Journey into Fear

…to direct Welles’s next production, Journey into Fear (1943), an espionage yarn adapted from a complicated Eric Ambler novel. It starred Mercury players Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, and Welles. How much of the picture Welles actually directed without credit has been a matter of dispute. Welles later claimed…

…with the Mercury ensemble in Journey into Fear (1942), for which he collaborated with Welles on the screenplay. The 1940s proved to be Cotten’s most successful years; virtually every film he appeared in during the decade is regarded as a classic. He delivered his three most heralded performances: as the…

After he edited the atmospheric Journey into Fear, another project with Welles (who cowrote and acted in the thriller), Robson worked on I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and The Leopard Man (1943), both of which were directed by Tourneur and produced by Lewton.

Welles had started work on Journey into Fear (1943) before leaving for Brazil, and he returned to find that RKO had begun meddling with it, as it had with The Magnificent Ambersons. This time, though, Welles was able to intercede and restore at least some of the brutal editing, but…