Journey into Fear

"This film has all of the components to be a classic. It has Orson Welles’ first on-screen role post-Kane, Joseph Cotton in the lead and an intriguing espionage premise. Cotton plays a weapons engineer, who is targeted for assassination by the Nazis, to slow the aide to the Turkish government. A Turkish spy (Welles) smuggles him onto a small freighter heading to America, to get him home under the radar. Unbeknownst to him, a Nazi spy is also on the ship. This film should be a one location thriller, crackling with tension, but it just falls flat. The setup is illogical and unwieldy. The film shows its hand early to both the audience and the characters, so you’re just waiting for the inevitable showdown. The characters are generic (other than a business man who goes around claiming to be a socialist only because it annoys his wife). The 84 minute runtime somehow feels bloated even as the film seems incomplete. I was just hoping for a lot more. 2.75 out of 5 Stars"