- An all-star cast lend weight to this underappreciated espionage mystery set in WWII
- The Master of Suspense’s only major film with no full digital restoration or remaster
- Treacherous bootlegs are legion, while quality releases are few; choose very carefully
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
Secret Agent Collectors guide, Pt 1: Production
Madeleine Carroll in Secret Agent (source)
Contents
Home video
UK trade magazine advert
- US: Criterion LaserDisc (1987) sleeve essay
- UK: Carlton DVD (2003), also in 3-DVD 3 Classic H Films
- ITV DVD (2004) – The Times newspaper giveaway
- Network 10-DVD/11-film H: The British Years (2008)
- Germany: Concorde 6-DVD/7-film AH: The Early Years (2003, reissued 2011)
As it’s so far sadly been overlooked for remastering or even full restoration, Secret Agent is conspicuous by its absence in the line-up of Hitch’s superb six 1930s thrillers available in various countries on BD or even streaming in HD. Which means official options are mostly limited to DVDs or ageing VHS tapes. The only legit transfer is of a well-used theatrical print with light damage throughout, including speckling, scratches, fluctuating density and the odd cigarette burn. Even UK-based worldwide theatrical distributors Park Circus have no DCP; just a 35mm copy of this same print. You’ll find it on all of these:
- France: TF1 Vidéo DVD (2007, reissued (2008), also in 5-DVD H: Le maître du suspens (2005, reissued 2010, 2016) – beware: forced French subs
- Filmedia DVD (2015), also in 4-DVD AH box set
ESC Editions BD (2020)– cancelled
- Spain: Divisa DVD (2003)
Although Secret Agent’s audio is generally clear, it’s often a little crackly and dialogue is occasionally difficult to discern; here, the English subtitles only included on the UK Carlton and ITV DVDs particularly come in handy. The Oz Madman has the only substantial English-language extra yet produced for this title: an audio commentary by film scholar Mairéad Phillips. However, it’s long deleted and quite rare, so unless you need subtitles in a particular language, pretty much any of the other discs will do.
- Portugal: Costa do Castelo DVD (2004), also in 4-DVD AH box set
- Benelux: Video/Film Express DVD (2004), also in 5-DVD H Collection: The Classics, Volume 2 and 10-DVD/11-film Classic H Collection/alt
- Hungary: Cinetel DVD/alt (2005), also in 5-DVD AH box set
Note the French TF1 disc, despite having two non-subbed featurettes by Claude Chabrol and Dominik Möll (26 and 25 min), has forced subtitles on both the feature and its “AH: The Early Years” featurette (24min). There was a 1936 French dub but it’s MIA, current whereabouts unknown. The rest are all virtually identical apart from the German Concorde DVD, whose transfer has had a moderate amount of grain scrubbing. Mainly due to its contentious subject matter, the film wasn’t seen officially in Germany for almost 50 years, when a 1985 dub (alt) was produced for its TV première; however, it’s missing from the Concorde disc.
- Sweden: Atlantic Film 8-DVD/9-film H Classic Collection (2006) info
- Finland: Future Film 8-DVD/9-film H Classic Collection (2006) info
- Australia: Madman DVD (2011)
2015 French Filmedia DVD: For image though not audio, the non plus ultra of Secret Agent on home video for the foreseeable future. (rear)
The most recent DVD, from Filmedia in France, distinguishes itself by being the most detailed and is graded with deeper black levels, making damage far less apparent. In short, it nudges out all the others with the best image currently available though, as noted in the comments, the audio is occasionally over modulated. It has optional French subtitles and by way of extras, two French-language featurettes on Hitch’s spy films (21 and 14 min). Lastly, it’s also included in a box set with three of his other thrillers represented by their latest and best digital restorations, though they’re also available elsewhere on BD.
The Swedish and Finnish Hitchcock Classic Collections, with four sets of subtitles, are identical bar translated packaging. The latter initially came in a slipcased foldout Digipak but was reissued in 2008 in a thick Amaray keep case. The same discs were also released individually in Norway (Star Media Entertainment) and in a Danish 4-disc set (On Air Video).
Unfortunately, there are no official Italian releases as yet, though there have been a number of bootleg DVDs from the likes of Cult Media, Enjoy Movies (reissue) and Griffe. As Hitch’s only multilingual film which has never been dubbed into Italian, it’s only been seen there with Italian-subtitled English audio, about which this essay goes into fascinating detail:
The Italian dubbing of Hitchcock’s multilingual films – Giuseppe De Bonis
Elizabeth Yoo, 2018
There are no official streaming options at all, though copies of the common US bootleg prints are available on several otherwise legit streaming sites, as copyright owners ITV aren’t actively issuing takedown notices for their classic films. Aside from Criterion’s LaserDisc, there’s also been no official US release yet for this uneven little gem, but they’ll hopefully revisit it at some point as they still have the North American distribution rights for ITV’s British Hitchcocks. Until then, here’s their LaserDisc’s sleeve essay to be going on with.
Agent has only been issued on DVD in PAL-standard countries, so if you’re outside of Europe or the Antipodes, this is one where a multi-region set-up will come in handy. I’ve come across many pirated duds in the course of writing this series of articles, but this particular bootleg DVD, amateurly converted to 3D, must sit on top of a steaming heap. Does anyone know if it was ever actually unleashed on an unsuspecting public? I see they also worked their home-made ‘magic’ on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and spaghetti Western Death Rides a Horse. One thing’s for sure: if just a fraction of the huge amount of money fans have wasted on the overwhelming number of Hitch’s British film bootlegs had been spent on supporting legit releases, we’d have pristine restored editions of all of them by now.
This artwork has appeared on various bootlegs, including UK and Scandinavian DVDs (Waterfall Home Entertainment/WHE); and Amazon Prime, Google Play and YouTube streams (The Orchard).
In early 2020, ESC Editions in France announced BDs of four of Hitch’s 1930s thrillers but later cancelled Agent (Twitter) when they realised its HD master wasn’t up to scratch. It’s only an upscaled SD transfer of the print described above; there are currently no true HD transfers, as per Elstree Calling, Mary and Waltzes from Vienna. Of course, ESC could have saved themselves all that hassle if they’d read this article but it reiterates my point that we won’t see a high quality release foregoing a full remaster or restoration. Incidentally, if some generous benefactor wants to fund such a project, drop me a line. Owners ITV are certainly amenable to external funding, as they have been in the past.
Odd fact: despite original trailers surviving for at least five of Hitch’s British films, only The Lady Vanishes has had hers properly released on home video. Despite being heavily DNRed rather than its spurious claim to being restored, this is currently the only (unfortunately DNRed) copy in circulation for Secret Agent:
Screenshots
US Vintage Home Entertainment bootleg DVD. It’s blindingly obvious that it also sounds as bad as it looks.
US Brentwood bootleg DVD. The only way is up but it’s still absolutely unwatchable.
UK Carlton DVD. Quality at last: all official DVDs look like this, except for two…
German Concorde DVD. Same transfer but with a little digital noise reduction applied, leading to a ‘cleaner’ appearance but marginally less detail.
French Filmedia DVD. Hitting a high: detail, grain, balanced greyscale and generally clear audio. As good as it gets for now.
US Madacy Entertainment bootleg DVD. Gorgeous Madeleine can’t possibly hope to shine on this abysmal waste of plastic.
US St. Clair Vision bootleg DVD. Blurry and in vertical Stretch-O-Vision.
UK Network DVD. Detail, grain and more image on all four sides.
German Concorde DVD. Smoother but slightly less detail, more noticeable the bigger your screen.
French Filmedia DVD. Come to papa!
There are many more comparative screenshots of both licensed and bootleg releases at the invaluable Hitchcock Zone and DVDClassik.
Other adaptations
UK poster
Several other depictions of WWI spy Richard Ashenden have sprung from the same source; an early one was his appearance in the last segment of Trio, the second of a short series of anthology films based on Maugham’s tales.
- UK: Network DVD Quartet (1948), Trio (1950) and Encore (1951) – also in 3-DVD Three Films by Somerset Maugham (2007)
- Greece: Modern Times DVD Quartet/Poirot: “The Theft of the Royal Ruby” TV ep (1991) and Trio/Maroc 7 (1967) – newspaper giveaways
From 1940 onwards, there have been many (many!) BBC radio recordings up to the present day. None are readily available but listen out for occasional rebroadcasts on BBC Radio 4 Extra. In 1959, there was also a live 45-minute BBC TV broadcast of “The Traitor”, on which Hitch’s film is partly based, but it’s now lost – check your attic. A belated third entry arrived in 1991 with the broadcast of Ashenden, a BBC TV miniseries. Its four episodes were based on separate stories, all tied together with a present day framing device. Though well-received, unfortunately it has yet to surface on home video. Naturally, I’ll add details here if and when it ever does.
Secret Agent Collectors guide, Pt 1: Production
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
