Secret Agent

If Alfred Hitchcock is known for a “type” of movie, it’s probably thrillers. And espionage thrillers are a subgenre that he returned to time and time again. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that one of his films was simply titled Secret Agent. The 1936 film stars John Gielgud in the lead role, as a British soldier whose death is faked so he can become an undercover agent for the government during the first world war. Now dubbed Richard Ashenden, he is sent on assignment by “R” (Charles Carson) to find a German double agent and eliminate him before he escapes to enemy territory. Complicating the issue is that “R” does not know what the double agent looks like, nor any details. Ashenden’s predecessor on the task was killed before he could relay any of the critical information to headquarters. So Ashenden is going into a dangerous mission, effectively blind.