So, while doing some cursory research on 1935’s Secret Agent, I figured I would find out if it was part of a double feature or something since it only runs about an hour and sixteen minutes. Instead, I learned that lead actress Bette Davis made 13 movies with her male co-star here George Brent, with three alone made in 1935. I can’t say I have ever really heard of Brent before, but the fact the pair made 13 movies together seems like he should perhaps be better known today. I mean, she had a whole song made about her eyes once…
As it is, this one seems to have taken a lot from the fate of Al Capone.
The movie opens with a federal agent getting assigned to bring down gangland boss Alexander Carston (Ricardo Cortez). Said agent, Bill Bradford (Brent), sure does sound like he might work for the FBI or something since his boss could be giving a speech that would sound very appropriate coming out of the mouth of J. Edgar Hoover. However, he works for the IRS, and the plan is for Brent to go undercover as a journalist and somehow dig up some dirt on Carston, even “interviewing” him from time to time. However, he does have an unexpected in: Carston’s secretary Julie Gardner (Davis) is also his personal bookkeeper and the only one who can decipher the man’s books. She seems to have made up the code herself, and despite the fact she knowingly works for a racketeer, Julie herself is an honest person who may be counted on to do the right thing.
Or she might do more since she and Bill fall in love. So, even though Carston is responsible for multiple deaths, has evaded prosecution multiple times, and has never paid his taxes, the thing that brings him down could very well be that the only way Julie could marry a man she presumes is a journalist is to make sure her boss is put away for a long time. Will love and the law win out over criminal malfeasance?
Well, yes. This movie came out around the same time the Hays Code took effect, and there’s no way a movie would come out in that time that didn’t show good triumph over evil and how all those crusading speeches coming out of the mouths of various government officials weren’t of course completely legitimate. Carston has no redeeming qualities, even telling Bill how he can make sure a jury doesn’t put him away through violence or the threat of same to any potential juror. Meanwhile, the DA will tell Carston and his lawyer to their faces that they’re going to go away for a long time at some point, and these scenes are played completely straight.
With that in mind, this movie is fine. Nothing great, but nothing terrible either. I wouldn’t say I was all that interested in finding other movies with George Brent in them after this, but the performance he gives is perfectly acceptable for a by-the-numbers gangster movie from 1935. The same is true for Davis. It reminded me a bit of The Public Enemy and the original Scarface where the movie seems to also exist to promote the idea that the audience needs to pressure the government to do something about gangsters. It just had the propaganda feel, but while Public Enemy and Scarface manage to overcome those aspects, Secret Agent doesn’t. Secret Agent is fine, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it isn’t anything all that special either.
Grade: B
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