Actually Gielgud is not bad at all as the novelist turned soldier turned spy. He has a fine, brittle way with a one-liner. Madeleine Carroll is excellent. This being Hitch, there are some tense scenes, like the one where the alleged baddie's wife is giving Madeleine a German lesson. As she stumbles over "Was kostet es...?" she can't help thinking about what's happening to the woman's husband. So the gossip is that Gielgud was persuaded to play the role because it was "Shakespearean", and his disappointment shows through? What an incredibly silly theory. Next you'll be telling me that you can see ghostly figures in the net curtains. But I can believe Hitch told Gielgud the character was like Hamlet. What happened to Hamlet? (Now listen carefully, this could help with your English essay.) He was told by a mysterious figure that it was absolutely necessary for him to kill a man. He spends a lot of the play wondering if he should, and wondering about the moral implications, and incidentally kills an innocent bystander. Now d'you get it?
Review of Secret Agent
