions so long as there are contraband cigarettes and nylons added to the bargain. Iowa congresswoman Jean Arthur is sent as part of an American fact-finding delegation to Berlin, and Lund is compelled to clean up his act--or at least pretend to. Despite her initial shock at the corruption all around her, straitlaced Arthur eventually falls for Lund, but Dietrich has been at this game a lot longer. For an interesting cinematic and sociological exercise, A Foreign Affair should be shown in tandem with Wilder's 1961 Cold War comedy One, Two, Three.

In post World War II Berlin, a congressional committee from Washington comes to investigate into the American troops' morality. They unmask a music-hall star who is a really dangerous Nazi.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 28 March, 2019.