Whole Movie courtesy of Internet Archive
As far an random Hitchcock movies go, this is a great "antidote" to Topaz! [The Peanut picked it out of the bag.] Set during World War I, it stars Sir John Gielgud as Richard Ashenden/Brodie, it the great actor's only Hitchcock appearance. As mentioned in an earlier post, it is based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham entitled Ashenden, the screenplay directly evolved not from the book, but rather a play adaptation of the novel by Campbell Dixon. Though the film is a good espionage thriller, it also succeeds as dark humor. For some reason the British government decides it would make sense to recruit a novelist as a spy/assassin. Writer Edgar Brodie (Gielgud) becomes a reluctant spy, when a real spy, Ashenden, is killed and the government decides to recruit Brodie by faking his death, without telling why. He is then sent to kill a German spy in Switzerland as Ashenden at the height of the first great war. Along with way he meets strange characters, including one individual known simply as "The General," which he isn't, played by the great Peter Lorre, to help him carry out his duty. Given the grave nature of the mission, these British spies are strangely and comically lax in their commitment to it.
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