The credits of Foreign Correspondent roll over a stylised, architectural globe that revolves four times, varying the backdrop to the pages of names. The name of the director is positioned over the United States. Since this is Hitchcock's first cinematic contribution to the war effort of the country he has left behind, the strong association of his name and his adopted home might seem tactless - a post to come on this site will look more closely at Hitchcock's relation to England in this film.
After the credits the camera pulls away to reveal that the globe is not an extradiegetic, prefatory emblem but an integral part of the mise-en-scène, placed atop a high New York building into which we will pass, via a window, to discover the beginnings of the story.