Undercover Agent (1953) User Reviews

Wide Gauge

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 30 October 2016]

Alexander Guage was arguably best known for his role as Friar Tuck in the television series in which Richard Greene played the title role, and was apparently so depressed when, after the series ended, he was unable to find work that he committed suicide. Based on the evidence here on the screen he could have theoretically earned a decent-crust as a cut-price Kaspar Gutman, as portrayed memorably by Sydney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon. The scriptwriter(s) have shamelessly ripped off Gutman's speech-patterns and Guage himself obviously studied Greenstreet's performance and did his best to replicate it. This is by far the most entertaining aspect of what is at best a journeyman effort, a thriller sans thrills. Just about watchable.

Goes through the motions and adds a fine cast

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 18 August 2016]

UNDERCOVER AGENT is a very typical British crime film but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad one. Sure, it moves at a sedate pace and it features not a single surprise anywhere in its running time, but at the same time it keeps the amiable viewer watching quite happily thanks to plenty of incident and perilous situations. The film stars the hard-working Dermot Walsh who somewhat unusually plays a mild-mannered accountant this time around (he's usually a brooding, dashing anti-hero thanks to that Mallen streak in his hair). The film's MacGuffin sees him come into possession of an envelope containing secret plans that both the British government and a gang of international spies will do anything to get their hands on. It's all very Hitchcockian albeit done on a very low budget.

What follows is watchable enough as it goes through the trappings of the genre: there are assassinations, hidden character motivations, and even a couple of mild torture sequences including a climactic hospital set-piece which may have inspired GOLDFINGER. Walsh is very good actually, and there are some choice faces in the supporting cast: Hazel Court's lovely love interest, Hugh Latimer's dogged cop, Alexander Gauge's stock slimy villain. Hermione Baddeley makes for an effective femme fatale but one of the most interesting of all is a pre-stardom Bill Travers, years before BORN FREE and cast as a ruthless thug!

Queer Goings On

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 25 October 2021]

Behind the stirring title of this early Herman Cohen quickie lies a rather jaunty little frolic stylishly directed as usual by Vernon Sewell, with an incongruously light-hearted score by Eric Spear.

The interesting cast is headed by Dermot Walsh playing against type as a nerdy actuary who stumbles across baddies smuggling that familiar old 'McGuffin', a new alloy.

Previous commentators have already remarked upon portly villain Alexander Guage's resemblance to Caspar Gutman, and the improbability that our hero would be married to the gorgeous Hazel Court.

Not at all bad

[kmoh-1 · 6 June 2008]

This is a nicely understated comedy-thriller about an ordinary accountant who gets mixed up with spies. Such a plot is nowadays routine, but in 1953 was a little ahead of the game. Dermot Walsh is on particularly good form as the not-too-bright pen-pusher; his little sulk when contradicted by Paulson is a lovely little cameo. Interesting early performances from Hazel Court and Bill Travers, and a rare film outing for John Penrose, famous for his portrayal as the horrible Lionel in Kind Hearts and Coronets. Of course, from this studio, on this budget, this was never going to be a work of art. But Vernon Sewell was excellent at producing interesting and entertaining results from unpromising material. This won't stick in the mind for very long, but it passes its short running time easily, and provokes a few chuckles along the way.

Middling British spy effort of the fifties

[robert-temple-1 · 5/10 · 1 December 2014]

This is no classic, but it is amusing and has a period interest. It is also interesting because of two of the performances in it. Bill Travers is seen here in an early role as an unpleasant heavy, completely opposite to the Bill Travers we were later to know on screen. There is a wonderful supporting part for Hermione Baddeley, which needs to be seen by anyone interested in her, as she pulls it off with such professional aplomb and style. She was a very amusing woman. I knew her only slightly. And along with very large numbers of people indeed, I also knew her brother, the charming Reverend William ('Bill') Baddeley, who as Rector of St. James Piccadilly, was prominent in artistic, literary,and social work circles, though many people did not know he was Hermione's brother. Hermione Gingold told me that she and Hermione Baddeley used to do a lot of comedy double acts together and call themselves 'The Two Hermiones'. Apart from having the same first name, they were both as outrageous as each other and were like two comic twins. I wish I had seen them perform together on stage, as it must have been truly hilarious, but that was long before my time. This film has a story about an accountant who gets mixed up in an espionage operation, and it is sufficiently amusing for a rainy afternoon. It has been released on DVD under its alternative title of COUNTERSPY.

Low-budget but amusing

[lucyrfisher · 7/10 · 31 October 2021]

Couldn't they afford a retake when the glamorous lady villain reaches for her visiting card a line too early? Dermot Walsh gets an accounting job in the offices of a deeply shady firm. But he doesn't get a moment's peace - once he's persuaded by the above lady villain to lift a packet of her "love letters", he is knocked on the head, tied up, menaced by a Sidney Greenstreet soundalike, fake rescued by two of the villains, posts the packet to himself (or was that earlier?)

Meanwhile we are entertained by his wife Hazel Court's clod-hopping dance routines, and a wonderful turn from Hermione Baddeley as a fortune-teller in a seedy rooming house. She finds the body, makes the usual screaming exit and is joined by a throng of other boarders displaying curl papers and crochet berets.

You may wonder why she greets the policeman with "I never thought I'd be pleased to see YOU!". Telling the fortune was still illegal, under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. The law was changed the year this film came out.

Undercover Agent

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 7 September 2020]

Better known as Undercover Agent. This is a low budget quota quickie.

An auditor (Dermot Walsh) gets mixed up in espionage as he ends up getting an envelope containing secret plans regarding jet engines.

The baddies who are using a nursing home as a front, get hold of him and torture him for information.

Government agents are also looking into the baddies as well. It is just a matter if they can get to the auditor before he is out for the count.

It is a movie that takes a while to get going. It has a tense if silly finale.

There is a decent cast that includes Bill Travers and Hermione Baddeley. However the movie is only for fans who like obscure and not very good films.

my minority opinion,this is an awful fulm.

[ib011f9545i · 6/10 · 21 November 2018]

This is the sort of film I like. All the other reviews here are positive but I am struggling to find something I like about this film. It is so bad it has not been shown on the old film tv channel which has some standards.

I know this is a low budget film made in 1953 it really is uninteresting.

I used to wonder why my late parents hated British films,I think they saw too many films like this one.

Interesting Cast in Engaging Thriller

[malcolmgsw · 19 September 2015]

It has to be said that Dermot Walsh tended to play rather more red blooded characters than the meek and mild accountant who unwittingly gets involved in this spy thriller.It seems so unlikely also that he would be married to the vivacious dancer Hazel Court.The cast is full of interest.As has been mentioned Bill Travers plays an almost unrecognisable heavy.Then there are Alexander Gauge(Friar Tuck) and Archie Duncan(little John) from the Robin Hood TV series.Unfortunately for poor Gauge he couldn't get any more work after the end of the TV series and committed suicide.Here he plays the head of a spy ring determined to stop at nothing to obtain the papers which are the "macguffin" of this film.Passes the time pleasantly.