Fabulously directed take on Conrad's 'The Secret Agent', adapted by key Hitch collaborator of the era Charles Bennett - sadly still relevant in topicality. Good performances from Sylvia Sidney and Oscar Homolka, and Desmond Tester as young master Stevie; John Loder less successful as detective - who should have been played by Robert Donat, had not bronchitis intervened. William Dewhurst notable as the bomb maker; Charles Hawtrey visible in very early bit part, Peter Bull, Aubrey Mather as greengrocer.
Hitch admitted to Truffaut that he probably shouldn't have killed the boy (and the dog) - would have worked better if Verloc had directly killed him (but why would he? and indirectly he does kill him) - but I'm not sure - it still gives Sidney the motivation to get her own back in the brilliantly staged and edited murder scene (particularly loved her then going to sit down in long shot with the feet of the corpse still visible in the foreground) - also it fits in to the oeuvre of the man who brought us Psycho.
Photographed by Bernard Knowles, edited by Charles Frend.
Hitch is apparently visible outside the cinema when the lights go back on.
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