Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

gudpaljoey-78582 How can critics snub this great movie? Maybe they didn't want to be associated with empathy for the Germans in 1948. Maybe they were nervous about showing politicians for what they are. Maybe they just don't like Marlene. This is one of the best movies of all time. Great acting. Great story. Great production. And of course, great direction. The use of songs and music throughout the picture that hold together with the story is marvelous. So many great funny lines. I don't know why John Lund didn't find more work in comedy. He demonstrated how good he is in this one. Love this film back when and now.

wvisser-leusden 'A foreign affair' provides good entertainment in a typical mid 20th-century style. Showing morals and attitudes that aren't ours anymore. Marlene Dietrich's sparkling presence fits in well, lifting 'A foreign affair' up to its timeless dimension.Maybe a little history comes in handy as well: situated in the war-torn Berlin of 1947. 'A foreign affair' deals with the desperate poverty of the German civilians who survived the Second World War. It was 'Stunde null' (= zero hour) for them: the war lost, about 35% of their country annexed by other nations, the cities destroyed, a poor living from day to day without steady earnings, and the women permanently at risk of sexual abuse by the occupying foreign soldiers.

Alex da Silva The women steal the honours in this film about a soldier John Pringle (John Lund)who has a lover Erika (Marlene Dietrich) in Germany but falls for a Congresswoman Phoebe (Jean Arthur) who is on a 5-day stay in Berlin investigating morale and morals within the US army. Jean Arthur is funny, determined and innocent while Dietrich is sexy, stylish, streetwise and playfully wicked. The story has humour and sadness and it ends well for all parties, but it is the acting of the 2 lead women that makes the film worth seeing.As usual, Dietrich sings some rubbish songs but it doesn't get in the way of the film and she wears nice sparkly outfits which takes the attention away from the music. My favourite scene is when Dietrich and Arthur are in a club that gets raided and Dietrich points out a few home truths. Jean Arthur makes you feel genuinely sorry for her and it's a good contrast to the humour which has gone beforehand. There is also a story about a jealous Nazi who is coming to dish out some revenge to John but this thread is only picked up in the latter stages of the film. It's quite a long film but it's enjoyable enough to watch again.

vincentlynch-moonoi I have a different view of this film because of the performance of Jean Arthur. In my view, she was ill suited to this role. We typically want to like Jean Arthur, but in this film she is dour to a fault...almost totally unlikable and unsympathetic. But that is one of the few faults of this film. Billy Wilder -- other than the Arthur aspect -- put together a film with snappy dialog and mostly very good performances. Marlene Dietirch, who may have been a tad too old for her part (or was John Lund too young for his part?), put in a fine performance. Lund was good...never quite sure why he wasn't a bigger star. But what takes center stage in this film are the views of post-war Berlin (much of the movie was filmed on location). I had seen footage of the devastation before, but this film showed far more than I had ever seen, and I frankly was not aware the city was this far gone after the war. The print that I viewed on TCM had some distinct problems with the cinematography -- jolting blurring during certain movements, particularly when panning -- but it is not clear to me if the fault was in the original film or due to deterioration, but it was quite distracting. A good but flawed film.