A Foreign Affair
1948 · Movie · NR · 116 min · ★ 7.1 · 88% critics
In postwar occupied Berlin, a visiting American official looks into troop conduct and finds herself caught in a messy triangle involving an army captain and a nightclub singer with a troubling past. The story mixes romance, satire, and moral tension against a city still marked by war.
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Details
- Years
- 1948
- Release date
- 1948-08-20
- Language
- English
- Rated
- NR
- Runtime
- 116 min
- Critic score
- 88/100
- TMDB rating
- 7.1/10 (158 votes)
About
You may like this if you enjoy smart romantic comedies with bite, a morally messy postwar backdrop, and the cool, sly tone of films like Ninotchka; Not for you if you want a pure feel-good romance.
Pros: witty script; engaging leads; sharp postwar setting | Cons: uncharismatic love interest; uneven romantic pull; dated attitudes
Themes
- berlin, germany
- nazi
- black market
- moral ambiguity
- world war ii
- politician
- man between two women
- post war germany
- singer
- post war
- post world war ii
- ex-nazi
- +13 more
Awards & recognition
- Academy Award — Best Cinematography, Black-and-White · 1949 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay · 1949 · nominated
Cast & crew
Jean Arthur
as Congresswoman Phoebe Frost
Marlene Dietrich
as Erika Von Schlüetow
John Lund
as Captain John Pringle
Millard Mitchell
as Col. Rufus J. Plummer
Peter von Zerneck
as Hans Otto Birgel
Stanley Prager
as Mike
William Murphy
as Joe
Gordon Jones
as Military Police
Freddie Steele
as Military Police
Raymond Bond
as Pennecot
Directed by Billy Wilder