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One of Alfred Hitchcock's finest pre-Hollywood films, the 1936 Secret Agent stars a young John Gielgud as a British spy whose death is faked by his intelligence superiors. Reinvented with a new identity and outfitted with a wife (Madeleine Carroll), Gielgud's character is sent on assignment with a cold-blooded accomplice (Peter Lorre) to assassinate a German agent. En route, the counterfeit couple keeps company with an affable American (Robert Young), who turns out to be more than he seems after the wrong man is murdered by Gielgud and Lorre. Dense with interwoven ideas about false names and real identities, about appearances as lies and the brutality of the hidden, and about the complicity of those who watch the anarchy that others do, Secret Agent declared that Alfred Hitchcock was well along the road to mastery as a filmmaker and, more importantly, knew what it was he wanted to say for the rest of his career. --Tom Keogh
Product Description
Hitchcock filmed Somerset Maugham’s WWI spy story Ashenden with his typical mix of ironic humour and suspenseful set pieces. Novelist Edgar Brodie (John Gieldgud) has his death faked by British Intelligence. Giving him a new identity as Richard Ashenden, they persuade him to undertake an espionage commission in Switzerland. Accompanied by beautiful Elsa Carrington (Madeline Carroll), posing as his wife and the General (Peter Lorre), an insane professional killer, Brodie/Ashenden becomes embroiled in murder, intrigue and a pursuit through the Swiss Alps.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Ostensibly a spy thriller set during World War I, this 1936 Hitchcock film is filled with some over-the-top scenes which will bring smiles rather than chills to the modern audience. Edgar Brodie (John Gielgud), a novelist returning from the war, is declared dead by his own government, given a new identity (Richard Ashenden) and passport, and ultimately sent back to Europe to find an enemy spy. With the charming Madeleine Carroll as his "wife" Elsa, Peter Lorre as a foreign general (with a Latin accent), and Robert Young as Robert Marvin, an American who flirts with Elsa, he arrives in Switzerland to discover his contact, a Swiss organist, dead. As he, Elsa, and the General travel from the mountains to the casino, a chocolate factory, and eventually by train toward Constantinople, looking for the enemy agent, Hitchcock keeps the viewer entertained with snappy scenes and dialogue but little real suspense.
Gielgud is cold and elegant as Brodie/Ashenden but lacks the heart which makes spies intriguing to an audience. Madeleine Carroll is warm and funny, Robert Young is charming (and would have made a great leading man here), and Peter Lorre is hilarious (perhaps unintentionally), stealing scene after scene. Lorre plays his part with a Spanish accent, an earring, curly dark hair, and rolling eyes, and it's hard, if not impossible, to believe that he's an assassin. The outdoor scenes are obviously painted, especially in a mountain climbing scene, and the action is melodramatic. The best and most natural scenes are the scenes in which Young flirts with Carroll, while Gielgud stews or looks confused. These scenes provide contrast with those in which Lorre, in real life a German, looks like a chubby assassin trying to sound "Spanish."
Hitchcock balances his serious scenes with scenes which offer some dark comic relief--Brodie's "wake" contrasting with a scene in which the butler casually carts off his empty casket, Gielgud and Lorre discovering a church organist's body and then having the church bells ring while they are hiding beside them in the bell tower, and Madeleine Carroll visiting politely with the wife of a man being assassinated while the wife's psychic dog howls loudly at the door. In major scenes the major characters wear clothing with sharp black and white contrasts, while lesser characters wear grays, and a constant prop throughout the film is the cigarette--even inside a sauna. Not very suspenseful, the film nevertheless has a surprise ending, and modern viewers will enjoy seeing this cast at work in this early Hitchcock film. Mary Whipple
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Hitchcock's Secret Agent is a film that's much better than its reputation, laying the foundation for the Bond films but including a surprising moral dimension (the two leads are genuinely shattered when they realise they've killed the wrong person). Peter Lorre is wildly over the top (Gielgud claimed he was off his head on drugs throughout the shoot and on one occasion had to be coaxed out of the lighting gantry) but strangely appropriate as the Hairless Mexican, so named because he is neither hairless nor Mexican. Gielgud isn't quite leading man material this early in his career despite his ease and assurance, but Madeline Carroll and Robert Young provide star quality to spare. Easily one of Hitch's most undervalued films, and Carlton's extras-free DVD boasts a superior transfer to the many public domain releases.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By B. Margolis
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have been trying to find a good print of this rather obscure Hitchcock film. Being in the US, I bought an all-region player to improve the quality of some of the British titles that are either not available here or have lousy public domain quality.
I have the US Laserlight of "Secret Agent", and although the quality is not perfect, it's a heck of a lot better than this particular print, with the dirt, scratches, muddy and dark image. Blech!
In terms of story, acting and direction, it's one of the more watchable of the supposidly "minor" British Hitchcock films.
I recommend getting the film, but try to find a better print than this one!
I have the US Laserlight of "Secret Agent", and although the quality is not perfect, it's a heck of a lot better than this particular print, with the dirt, scratches, muddy and dark image. Blech!
In terms of story, acting and direction, it's one of the more watchable of the supposidly "minor" British Hitchcock films.
I recommend getting the film, but try to find a better print than this one!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Hitch Tale Of Espionage
This early (1936) Alfred Hitchcock-directed espionage thriller continues in similar vein to the previous year's The 39 Steps and whilst, for me, Secret Agent is certainly inferior... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Keith M
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting rather than successful....
In my review of the box-set that contains this 1936 spy suspenser from the Master, 'The Hitchcock Collection', I said that I'd award four stars for it. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Tim Kidner
5.0 out of 5 stars
Madeline Carroll - stunning secret agent
I really enjoyed watching this hitchcock film. The suspense created for a 30's film is excellent. Well cast & well played.
Published on 12 Aug 2010 by Boosh
2.0 out of 5 stars
Barely even worth watching if you're a Hitchcock obsessive
Few films in the Hitchcock cannon have less things to reccommend about themselves than this.
Madeleine Carroll and Peter Lorre's performances are not a patch on their... Read more
Madeleine Carroll and Peter Lorre's performances are not a patch on their... Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2008 by IWFIcon
1.0 out of 5 stars
More like a farce than a thriller
"Secret Agent" is possibly the worst Hitchcock film that I have seen so far. It suffers from some seriously bad miscasting, poor dialogue and a skimpy, stretched-out plot. Read more
Published on 19 April 2006 by L. Davidson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Failure
This film is something of a disappointment, following as it does Hitchcock's masterpiece 'The 39 Steps'. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2003 by J. Skade
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of hitchcocks masterpieces
this film is one of hitchcocks finest masterpieces with unfogettable lines and scenes.Any great lover of hitchcock films or even just films must buy this great and classic film for... Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2001
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