With a title like "Secret Agent" and the stamp of Alfred Hitchcock, I'm sure most people are expecting a classic spy thriller with a suave, impeccable hero, a cold-hearted villain and a lot of patriotic drum beating. There's none of that here, and perhaps that's why this film gets a lot of abuse from reviewers.
No, what you get instead is a very realistic story (almost cynically so) where the hero is fallible and full of doubts, where the villain is someone whom you'd sooner buy a beer than hate, and where the political message of the film borders on anti-British at times (or as far as Hitchcock could go without being strung up for heresy). In that respect, this film is way ahead of its time--and perhaps still so, 70 years later.
In the late 30s when every British citizen was expected to do his or her duty without questioning orders, this film dared to present the notion that it's the individual who must think for himself, hold himself accountable for all errors, and never pass the buck as "just following orders". Perhaps if people had paid attention to this sort of message, the world wouldn't be in the sorry mess it's in now. But I'll leave it up to you do find the present-day significance of the theme.
The film itself has some absolutely brilliant moments. For one thing, there is no music. So, much like the Fritz Lang masterpiece "M", the suspense hangs entirely on the camera. There is one particular scene--one of the most suspenseful scenes I've ever watched (yes more suspenseful than the Psycho shower)--that focuses almost entirely on a dog. A cute little weiner dog. But I swear my heart was beating a mile a minute. Why don't they ever teach this sort of stuff in film school? Future film makers of the world, please watch this old gem, take notes and learn. They just don't make em like this anymore.
No, what you get instead is a very realistic story (almost cynically so) where the hero is fallible and full of doubts, where the villain is someone whom you'd sooner buy a beer than hate, and where the political message of the film borders on anti-British at times (or as far as Hitchcock could go without being strung up for heresy). In that respect, this film is way ahead of its time--and perhaps still so, 70 years later.
In the late 30s when every British citizen was expected to do his or her duty without questioning orders, this film dared to present the notion that it's the individual who must think for himself, hold himself accountable for all errors, and never pass the buck as "just following orders". Perhaps if people had paid attention to this sort of message, the world wouldn't be in the sorry mess it's in now. But I'll leave it up to you do find the present-day significance of the theme.
The film itself has some absolutely brilliant moments. For one thing, there is no music. So, much like the Fritz Lang masterpiece "M", the suspense hangs entirely on the camera. There is one particular scene--one of the most suspenseful scenes I've ever watched (yes more suspenseful than the Psycho shower)--that focuses almost entirely on a dog. A cute little weiner dog. But I swear my heart was beating a mile a minute. Why don't they ever teach this sort of stuff in film school? Future film makers of the world, please watch this old gem, take notes and learn. They just don't make em like this anymore.