CHRISTOPHER WOOD: FALL FILM SERIES >>>

Tired of the weekly revival of Psycho and Vertigo on Turner Classic Movies? How many film critics must we listen to pay lip service to THAT shower scene (seventy camera setups! wow!), or find feminist fodder in Scotty Ferguson’s obsession with a dead woman? Sure, those movies fall among the best ever, but Hitchcock made more than 60 others. As part of its Fall Film Series, the Tacoma Public Library has smartly decided to give Big Al’s lesser-known works some screen time.

For your viewing pleasure this evening, TPL offers the 1940 wartime thriller Foreign Correspondent. Joel McCrea, regularly seen in Hollywood westerns, heads east this time as Johnny Jones, a reporter shipped off to London to, shall we say, correspond on foreign matters. But of course his assignment meets with a Hitch. The director loves watching people squirm in situations they can’t comprehend or control, so expect Johnny’s European getaway to dissolve into a fog of assassination plots, kidnappings and mistaken identity. Toss in a romantic subplot involving a peace leader’s daughter, and political intrigue just got more intriguing.

So send the kids to the soda shop tonight while you experience some (free) old-fashioned suspense as only Sir Alfred can deliver it. Next in the series are The 39 Steps Oct. 30 and Stage Fright Nov. 13.

[Tacoma Public Library Main Branch, Foreign Correspondent, Thursday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m., free, Olympic Room, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.591.5666]