MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The cool…the calm…the collected…the macabre Mr. Alfred Hitchcock! Enjoy these four chilling features from the master of suspense! Includes Secret Agent (John Gielgud. 1936/88 min.), The Lady Vanishes (Margaret Lockwood. 1938/98 min.), The Man Who Knew Too Much (Peter Lorre. 1934/78 min.) and Sabotage (Oskar Homolka. 1936/76 min.) 2 DVDs. B&w/NR.

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 2
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Black and White
• Features:
  • Digitally remastered in virtual 5.1
  • Feature programs
  • Bonus short feature
  • Interactive menus
  • Scene access

AWARDS

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1935

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Director - 1938 (Alfred Hitchcock)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2004

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Alfred Hitchcock

• Producer:

  Michael Balcon, Ivor Montagu, Edward Black

• Screenwriter:

  Ian Hay, Alma Reville

• Book Author:

  W. Somerset Maugham

• Screenwriter:

  Jesse Lasky, Jr., Charles Bennett

• Play Author:

  Campbell Dixon

• Screenwriter:

  Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder

• Book Author:

  Ethel Lina White

• Screenwriter:

  Edwin Greenwood, D.B. Wyndham-Lewis, A.R. Rawlinson, Emlyn Williams, E.V.H. Emmett, Helen Simpson, Campbell Dixon

• Book Author:

  Joseph Conrad

• Cinematographer:

  Bernard Knowles, Jack Cox, Curt Courant

• Composer (Music Score):

  Louis Levy

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Louis Levy

• Composer (Music Score):

  Arthur Benjamin

• Editor:

  Charles Frend, Alfred Roome, R.E. Dearing, Hugh Stewart

• Production Designer:

  Albert Jullion

• Art Director:

  Alexander Vetchinsky, Alfred Junge, Peter Proud

• Associate Producer:

  Ivor Montagu

• Set Designer:

  Albert Jullion, Otto Werndorff, Maurice Carter, Alexander Vetchinsky, Alfred Junge, Peter Proud

• Costume Designer:

  Joe Strassner

• Assistant Director:

  Roy Ward Baker

• Scenic Artist:

  Albert J. Whitlock

• Continuity:

  Alma Reville

• Recording:

  Sydney Wiles

REVIEWS:

• Deception is the order of the day in this solid espionage thriller from director Alfred Hitchcock. Based on Somerset Maugham's adventure stories and a play by Campbell Nixon, Secret Agent is deceptive in every way: characters hide their true intentions, beautiful locations mask the sinister deeds that happen in them, even the film's title is tricky since the story is about several agents rather than just one. All of this duplicity helps develop the suspense normally associated with Hitchcock's films, but Secret Agent falls a bit short of becoming one of the director's classics. The picture's primary shortcomings lie with the plot: John Gielgud is a spy whose assignment is to find and kill an enemy spy in Switzerland. The fact that the hero of the film is told to kill rather than save someone or steal something is a dark, edgy move, but it weakens the viewer's connection to Gielgud's character. In one of the most chilling sequences, Gielgud and Peter Lorre carry out the assassination only to discover that they've killed an innocent man. To a lesser degree, the cast is also a weakness. While the performances are decent, Gielgud, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young seem out of place in a Hitchcock film. Lorre is the bright, shining star, in the role of a Mexican general whose twisted black humor matches his murderous tactics. Lorre's character is neither a Mexican nor a general, but he steals the show. The most exciting sequence is the climax, in which the real spy is revealed amidst gunplay and a terrific train crash. Hitchcock had two slightly different endings prepared for the film, but neither was used. The director appears as a mourner during the fake funeral that opens the film. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi
• Alfred Hitchcock relished in playing off of his audience's suspicions, and this early suspense film accomplishes just that. Made when Europe was on the verge of war, Sabotage focuses on Mr. Verloc, the incarnation of the heavily accented neighbor who may not be as benign as he seems. This xenophobic approach works to the film's advantage, as the sight of Verloc and his shadowy associates plotting the destruction of London surely must have grabbed English audiences in 1936. Hitchcock's fascination with espionage and crime is evident, as always, especially in the scene where Verloc meets his contact in the aquarium. Another favorite Hitchcock element present is having a wife slowly come to distrust and fear her husband. Sylvia Sidney plays this transformation beautifully. In the early scenes she is warm and friendly, but as the film progresses, she begins to tighten up, and in the final scenes, her hatred toward Verloc is utterly convincing. As for Oscar Homolka, from the start it's obvious he's up to something, but he is convincing as a small cog in a much larger wheel, a pathetic man who is overwhelmed by the pressures imposed upon him. But the centerpiece of the film is the nerve-racking journey of Mrs. Verloc's younger brother Steve, as he travels through London unaware that the reel can he carries contains a bomb. The bomb, of course, is set to a timer, and each delay adds increasing tension as the hour of detonation approaches. The sequence is pure Hitchcock, as there is nothing more suspenseful than to see an innocent in danger. Sabotage may be a couple of notches below The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, but it is still classic Hitchcock. ~ Bob Mastrangelo, Rovi
• Though Alfred Hitchcock would remake the movie himself in 1956 with a bigger budget, the original 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much is arguably a more historically significant and aesthetically interesting film. It was Hitchcock's first true international hit. Though he wouldn't have a major success in America until The Lady Vanishes, Man and the subsequent The 39 Steps helped establish the director's distinctive style and lay the groundwork for his popularity. Along with Hitchcock's trademark blend of suspense and humor and blurring of the normal and abnormal, the film also features his characteristically grand showpieces, most memorably the recreation of the true-life "Sidney Street Siege" and the famous Albert Hall scene. The film was also significant as German actor Peter Lorre's first English-language part. Having fled Nazi Germany in 1933, Lorre had to learn his lines phonetically, but he steals the film as the cruel but melancholic bad guy, and his difficulties with English barely show. The actor would go on to give memorable turns in such notable Hollywood productions as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi
• It's easy to forget, with all his successes, that Alfred Hitchcock's career suffered quite a few periods of commercial decline. Following his two international breakthroughs, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935), the director produced three films with relatively disappointing box-office returns. In 1938, he broke out of this slump with the popular and entertaining The Lady Vanishes. The director's penultimate movie before leaving England, it's a very light picture, more dependent on comedy than almost any of his previous films. A good deal of the humor comes from the interplay between the definitively British tourists Charters and Caldicott, played indelibly by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, that the actors would reprise in several other films. Despite (or perhaps because of) its "Englishness," The Lady Vanishes made quite a splash in America, securing Hitchcock a place in Hollywood. The charming script by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat was based on the popular Ethel Lina White novel, The Wheel Spins. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi