Secret Agent (1936 film)

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Secret Agent

original film poster
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by Michael Balcon
Ivor Montagu
Written by W. Somerset Maugham (novel)
Alma Reville (screenplay)
Starring John Gielgud
Peter Lorre
Madeleine Carroll
Robert Young
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
Editing by Charles Fren
Release date(s) May 1936 (U.K.)
June 15, 1936 (U.S.)
Running time 86 min
Country Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Language English
IMDb profile

Secret Agent is a 1936 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young

[edit] Plot

Gielgud plays a British officer, a once famous writer who fakes his death during World War I, and is sent by the mysterious "R", head of British intelligence, to Switzerland on a secret mission. Meanwhile, Carroll plays a female agent who poses as his wife. Together, they meet their contact in the country, Lorre.

Typical Hitchcockian themes used here include mistaken identity and murder. The film is notable for calling the hero's superior by a single letter, an idea which writer Ian Fleming would use in his James Bond stories.

[edit] External links