A Foreign Affair

Director: Billy Wilder Billy Wilder

Overview

In this film, John Lund is an American army captain carrying on a casual affair with Berlin songstress Marlene Dietrich. 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.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/07/2014
UPC:	0025192139420
Original Release:	1948
Source:	Universal Mod
Language:	English
Time:	1:52:00
Sales rank:	33,535

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jean Arthur	Phoebe Frost
John Lund	Capt. John Pringle
Marlene Dietrich	Erika von Schluetow
Millard Mitchell	Col. Rufus J. Plummer
William Murphy	Joe
Stanley Prager	Mike
Peter von Zerneck	Hans Otto Birgel
Raymond Bond	Pennecott
Boyd Davis	Griffin
Robert Malcolm	Kraus
Charles Meredith	Yandell
Michael Raffetto	Salvatore
James Larmore	Lt. Homby
Damian O'Flynn	Lieutenant Colonel
Frank Fenton	Major
William Neff	Lt. Lee Thompson
Harland Tucker	Gen. McAndrew
George Carleton	Gen. Finney
Gordon Jones	Military Police
Freddie Steele	Military Police
Bobby Watson	Adolf Hitler

Technical Credits

Billy Wilder

Charles Brackett

Robert Harari

Richard L. Breen

Billy Wilder	Director,Screenwriter
Charles Brackett	Screenwriter,Producer
Robert Harari	Screenwriter
Richard L. Breen	Screenwriter
Gordon Jennings	Special Effects
Walter Oberst	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A cutting-edge comedy in the post-World War II era, A Foreign Affair remains a very funny film, but much of its richness came from the historical context of its satire. At the heart of the film is the observant wit of writer/director Billy Wilder, a Jewish German émigré with a sardonic view of life in post-war Berlin. The interplay among Marlene Dietrich, Jean Arthur, and John Lund gives the film much of its comic texture; the dialogue is sharp and the story is knowing. Charles Lang's cinematography is first-rate, and Edith Head's costume designs give the film much of its glamour. While not as well-known as other Wilder films, A Foreign Affair was a clear example of Wilder's increasing willingness to push the limits of what Hollywood would allow. While a film like A Foreign Affair would be the crowning achievement for many directors, Wilder had still more great films ahead of him, with such classics as Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Some Like it Hot (1959).