The Secret Agent Movie Review 1996

Rain, rain go away. In this waterlogged adaptation of the Conrad novel, Hoskins plays Adolf Verloc, a cowardly agent provocateur who heads a group of anarchists in soggy Victorian England. His real mission, however, is to report the actions of the expatriates to the Russian government. After he is bullied into a terrorist attack on the Greenwich Observatory by his contact at the Russian embassy, the lives of Verloc, his wife Winnie (Arquette) and her mentally disabled brother Stevie (Bale) are blown to pieces (sometimes literally) by the consequences. The only spark in the otherwise dank and gloomy production is Williams (listed as George Spelvin) as the demented explosives expert known only as the Professor. Alfred Hitchcock also used a loose interpretation of Conrad's novel for "Sabotage."

Distribution

Fox Home Entertainment, PO Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213, Phone: (310)369-3900, Toll-free: 888-223-4FOX, Fax: (310)369-5811, URL: http://www.foxmovies.com/index1.html, Remarks: Also known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Available on VHS
Running time 95 minutes.
Originally from British.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Spies & Espionage, Anti-Heroes, Books to Film: Joseph Conrad, Boom!, Rebel With a Cause, Fugitives, Foreign Intrigue, Terrorism, London, Tragedy, Not-So-True Identity

Screenplay

Christopher Hampton

Cast

Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette, Gerard Depardieu, Robin Williams, Jim Broadbent, Christian Bale, Elizabeth Spriggs, Peter Vaughan, Julian Wadham

Cinematography

Denis Lenoir

Director

Christopher Hampton

Music

Philip Glass

Producer

Norma Heyman, Bob Hoskins, Capitol Films, Fox Searchlight