Secret Agent (1936)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Film Review

Secret Agent is the third, and least known, of five politically themed suspense thrillers which the acclaimed director Alfred Hitchcock made in the mid-1930s, towards the end of the British half of his illustrious filmmaking career.  With its mix of adventure, romance and sardonic humour, it presages the big action thrillers that Hitchcock would later make during his time in Hollywood - Saboteur (1942) and North by Northwest (1959) - as well as the spy thrillers that would become all the rage from the 1950s onwards.

The film is adapted from the semi-autobiographical Ashenden stories of W. Somerset Maugham and boasts an impressive cast.  John Gielgud appears alongside Peter Lorre and Madeleine Carroll, who had starred in two previous Hitchcock films, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935) respectively.

In common with many of his early 1930s films, Hitchcock continues to experiment with sound, using it as a device to add atmosphere and tension whilst advancing the narrative, in subtle and imaginative ways that set him apart from most directors of this time. Two sequences are particularly memorable - one in which a dog whines in increasing desperation when he senses his master is in mortal peril, the other set in a chocolate factory where the noise of the machinery reduces any dialogue exchange to an eerily comical dumb show.

The film did not enjoy the success of Hitchcock's previous two thrillers, and the director attributed this to the lack of a sympathetic hero.  John Gielgud's characterless performance and Peter Lorre's comical over-acting may also have contributed to the film's unpopularity.  Although it has some flaws and is certainly less polished than Hitchcock's other British thrillers, Secret Agent is an entertaining example of its genre, shot through with occasional moments of artistic brilliance.

Film Synopsis

1916.  At the behest of British Intelligence, the writer-turned-war hero Edgar Brodie is sent to Switzerland to track down and kill an enemy agent.   Soon after checking into a Swiss hotel under the name Richard Ashenden, Brodie finds he has been provided with a wife, Elsa, and a strange accomplice known as the General.  Whilst Brodie and the General are busy uncovering the identity of their unknown target, Elsa draws the attention of a suave over-sexed American named Marvin.  When Brodie mistakes an innocent man for the agent he is pursuing, he begins to have second thoughts about his suitability for the mission...