Notable cast/crew: John Gielgud as Richard Ashenden/Brodie. Peter Lorre as The General. He was previously in The Man Who Knew Too Much. Madeleine Carroll as Elsa Carrington. She was previously in The 39 Steps. Robert Young as Robert Marvin.
Running time: 86 minutesDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
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| Shouldn't there be doors on these stalls? |
They rendezvous with The General and proceed into the mountains to find a church organist who had been working with the Germans but has now switched sides. The organist will put them on the trail of the German agent. They enter the church to the discordant sound of the organ droning a number of notes. The reason: the organist has been murdered, his body lying on the still active keyboard.
While they are detained in the mountains, Elsa spends time with Marvin at the local casino. Ashenden and The General arrive and show her a button left by the killer. When the button is accidentally dropped on a gaming table, Marvin suggests it belongs to a man at the casino, Caypor. Caypor had been in the same village as the organist this morning. All the pieces are falling into place: Caypor is leaving in the morning as the communiques have indicated the agent will, and Caypor's wife is German.
They dine with the Caypors, and it is decided that Ashenden, The General, and Caypor will go mountain climbing. The General uses the opportunity to kill Caypor by pushing him off the side of the mountain. When they arrive back in town, they have a message waiting for them: Caypor is not the agent. The General has killed the wrong man, and he laughs it off.
Ashenden and Elsa are distraught and decide to resign. The General turns up more evidence that puts them onto workers in a local chocolate factory who are working as a message relay office for the German spy ring. They learn there that the agent is Marvin. Elsa is at the hotel with Marvin and asks to leave with him, but he's reluctant to let her. They leave before Ashenden can get word to her that Marvin is the agent.
They catch up with Elsa and Marvin at a train station in Greece where Marvin is trying to hop a train to Constantinople. They all board the train, along with Ottoman soldiers, leaving them with no opportunity to dispatch Marvin. The British have made plans to make sure the mission doesn't fail. They send an airstrike on the train causing it to derail. Marvin and The General are killed, the mission succeeds, and the Ashendens retire from the spy business together having helped the British win the war.
MacGuffin: None
Hitchcock cameo: None
Hitchcock themes:
- Blondes
- Mistaken identity
- Murder
Verdict: Another great thriller, this is not as well known, due in part to so few of Hitchcock's early films having been properly restored. Peter Lorre is again excellent playing an assassin, albeit this time working for the good guys. Robert Young, who would gain fame playing Jim Anderson on Father Knows Best, plays an affable American with no hint that he's really the German spy. John Gielgud is serviceable but stiff as Ashenden. Gielgud didn't care for the character and didn't like that Hitchcock made the villain more likeable than the reluctant hero. Hitchcock's response: "You can't root for a hero who doesn't want to be one."
There are two scenes of note. In the first, we get one of the earliest "Hitchcock shots". When the organist is murdered, Ashenden and The General hide in the bell tower when they hear someone approaching. The camera shot of the body's discovery is shot from the loft above the organ looking straight down on the body and the man discovering it. It's the same type of angle Hitchcock would use with great success in Vertigo, Psycho, and Family Plot among others. The second is the scene where Caypor is murdered. Intercut with Caypor climbing the mountain is footage of Caypor's dog back at the hotel with Elsa and Mrs Caypor. The further up the mountain Caypor climbs, the more agitated the dog becomes until Caypor's death, at which point the dog commences a long, slow howl. The keen of the dog's howl sounds eerily like a man falling off a cliff and unnerves Elsa as well as the viewer as it's made clear what has befallen Caypor without explicitly showing the fateful moment.
This is definitely worth seeing as it is one of the better British films Hitchcock made.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
There are two scenes of note. In the first, we get one of the earliest "Hitchcock shots". When the organist is murdered, Ashenden and The General hide in the bell tower when they hear someone approaching. The camera shot of the body's discovery is shot from the loft above the organ looking straight down on the body and the man discovering it. It's the same type of angle Hitchcock would use with great success in Vertigo, Psycho, and Family Plot among others. The second is the scene where Caypor is murdered. Intercut with Caypor climbing the mountain is footage of Caypor's dog back at the hotel with Elsa and Mrs Caypor. The further up the mountain Caypor climbs, the more agitated the dog becomes until Caypor's death, at which point the dog commences a long, slow howl. The keen of the dog's howl sounds eerily like a man falling off a cliff and unnerves Elsa as well as the viewer as it's made clear what has befallen Caypor without explicitly showing the fateful moment.
This is definitely worth seeing as it is one of the better British films Hitchcock made.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
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