Directed by:
Alfred HitchcockScreenplay:
Charles BennettComposer:
Hubert BathCast:
John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, Robert Young, Percy Marmont, Lilli Palmer, Michael Redgrave, Tom Helmore, Michael Rennie, René Ray (more)Plots(1)
Set during WWI, British novelist Edgar Brodie finds out that he has been claimed dead by the government only to then be asked to assume another name and hunt down a German agent in Switzerland. (official distributor synopsis)
Reviews (1)
A very weak affair. Stories by W. Somerset Maugham set in World War I from the collection "Ashenden: Or the British Agent" (1928) may have promised much, but this time Bennett and Hitchcock delivered a routine spy drama that pretends we're in 1916, but unfortunately not for very long. We meet Madeleine Carroll again, but she's as bland as ever, unfortunately also Peter Lorre again (overacting and wearing a crazy theatrical mask), and anyone looking forward to a young Lilli Palmer will end up being very surprised. The only real interesting thing here is that Hitchcock's Sabotage from the same year is based on the novel "The Secret Agent," so it's wonderfully confusing with this film.
()