KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Lawbolisted Powerful

st-shot Made during the second half of his British period Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent is a spy thriller about a reluctant hero (John Gielgud) during the First World War who botches a hit. Following two of Hitch's more polished works ( The Man who Knew too Much, The 39 Steps) it fails to live up to their pedigree but does contain more than its fair share of gripping moments.Richard Brodie (Gielgud) Elsa Carrington ( Madeline Carrol) and The General (Peter Lorre) have been assigned by British intelligence to waste a threat in Switzerland. It turns out to be the wrong man however leaving Brodie and Elsa drained, the General far from it. Brodie, now romantically involved with Elsa wants out but accedes to accompany the General on one more assignment.In the lead Gielgud is somewhat detached and passionless most of the way while Carrol offers some sparks leaving it up to the dark humored, callous Lorre character and the dubious all American Young to keep things interesting while Hitchcock injects some of his suspenseful editorial mastery in a factory, on a train and in particular during an assassination in the mountains. Not a classic but a good one.

jakob13 One yearns to look backwards, owing to the batch of bad films coming on the market now...backwards to a time when the childhood of talking films experimented with literature. Such is Hitchcock's 'Secret Agent'a not so riveting adaptation of Somerset Maugham's 'Secret Agent', the grand daddy of spy novels. Situated here during the Great War when Ottoman Turkey was on the wrong side, John Gielgud, Madelaine Carroll, Robert Young and Peter Lorre engage in the Grand Game to snag a German spy. The spy is easy to spot. And justice will out in the end: safeguard the British colonial hold on the Middle East in same British hands. The nuts and bolts of espionage is a far cry from James Bond, but not the stiff upper lip, the glib repartee and in the face of danger a sang froid the British are famous for. The rise of Nazi Germany put Europe on edge and ill at ease. Daladier pursued appeasement to avoid another world war. But fascist Germany, despite its supporters in England, didn't sit well nonetheless, with its growing appetite for European real estate. Lorre looks as though he escaped from a gypsy encampment, with a gold ring in his right ear. Swarthy, curly hair and an odd sounding English sing song. If murder be, it's not the urbane Gielgud or the beautiful Carroll who will do it, but the stereotype of a 'dagoe who is the General, a skirt chasing Italian. The team of Gielgud, Carroll and Lorre murder the wrong German. Hitchcock has a gripping scene of the wrong man's wife is giving a German lesson to Carroll joined by the manicured Young who is pursuing her. The woman's dog keeps sniffing at the door with an insistence that announces a tragedy, for the messenger of death is at the door. The scene is fraught with tension, and reveals a Hitchcock we come to know. The villain is Marvin played by Young. A chase the formulaic chase that announces the film's conclusion as Young is pursued before he can reach neutral territory and put him out of harm's way. London, 'R' head of the secret service, sends in the air force to stop Marvin. Marvin dies, but not before he kills the General. England is saved. Imperial real estate in the Middle East kept within the colonial fold. Long shots, close ups, the ABCs of Hitchcock's filmography is all there. With all its drawing room sophistication, the film creaks.

russellalancampbell I found the film is a bit uneven but worth watching for at least four reasons. One of them is the performance of Madeleine Carroll who is perhaps the best of all the Hitchcock blondes. She was stunningly beautiful and a supremely talented actress. Her performance stands the test of time and of changing screen acting techniques. Carroll as Elsa is called upon to run a great range of emotions and never misses a beat. Her face is surely one of the most beautifully expressive faces in screen history.Peter Lorre is always worth watching. He is at once comical and cunning. He can be obsequious and yet ready to take the offensive the moment the opportunity arises.The third thing that strikes me in this film is how uninteresting John Gielgud was as a younger man. His face was rather non-descript and he had not developed the distinctively deep, resonant tone that was Gielgud's trademark. I know that he is playing the part of a relatively young man and not an old, wise professor but his lack of diction makes some of his lines completely lacking in emotion and is sometimes difficult to understand. Age certainly improved Gielgud as a screen presence.Robert Young's scenes with Madeleine Carroll are the highlight of the film. Witty, sophisticated dialogue and great charm. Both know what the other is thinking as they playfully counter each others moves.

Tweekums It is hard to assign this inter-war Hitchcock thriller to any one genre... it is clearly a spy thriller but there are also romantic elements and a good number of comic moments.John Gielgud plays writer Edgar Brodie who returns from service in France in 1916 to learn that he has died while on leave! This is all part of establishing his new cover as Richard Ashenden; he is to go to neutral Switzerland with a man known as 'The General' to identify and eliminate a German agent before he can get to Constantinople. When Ashenden gets to Switzerland he is surprised to hear that his 'wife' Elsa has got there ahead of him; when he goes up to his room he finds a beautiful blonde wearing nothing but a towel and an American by the name of Robert Martin. It turns out that his boss, known as 'R', had sent her to improve his cover; he isn't impressed at first though as he sees her as a thrill seeker who doesn't really know how deadly their mission might be. They both learn when Ashenden and The General find their contact dead; the only clue to the killer is a button the dead man is clenching. That night at the casino Ashenden accidentally drops the button onto the roulette table. There is a bit of a laugh when it lands on the winning number then another player says he things it must be his... he is an Englishman married to a German woman; as he is undoubtedly the spy Ashenden and The General work up a plan to dispatch him. When the job is done Elsa no longer feels what they are doing is exciting and glamorous; it is grubby work... and it seems even grubbier when they learn that they got the wrong man! I lead puts them in the right direction but by then their target is on the move; heading to Constantinople which is in enemy territory.This Hitchcock film may be over seventy five years old but it doesn't feel particularly dated because it has a decent plot that has a few nice twists without being so convoluted it is hard to follow. The cast did a good job with a young John Gielgud putting in a sold performance as Ashenden; Madeleine Carroll was delightful as his 'wife' Elsa... I certainly won't forget her introductory scene and Peter Lorre was particularly entertaining as this lecherous, slightly creepy 'foreign gentleman'; The General. As one would expect from Hitchcock it was shot in a way that captured the tension of the situation... if you are a fan of Hitchcock's other works or just want to see a thriller that doesn't involve any offensive material then this is well worth watching.