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After the spirited spy hijinks of The 39 Steps, director Alfred Hitchcock followed up with another fun espionage adventure, Secret Agent, based on a pair of novels by W. Somerset Maugham. John Gielgud (Arthur) co-stars as a British novelist-turned-spy sent to Switzerland to kill a German agent who’s undermining Britain’s war plans in the Middle East. He’s part of a three-man team that includes Madeleine Carroll as his assigned ‘wife’ and Peter Lorre (The Man Who Knew Too Much) as their hit man. But once the team identify their target, Gielgud and Carroll get cold feet about committing murder. Lorre defies both of them and takes out their target only for the trio to learn they’ve killed the wrong man. Once the right foe is located, the team struggles with their choice: kill again or quit the service?
Secret Agent isn’t quite as polished or as memorable as The 39 Steps (both were adapted for the screen by Charles Bennett), but it’s not a bad film by any means. Gielgud’s not especially charismatic in the lead, nor is his character given much agency. But it’s somewhat charming to see his and Carroll’s characters start to fall in love while playing husband and wife. The flashiest performer is, of course, Peter Lorre as their hit-man pal. He’s a strange character referred to as both a ‘general’ and a ‘hairless Mexican’, even though he’s none of these things. The film pokes fun at him throughout the film, but it doesn’t prevent his character from providing genuine conflict when the team can’t decide whether to kill or not to kill. The ‘general’ wants to get paid. Robert Young rounds out the supporting cast as a brash but likeable young American who flirts with Carroll right under Gielgud’s nose.
Hitchcock appears to continue having a fun time in the thriller genre. Secret Agent has interesting moments involving a dead priest lying on a pipe organ’s keys, a chocolate factory where a secret German cabal is operating, and a climactic train and aerial attack that harkens back to what we saw in The Number 17. The film is at it’s most tense, however, when Gielgud watches Lorre push their ‘wrong man’ off a snowy mountain, while Carroll entertains the doomed man’s wife back at the hotel. Hitchcock cuts back and forth between the mountain action and the hotel room, where the man’s dog becomes increasingly anxious. After the deed is done, the dog lets out a mournful howl that ends the best scene in the movie.
With Percy Marmont, Florence Kahn, and Charles Carson.