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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0018111998130
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Delta
Manufacturer: Delta
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Delta
Release Date: July 24, 1999
Running Time: 92 minutes
Sales Rank: 73440
Studio: Delta
Theatrical Release Date: June 15, 1936
Editorial Review:
Description:
When a British soldier returns home, he finds he has been claimed dead by the government. They then ask him to assume another name to hunt down a nasty German agent in Switzerland.
Includes an intro by Tony Curtis and the trailer for Hitchcock’s 1955 film, 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'
Menus: English • Spanish • Chinese • Japanese
Subtitles: Spanish • Chinese • Japanese
B&W/92 min.
Amazon.com essential video:
One of Alfred Hitchcock's finest pre-Hollywood films, the 1936 Secret Agent stars a young John Gielgud as a British spy whose death is faked by his intelligence superiors. Reinvented with another identity and outfitted with a wife (Madeleine Carroll), Gielgud's character is sent on assignment with a cold-blooded accomplice (Peter Lorre) to assassinate a German agent. En route, the counterfeit couple keeps company with an affable American (Robert Young), who turns out to be more than he seems after the wrong man is murdered by Gielgud and Lorre. Dense with interwoven ideas about false names and real identities, about appearances as lies and the brutality of the hidden, and about the complicity of those who watch the anarchy that others do, Secret Agent declared that Alfred Hitchcock was well along the road to mastery as a filmmaker and, more importantly, knew what it was he wanted to say for the rest of his career. The print of the film used in the DVD release is serviceable and probably comparable to an average 16mm classroom or museum presentation. The DVD also includes a Hitchcock filmography, trivia questions, a director biography, and scene access. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Entertaining WWI Spy Film
"But your wife, she'll wonder what happened to her poor little General." -- Peter Lorre to John Gielgud
This most enjoyable film made in Britain before Hitchcock came to Hollywood certainly deserves more accolades than it has gotten over the years. It really isn't that far behind 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, and Young and Innocent in either quality or entertainment. Set during the first world war, Somerset Maugham's novel of spies sent to ferret out and eliminate another spy has ... Read More
Rating:  - Secret Agent
Only for fans of Hitch. Very dated for today's audience. Slow pace and confusing character development, especially Peter Lorre's "General". Stiff portrayals and a surprising lack of suspense. Where's a Macguffin when you need one?
Rating:  - Best full length DVD I have found.
This is the best quality DVD I have yet to find of this movie.
Still..one night scene on a lake briefly becomes hard to watch.
However, the copy is still acceptable in quality until a restored release, if it ever happens, is released.
The DVD appears full in length.
The movie has all the early Hitchcock touches:
the crafted use of sound in pivotal scenes, (as his teacher, Lang, did, most notably in his Testament of Dr. Mabuse),
the use of minature models, (which I ... Read More
Rating:  - Interesting early Hitchcock
This reviewer now understands why some folks get excited about transfers from VHS to DVD. This viewer's VHS tape was in wretched condition, grainy and virtually impossible to understand. The good news is that the plot was not hard to follow, given some intense concentration. On the eve of WWI, the British Secret Service fakes the death of a young John Gielgud. JG is the spook sent to Switzerland with instructions to assassinate a German agent, whose identity is a mystery. Peter Lorre tags along for ... Read More
Rating: - Interesting, "But".
Interesting story, Hitchcock touch is evented. Madeleine Carroll is a standout, but did not buy into John Gielgud as the lead.
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