Confidential Agent

An underrated addition to the Graham Greene cinematic canon - its perceived faults can now be seen as virtues. Director Shumlin, theatrical director, frames his action with an oppressive rigidity appropriate to the material, and the seemingly inept compositions compellingly suggest unease. Both a dark thriller and a story of moral regeneration (for the female character! In a 40s thriller!), the film has an upright hero who turns mad and murderous (and possibly paedophiliac), brilliantly brings the faraway ideologies of the Spanish Civil War into jolting dangerous reality, has one horrific murder, an astonishing insights into class and capitalism, clever theatrical metaphors, a rare approximation of Greene's God, and an ending that is only happy if you know nothing about history.

"In October 1937, a man crossed the English Channel knowing that the success or failure of his confidential mission could mean victory or defeat for his people," according to the opening statement. The secret agent man is former Spanish composer and pianist Charles Boyer (a Luis Denard). Spain is divided by a Civil War and Mr. Boyer is acting against the Fascists. His mission is to obtain exclusive rights to precious coal, which is needed for the war. The forces of evil are positioned to obstruct Boyer at every turn...

Missing a train due to questions about his passport, Boyer gets a lift into London with coal tycoon's daughter Lauren Bacall (as Rose Cullen). The beautiful heiress smokes and drinks up a storm, while wondering if Boyer's comings and goings are those of a completely sane man. A romance tentatively develops. Boyer takes up residence with cool, calculating Katina Paxinou (as Maria Melandez) and meets sad-eyed contact Peter Lorre (as Contreras). Unsavory characters continue to block Boyer from his mission...

"Watch on the Rhine" (1943) and "Confidential Agent" are the only two feature film credits for director Herman Shumlin, unfortunately. He died in 1979 and certainly should have received more film projects, based on the evidence presented here. Having photographer James Wong Howe and editor George Amy on your crew helps, obviously. Shumlin subsequently focused on stage work, and met with considerable success...

This film was scolded for miscasting the French Boyer as a Spaniard and Ms. Bacall as a British socialite...

Boyer plays the character well, rolling with his regular accent. Bacall charts the same course, with less success. In only her second film, she would have benefited from a script explaining how her character grew up in New York. Bacall showed more rapport with Bogart than Boyer, but maintains great sex appeal. The supporting cast is superb. Dan Seymour (as Muckerji) has a great part. In a startling debut, Wanda Hendrix (as Else) go head-to-head with Ms. Paxinou for best supporting actress honors.

******* Confidential Agent (11/2/45) Herman Shumlin ~ Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Katina Paxinou, Wanda Hendrix

Good old black and white Graham Greene based people in dangerous times doing heroic and mysterious things. Hardly a shot fired or a punch thrown and a hundred time more interesting than the glop that's being minted by Hollywood today. Bacall lights up the screen of course and Boyer is entirely engaging. They don't make movies like this any more.

I watch a lot of films, good, bad and indifferent; there is usually something of interest to fixate upon, even if it is only set design, or the reliable labor of a good character actor, or the fortuitous laughter that emerges from watching ineptitude captured forever.

However, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this film, one I had never seen before. Graham Greene has been translated into film many times of course, in such masterpieces as "Thin Man" and in lesser vehicles. "Confidential Agent" is one of those lesser vehicles, yet it manages to get me somewhere anyway, despite lackluster direction, the incongruity of Bacall and Boyer's depictions as (respectively) British and Spanish, and the almost complete non-existence of any chemistry between the two leads. In some ways, this last "problem" actually begins to work in the film's favor, for how can love really blossom in the killing atmosphere of fascism and capitalism meeting about one person's tragedy? The most compelling aspect of the film arises directly from Greene's complex and guilt-ridden psychology, which pervades the film. I know some see the deliberate pacing here as dull, and I can understand that. Yet I found that plodding accentuated rather than detracted from what is a claustrophobic world. I was compelled to watch, not by any great acting (although Boyer is marvelous as usual, managing to convey a rich mixture of world-weariness, tragedy, hope, and fervor with his magnificent voice and yearning eyes), but by the down-spiraling rush of one man's slim hopes against a world of oppression and money. What is a thief? What good is love in the face of death? Where does mere profit-taking end and exploitation begin? The film does not rise to the level of art, and thus cannot hope to answer such questions, but it is much more than mere entertainment, and its murders and guilts are very grimly drawn. The lack of glitz, of "bubble," of narrative "bounce" help to make this movie very worthwhile.

And there is no happy ending, for history wrote the ending.

Hollywood always has trouble translating the works of writers like Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway to the screen. Something always gets lost in the transition--and in this case, that's not good because the plot is murky enough without losing some of the novel's detailed explanation of what's really going on.

LAUREN BACALL, poised and mature beyond her years as she was in all of her early Hollywood roles, is a bit miscast here as a British girl and seems to know it. Her performance is less credible than most of her chores opposite Bogart. On the other hand, CHARLES BOYER is impressive as a man on a mission who is eventually betrayed. As in all such spy thrillers, this one has a plot line that is better left undisclosed, but suffice it to say that there is plenty to ponder as you watch the story unfold, and some interesting work by a large supporting cast. Set at the time of the Spanish Civil War, it has plenty of plot to follow.

Wanda Hendrix has a nice bit as a Cockney lass and Katina Paxinou delivers the goods in a malicious role. Too bad the chemistry between Boyer and Bacall is not quite on par with the kind she had with Bogart because their romance never seems quite credible. Neverthelss, she does not deserve the panning her performance received when the film was first released on the heels of two successful films with Bogart.

A bit dull in the stretches, but atmospheric and worth watching as an interesting example of Warner Bros. noir, the sort of cloak and dagger atmosphere needed to give the story some punch.