Secret Agent - Alfred Hitchcock

1916, the film opens at a wake for a dead soldier, however after everyone leaves it is revealed that the coffin is empty. So...what gives? This 1936 film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock is based on the play by Campbell Dixon, which was based on a few William Ashenden stories by W. Somerset Maugham. The dead soldier returns to England and is given a new identity so that he can go undercover and help the WW1 fight in the east against the Turks. Donald Spoto states that this film is one in a row of masterworks between The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. I might agree however I have some issues with this film. 

Let's get into the basic story to start with. Brodie, the dead soldier, is given the new identity of Richard Ashenden (played by John Gielgud) as well as the task of going to Switzerland and eliminating a German agent who is heading towards Arabia to stir up trouble. To help Ashenden out, he is given an assistant who goes by the moniker The General (played by Peter Lorre). When Ashenden gets to the hotel in Switzerland, he finds out that his wife has already checked in...a wife he was not expecting to have. Elsa (played by Madeleine Carroll) is in the hotel room with Robert Marvin (played by Robert Young). Here is where I think things start getting strange. Marvin and Elsa have a very flirtatious friendship which continues through out the film though Marvin has been told that she is married. Along with that, Richard doesn't seem to care that much about the flirting. To compound things, The General is being just as flirty, and creepy towards Elsa, and any other pretty woman who walks by. There is a lot of theatricality in this film, which continues the theme from some of Hitchcock's previous films. You have the empty coffin, you have two people pretending to be married, yet are strangers who are also secret agents. You have a General who may or may not be an actual General, but sure as heck is a killer. There is mistaken identities through out the film, slight of hand, double crossing, getting the wrong man - all the fun trademarks of a Hitchcock film. So in that way, yes, it easily fits in with the masterful works. However, Lorre seems to be playing the part in brownface, as well as putting on an outrageous Spanish-style accent through out.

The transitions in this film are good, like so much of Hitchcock's films. There is a great moment where an older man buys a very specific chocolate bar, opens it up to see a secret not in German written on the inside of the wrapper. Luckily for us, the German note dissolves into English. There is tension in trying to find the agent they are after - and they think they find him due to a lost button at the scene of a murder. There is more tensions when the General and Ashenden take a hike in the mountains with a target who they are planning on killing. Ashenden gets cold feet and stops while the General does the deed. However, all of this is intercut with a scene of Elsa and Marvin having tea with the target's wife. The target's dog, as the trio is climbing the mountain, senses that something is going to happen and he starts whining and goes to lay down by the door. It is such a great moment with animals knowing more than the humans do.

Elsa is the now standard Hitchcock blonde who is saddled with a random man, and romance happens. Madeleine Carroll played a similar role in The 39 Steps.  There are language barriers, there is a shift in morals, and there is some physical violence between Ashenden and Elsa. There is no cameo by Hitchcock in this film. The version I watched was a single disc version, probably one of many that you should be able to find.