Codifying his distinctive voice & tone in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH/’34 and THE 39 STEPS/’35, Alfred Hitchcock followed with two transitional films, this and the better realized SABOTAGE/’36. Each misses the light-and-shade mix of echt Hitchcock (suspense, romance & quirky/ sinister humor), but are pretty fascinating all the same, loaded with surface detail & technical bravura. AGENT, based on Somerset Maugham’s ASHENDEN stories, with a romantic element taken from Campbell Dixon’s play adaptation, follows reluctant WWI British spy (John Gielgud) on assassination assignment in Switzerland. With fake wife in tow (Madeleine Carroll) and amoral ‘second’ (Peter Lorre in alarming form), the job is first bungled, then finished more by happenstance than by effort. Gielgud, the great Hamlet of his era, is a natural as action-challenged killer, if not yet a natural on screen.* How easy Robert Young makes it all look in comparison as his rival for Carroll’s affections. It goes to make rooting interest less clarified than usual (a fine idea, but dramatically underdeveloped). Instead, montage, trick camera effects (those miniature trains & attacking bombers) and local Swiss color take over. Or would if Carroll didn’t grow before your eyes into the ultimate present & future Hitchcock blonde. Check her out on the train under a flattering hat and you’ll see all the way ahead to ‘Tippy’ Hedren. Or rather, what Hedren was supposed to be.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Better in his previous film, THE GOOD COMPANIONS/’33 (note the three year gap), Gielgud had a fitful film career till Orson Welles located a vein in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT/’66.
LINK: Lots of subfusc DVDs on this Public Domain title. Here’s a LINK that clears things up. http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews35/hitchcock_the_british_years.htm
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