Secret Agent [PG]

A British author is recruited by the mysterious head of British Intelligence, a man known only as ‘R’, to assassinate a German spy operating in Switzerland. With the help of a beautiful female agent posing as his wife and a bumbling but brutal assassin known as ‘The General’, the job seems simple enough…until they hit their target and then discover that it was the wrong man. Having falling in love with her fake husband, Elsa is shocked by the murder, as is Richard the former writer. The two plan to resign from the case and run away together, but when a telegram comes through with the correct name of their target, the plans change and things become very toey indeed. 

In true Hitchcockian tradition, the central themes that this movie explores is that of the wrong man, mistaken identity, and of course, murder. Although an engaging game of who-do-you-trust, I didn’t find Secret Agent to be amongst Hitchcock’s finest features. Maybe it’s because I watched it a little intermittently, but I just found that the flow of this was a little more jagged than many of Hitchcock’s other works. The story is allowed to speak for itself and the performances are all quite good, but it’s not as great as some of Hitchcock’s other films. 

A British author is recruited by the mysterious head of British Intelligence, a man known only as ‘R’, to assassinate a German spy operating in Switzerland. With the help of a beautiful female agent posing as his wife and a bumbling but brutal assassin known as ‘The General’, the job seems simple enough…until they hit their target and then discover that it was the wrong man. Having falling in love with her fake husband, Elsa is shocked by the murder, as is Richard the former writer. The two plan to resign from the case and run away together, but when a telegram comes through with the correct name of their target, the plans change and things become very toey indeed. 

Set against the backdrop of World War One, this spy thriller does achieve its primary goal: to engage and misdirect the audience. For a larger portion of the film, you’re questioning who can you trust, who trusts who, and what is the meaning of certain plot twists or character actions. Although this makes for good entertainment and intrigue, I did find it a little hard to stay on top of what was going on half the time. 

The casting was very good with the dynamics and chemistry of all the different characters working in complete complimentary harmony with each other. We have the British author with an impeccable sense of wit and timing, the beautiful and dramatic leading lady, the charming lady-killer with a question mark, and the brutal, exotic, and bumbling ‘General’ who provides a fair amount of the comic relief. It all worked rather well. 

Starring John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll Robert Young, Percy Marmont, Florence Kahn, Charles Carson, and Lilli Palmer, Secret Agent is an intriguing and entertaining spy thriller to be sure, just not a significant milestone in the Hitchcock repertoire. Filled with romance, action, war, murder, plot misdirection, and comedy, I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy it. I did. It’s just nothing overly special really.