Secret Agent

1936 "Dead Women Tell No Tales Was The Motto of This Charming Lady Killer!"
6.4| 1h26m| en| More Info
Released: 15 June 1936 Released
Producted By: Gaumont-British Picture Corporation
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

After three British agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences.

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Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
robert-temple-1 This film is based upon the novel of the same title by Somerset Maugham. It is set in 1916, in the middle of the First World War. The hero's name is Ashenden, and the novel was filmed as a mini-series (of 220 minutes) entitled ASHENDEN in 1991, starring Alex Jennings as Ashenden. I saw that at the time, and remember thinking it long, excessively languid, and not very good. In 1959, the story was filmed as an ITV Play of the Week for British television, but IMDb does not even record the cast or running time of that production, so we know nothing of it. The role of Ashenden in Hitchcock's film is played by the young John Gielgud. That casting has often been heavily criticised, as Gielgud was rather effete and feeble to play the role of a war hero whose death in combat is faked so that he can be sent under a false name (Ashenden) on a secret mission to assassinate a German spy in Switzerland, before the spy can escape to Constantinople and enemy territory. However, I am inclined to think that Hitchcock knew very well what he was doing by casting the febrile Gielgud. It was not Gielgud's first film appearance, as some have thought, for he had already appeared in four previous films, the last being a Jessie Matthews musical (of all things!). But Gielgud did then think of film work as slumming, and made no secret of it. I believe that Hitchcock intentionally wished to highlight the deviousness and hypocrisy of the sort of people who did what one old-timer once described to me as 'a bit of polite espionage'. (Yes, that is an accurate quote of a man describing to me many years ago the work of his son-in-law Colonel John N. as a British military attaché.) Gielgud's arch manner and the ludicrous pantomime of a relationship between him and Madeleine Carroll, together with all the other social niceties and absurd affectations surrounding them in the film appear to be things which sickened Hitchcock, who had grown up in Limehouse amongst real people. I do believe that Hitchcock was trying to poke fun at all of those pretensions of his era, and that Gielgud was his unwitting tool in doing so. That is only my theory, and you may dismiss it if you wish. It is interesting that this film is based on THE SECRET AGENT by Maugham, and that Hitchcock's other film which came out in this same year, SABOTAGE (1936, see my review), was based on THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad. That's a lot of secret agents in one year. But then, the Nazis were on the rise, and most people sensed another war coming with the beastly Germans. Peter Lorre reappears in this film, making his second appearance in a Hitchcock film, the previous one having been THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934, see my review). In the earlier film, Lorre had been brilliantly menacing, whereas in this film he is called upon to play an assassin who is a bit of a fool, in a manner which is not so much creepy as very silly. He only comes alive with some effective acting during the inspired section of the film which is set in the Swiss chocolate factory, which has been acting as a clearing house for German espionage communications. Hitchcock really 'does his stuff' in the chocolate factory, with some amazing sequences showing his usual cinematic genius. But perhaps the weirdest and most effective sequence in the entire film is when Madeleine Carroll is sitting and talking in a hotel room with the dreary, droning wife (a brilliant bit of casting) of a German man who has gone mountain climbing with Lorre and Gielgud, who wrongly suspect him of being a spy and intend to murder him on the mountain. The couple's little dachshund starts whining and clawing frantically at the door of the room, sensing paranormally that his beloved master is in danger, and trying to get out to save him. Just as Gielgud watches through a telescope as Lorre pushes the man over the edge of the mountain, the dachshund stops scratching at the door to get out and sets up a mournful howl of loss and grief. Charles Frend's brilliant editing and cutting back and forth between the mountain and the dog in the room builds incredible tension, and when the innocent man is killed, the sight of his dog bereft and howling highlights the tragedy of this mistaken assassination in a manner which is uniquely bizarre and effective. One could call that the most inspired touch in the whole film. The point of the action of the film is said to be to prevent a military disaster 'in the East'. At that time the Ottoman Empire still existed and was an ally of Germany. Early in the film, when Gielgud is being briefed in London by the Foreign Office, he is told: 'The Germans are trying like mad to buy up the Arabs.' As this film was being made, the SS were doing precisely that. Having the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem up their sleeve as a reliable 'quisling' fascist leader for their planned 'German Middle East', they realized that they would need a reliably fascist and anti-semitic civil service to serve under him. So they poured vast sums of money into the small and fanatical Muslim Brotherhood, whose found was an admirer of Hitler. That Islamo-fascist organisation is still with us, and is effectively a creation of the Germans, just as hinted in this film. Once again, Hitchcock was anticipating dangers of the future, as he did with the exploding London bus in SABOTAGE (see my review).
TheLittleSongbird If you are a fan of Alfred Hitchcock or are a completest of his work Secret Agent is well worth a look at least once. Secret Agent is also a film that is much more than a film for completests only, it's not among the Master of Suspense's overall best- of his early pre-Rebecca films his best were The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, Sabotage and The Lodger- but it's still a good film. John Gielgud performs admirably if somewhat too reserved in the lead role, a couple of the deaths are silly and there are a couple of loose ends here and there. Hitchcock's direction however is great with some clever and fun touches, if not as inventive or experimental as it would become later. It's a polished-looking film, not audacious but it's well made and has good atmosphere and very attractive locations. The music does a good job at being jaunty and eerie when it's called for, the script has some great ironic humour with a real sense of danger and the story is engrossing and suspenseful. The standout scenes were the church, German lesson, Langen Alp and chocolate factory ones as well as the truly exciting climax. Peter Lorre's toilet-paper scene has to be seen to be believed. Madeleine Carroll is very alluring and believable and she works nicely with Gielgud, while Robert Young is smooth and quietly menacing. Peter Lorre steals the film though in a performance that is genuinely creepy as well as funny. Overall, not mind-blowing but a very good film that is worthy of more attention. Gielgud's performance will divide people- he has been better- but the direction, the many memorable scenes and Lorre are enough to make you stick with it. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki RAF pilot Edgar Brodie fakes his death at the height of the Great War (as it was known then) and is recruited as a secret agent and given the identity of Ashenden, for assignment in Switzerland, to search for a spy, with an uncooperative woman pretending to be his wife.His contact in Switzerland, played by Peter Lorre, delivers his verbose lines appropriately stiffly and almost phonetically, especially as he so cheerfully (and repetitively) introduces himself throughout the film, as "General Pompellio Montezuma De La Vilia De Conde De La Rue!" An American tourist turns up along the way, with an admiration for Ashenden's "wife" - or, is there more to him than that? With so much mistaken identity and staged deaths and lies spiraling around, who's to know for certain, until the final scene? Less suspense than some of Hitchcock's other efforts, (perhaps that is why it is less well known?) but still a lot of fun to watch. One of my favourites of Hitchcock's, especially of his earlier work.A dog makes another appearance, repeating a trend Hitchcock began in The Pleasure Garden, which was repeated at least until Rear Window.If James Bond had been around in the 1930s, this is what he would have been like. There are striking similarities to Ian Fleming's original novel Casino Royale; this WWI-era spy thriller/ romance/ comedy is one of my favourite of Hitchcock's.
sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Having been reported killed in the fighting on the western front British Army officer Edger Brodie, John Gielgud, is brought back to life not by a Doctor Frankenstein but by the top British intelligence officer known only as "N" played by Charles Carson.Given a new identity as Richard Ashenden Brodie is told to travel to neutral Switzerland and with the help of his fellow British Agents The General, Peter Lorre, and his now new wife Elsa Carrington, Medeleine Carroll, to assassinate a German undercover agent. The German Secret Agent is trying to start up trouble in the Middle-East against the British troops fighting the Turks, Germany's ally, in Palestine.In Switzerland both Asherden and the General contact the third member of the British assassination team Elas Carrington who's masquerading around as Mrs. Asherden. To both Asherden and the Generals surprise Elsa is having an affair with this American tourist playboy Robert Marvin, Robert Young, which greatly complicates matters. Not only don't Asherden and the General know who this German Secret Agent is but their fellow British Agent Elsa is now, by being in love with Marvin, not at all interested in finding and terminating him!The attempt in tracking down and offing the shadowy German Agent falls completely apart when British mountain climbing tourist Caypor, Prcy Marmont, is mistaken for him and murdered by the General pushing Caypor off a snowy cliff in the Alps. This has both Asherden and his "wife" Elsa totally lose interest in finding and killing the German Agent even if letting him stay alive and get to German's ally Turkey, with his secret plans or a full scale Arab revolt, will cost thousand of British lives! That's by causing the neutral, at the time, Arabs to rise up against the British in Palestine in support of the Turks and Germans.***SPOILERS*** Very contrive and unbelievable ending with the RAF, if that's what it was called back then in WWI, doing the job that both Ashenden and Elsa didn't have the heart to do. As for the General he did the best he could to knock off the German Agent but his best wasn't good enough. It's later that both Ashenden and Elsa did in fact tie the knot after all this, spying running shooting and killing, was over and quit the British Secret Service finding that they just weren't quite cut out, in the assassination business, for it.