idlesuperstar:

Not-lead characters that I adore beyond reason: An Advent Calendar

Day 10: Scott ffolliott (George Sanders) – Foreign Correspondent [1940]

Speaking of tweedy Hitchcock BAMFs…here’s another cut from the very same cloth as Gilbert and Hannay. And oh, isn’t it refreshing to see George get to play an almost-heroic role? Scott is the prince of sarky asides, and pretends to be as lazy and as louche as they come, but underneath it all he’s actually pretty serious and dedicated, and definitely (something that George often isn’t) on the side of the angels. He lounges comfortably in a long line of British gents who quip in the face of danger, something I adore a lot. 

I know it would be hard to throw a stone in Hollywood in 1940 and not hit an english ex-pat actor (I know George isn’t really English, but let’s pretend he is, eveyone else did) but it’s interesting that Foreign Correspondent is a kind of trans-atlantic marriage, what with Scott harking strongly back to 30s Hitch, plus Herbert Marshall (Murder!), Edmund Gwenn (a ton of 30s British films) and its part-London setting. It’s like Hitch is throwing the America audiences (in the Mary-Sue form of Joel McCrea) into a montage of his previous films, and watching them flounder around until they get their bearings, while the English audiences cringe a bit at this brash American, yet by the end somehow he’s become incredibly likeable. Maybe this is why it’s one of my fave Hitch films. 

Or maybe it’s because of George. Look at him, effortlessly suave in his cable-knit jumper and tweed jackets, switching from indolent to threatening to heroic to silly in a heartbeat. There are few actors with as great a talent as George who spent their time in so many shit films, so it’s a tremendous joy to have his Scott ffolliott, a genuinely great character in a highly entertaining film.