ORSON WELLES WARTIME CRIME POTBOILER 'JOURNEY INTO FEAR'

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR Director: Norman Foster Producer: Orson Welles Year 1943 rating ****

An entertaining, lightweight crime yarn about a married and very passive arms dealer... who ironically has never fired a gun... stuck on a cargo ship where there lurks a clandestine Nazi out to kill him...

Joseph Cotten stars as the hunted pawn who, having left loyal wife Ruth Warrick ashore, is reluctantly sent aboard with dancer Dolores Del Rio and meets various passengers including a Turkish tobacco dealer, a slick gambler and a German businessman. It's not hard figuring out who the main heavy is, but it doesn't matter...

Joseph Cotten & Everette Sloane in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with an unnamed actress

It's great seeing the CITIZEN KANE acting trio of Cotten, now in the lead with Everett Sloane as an exposition-spouting go-between and Orson Welles as a slick Turkish Captain (plus Warrick, again the classy better half)...

Overall the cadence is loose with a terrific rooftopshootout/climax involving the villain's ruthless hit man played by Welles's real life manager, Jack Moss: And to prove Welles was only the producer, here's a quote when asked if he himself co-directed JOURNEY INTO FEAR...

Orson Welles in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

"Never at any time... I produced it and Jo Cotten and I wrote the script, based on Eric Amber's novel: The director was Norman Foster, who was a great friend of mine... I wasn’t even in the country for most of the picture," Welles said, taken from the book THIS IS ORSON WELLES with Peter Bogdanovich interviewing. "I was only there for three weeks. But I did the sets and I supervised the planning of the way it was going to be done."

But, like with THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, studio henchmen chose their own flurry of edits (while Welles was filming the wartime propaganda IT'S ALL TRUE). And while not completely Film Noir, JOURNEY INTO FEAR has the pulse of an old school adventure tale, narrowed into a tightly suspenseful, time-filling potboiler. 

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR aka Voyage au pays de la peur

Everette Sloane, Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles in Journey into Fear

Eustace Wyatt, Joseph Cotten and Jack Moss in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Orson Welles's real life agent Jack Moss takes a killer role in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Dolores Del Rio in JOURNEY INTO FEAR aka Calatorie în tara groazei aka Estambul

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Everette Sloane aka Farlig medpassagerare

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Orson Welles aka Utazás a félelembe

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR aka Terrore sul Mar Nero aka Пътуване в страх

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Dolores Del Rio aka Jornada de terror

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Jack Durant and Edgar Barrier

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Eustace Wyatt aka Von Agenten gejagt

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Podróż do krainy strachu

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Jack Durant aka Путешествие в страх

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR aka Voyage dans l'épouvante aka Estambul

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Eustace Wyatt and Jack Moss and Ruth Warrick

Orson Welles & Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Delores Del Rio & Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Delores Del Rio & Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Eustace Wyatt

Jack Moss & Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Delores Del Rio & Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Jack Moss

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Lead villain Eustace Wyatt and Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Citizen Kane first wife RUTH WARRICK in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Great shot from JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Jack Moss and Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Eustace Wyatt and Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Jack Moss & Ruth Warrick

Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Jack Moss in the pre-opening-credits prelude for JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Opening Credits for JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Opening Credits for JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Opening Credits for JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Opening Credits for JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Opening Credits for JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Opening Credits for JOURNEY INTO FEAR

CITIZEN KANE actors Ruth Warrick and Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Everette Sloane in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Kane reunion with Everette Sloane, Ruth Warrick & Joseph Cotten JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Everette Sloane in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Orson Welles

Jack Durant and Dolores Del Rio in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Orson Welles as Colonel Haki in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Everette Sloane in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Joseph Cotten

Orson Welles in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Joseph Cotten

Orson Welles in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Joseph Cotten

Orson Welles in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Everette Sloane

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Edgar Barrier and Dolores del Rio

Citizen Kane mom Agnes Moorehad in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Frank Readick

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Eustace Wyatt

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Eustace Wyatt

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Edgar Barrier

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Edgar Barrier

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Jack Durant

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR with Frank Readick & Agnes Moorehead

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR