I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Hitchcock is the master, no matter what subject matter. He did have a propensity for spy stuff, however. In this one, the U.S. has not entered the war. Joel McRae is a foreign correspondent who gets in thick with a man who is a pacifist. He is led into a web of intrigue with murders and murder coverups. Identity and mistaken identity. Love for real and love for convenience. It also has the great Hitchcock method of using famous landmarks for things to happen. In this case it is Westminster Abby. It's a buffet of wonderful visual delights, including the incredible umbrella scene. Don't miss this.

I think this is the best of the two Alfred Hitchcock-directed films released in 1940, which is saying something given the fact that the other won the Oscar. Not only does it have terrific set pieces (an old Dutch windmill, a transatlantic clipper, etc.) but it contains standout performances by Joel McCrea (Hitch had wanted Gary Cooper, who turned down the role), Herbert Marshall (his best acting?) and George Sanders (one of many cynical characters he played to perfection).McCrea plays a reporter assigned to investigate the chances of an outbreak of war in Europe immediately prior to World War II. It does, and there's lots of suspense and intrigue including a kidnapping (of Albert Bassermann's character). Laraine Day, Robert Benchley, Edmund Gwenn, Eduardo Ciannelli, Harry Davenport, Ian Wolfe, Charles Halton, and Emory Parnell (among others) also appear.The end of the film is a virtual advertisement (pure propaganda) urging the U.S. to join the British in the war against Germany. The film received six Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Bassermann, his only), B&W Art Direction, Cinematography, Special Effects, and Original Screenplay (Charles Bennett's only); Joan Harrison earned her only other nomination that same year for the director's Academy Award winning Best Picture Rebecca (1940).

Right from the start I knew I loved this movie. It's truly a Hitchcock classic, miles ahead of the last fluffy outing I saw from the director – STAGE FRIGHT – and a film with all the elements: mystery, suspense, romance, thrills, chills, and more besides. The globetrotting story sees our innocuous hero – Joel McCrea, playing one of Hitchcock's most appealing leading men – travelling to Holland and becoming involved with spies and conspirators. This is a film where nobody is who they seem to be and the action is thoroughly engaging. In some ways it reminds me of an early predecessor to the Bourne films: our hero's always on the move, outwitting sinister agents at every angle and narrowly avoiding death along the way too.The film is punctuated with vivid set-pieces. The early assassination sequence is shocking and gruesome, and it leads into a thrilling car chase. Then there's an extraordinarily suspenseful sequence inside a creaking windmill where our hero tries not to get caught – brilliant stuff indeed that defines the very word 'suspense'. Then there's the escape from the hotel room, the wonderful interlude in which our hero is accompanied by a bodyguard who's secretly out to kill him (one of the funniest things I've ever seen and the perfect mixture of laughs and thrills), a grisly torture scene, and even a major plane crash thrown in at the climax. Of course, all these moments are directed to the hilt by Hitchcock and among his best work.The cast is assured and indeed there isn't a bum performance among them. Particularly noteworthy are Herbert Marshall in a difficult role and a cocky George Sanders as a fellow reporter. I have to say, though, that Edmund Gwenn is the scene-stealer here as the immensely likable assassin. He's only in the film ten minutes but those ten minutes help to make the movie. Brilliant stuff indeed.

It is a bit overlong and Joel Mcrea is annoying while Laraine Day is unremarkable. But the thrills in this film are truly out of the world. The stark and realistic scenes at the windmill and the top of the tower without any background music might have inspired the long heist scene in Rififfi. I was thinking about RIFIFFI when i watched those scenes. The plain wreck scenes in the sea were pretty scary - the sea almost seemed like a monster. There were some extraordinary images in the film - one of the gigantic ship (at the beginning of the film) and the one of the almost monstrous sea.Albert Bassermann's performance as Van Meer needs special mention. the scene where he is tortured and interrogated seems to have inspired Brian De Palma in Sisters.Some of the twists could have been done away with. The film needed better editing. And the ending is pure propaganda. I wonder if that was the way Hitch felt about the war or if it was the studio.