Normandie, built in Saint-Nazaire in 1932, was the pride of France; the most beautiful, largest and fastest liner in the world. In the chaos of World War II, this grandiose dream is reduced to ashes in a matter of hours.
The destruction of Normandie stuns America. The official investigation finds it was a catastrophic accident. But in a paranoid atmosphere where fear of foreigners, spies, and saboteurs blurs the line between reality and fantasy, the shipwreck becomes the focal point of a whole nation’s dread.
Eighty years later, the myth of an attack refuses to die. Through unseen archives and personal documents, Normandie Will Not Sail Tonight revisits New York at the dawn of war — a New York inhabited by Hitchcock, real and fake spies, and a drifting French crew. It is an original exploration of America, in a time when conspiracy theories and rumors were not yet called “fake news”.
Image credit: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum