Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Secret Agent (1936)

Alfred Hitchcock made his name in British cinema for a couple of decades before, on the strength of his work in both silents and talkies, he was imported to America by David O. Selznick to work in Hollywood films.

Secret Agent takes place in 1918 with the war in Europe still raging. Captain Brody (John Gielgud) is sneaked back into London after having been publicly killed off complete with a funeral. He is recruited to be a spy, of course, and his name is now Ashenden and his Spymaster's name is "R," something like James Bond's "Q" would be a few decades hence.

Ashenden's job is to go to neutral Switzerland, a hot bed of spying activity and learn the identity of a German spy operating there - the one who killed his predecessor. He is to stop the agent at all costs. That means ki-- , yes, and the British agent understands that without being told.

He is to have a guide into the world of international espionage, one who is referred to as the "Hairless Mexican," because he has hair and is not Mexican. But he is Peter Lorre, a favorite character actor of these old films. Lorre (The Maltese Falcon) is at least half of the show and anybody who is not familiar with him has a surprise in store. He is in several of these archaic Hitchcock's I've been exploring and he is good in all.

When Ashenden arrives in Switzerland he enters the world of the pre-jet set wastrels like the modern James Bond inhabits. He is mildly surprised that his wife is waiting for him up in his suite at the exclusive hotel. She has been "issued to him" as part of his disguise. She already has attracted an admirer whom you will recognize as Robert Young of TV's "Father Knows Best."

His "wife" is Madeleine Carroll - a prototype of the cool blond that Hitchcock would become famous for twenty years later. Carroll also starred in Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, his breakthrough film that brought him attention in the USA.

Hitchcock uses deception and red herrings to confuse the hero and the viewer as to who the target is. At first, we are led to believe it is one person, but when that person is dispensed with, in a particularly suspenseful scene showing Hitchcock's growing mastery of his chosen genre, it turns out to be the wrong man, another Hitchcock trademark. Lorre merely laughs, much to Madeleine Carroll's horror. In fact, her dissatisfaction with the skullduggery expected of her role is growing by the moment and you are half wondering if Gielgud and Lorre are not going to silence her too.

The enemy spy is finally uncovered and there is a confrontation somewhere in the Balkans approaching Constantinople, that great international city.

John Gielgud, the great Shakespearean stage actor, does not come off quite as well as the film hero and I can see why he retreated to the stage where he had better vibes, I guess. Madeleine Carrol had been in The 39 Steps the year before and was well accustomed to the camera. Between her and Peter Lorre there is much emotion expressed just through their marvelous facial expressions. You can tell what they are thinking just by how they look.

The live footage looks to be mostly studio with the foreign locales and action sequences in front of a rear projection screen, which seems to be Hitchcock's normal favored methodology. Hitchcock did show mastery in melding a complex set of scenes and maintaining a hold on the viewer all the time.

The DVD is by Delta, a public domain publisher, and is also available in several collected works DVD sets by various publishers. The 89 minute film is black and white and the image is slightly soft and dark due to age (70 years), Secret Agent will appeal to viewers who like suspense or fans of Alfred Hitchcock who want to see his early works.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV