| Confidential Agent | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Herman Shumlin |
| Screenplay by | Robert Buckner |
| Based on | Confidential Agent 1939 novel byGraham Greene |
| Produced by | Robert Buckner |
| Starring | Charles Boyer Lauren Bacall Katina Paxinou Peter Lorre |
| Cinematography | James Wong Howe |
| Edited by | George Amy |
| Music by | Franz Waxman |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 118 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Confidential Agent is a 1945 Americanspy film starringCharles Boyer andLauren Bacall which was aWarner Brothers production.[1][2] The movie was directed byHerman Shumlin and produced byRobert Buckner, withJack L. Warner as executive producer. Thescreenplay was by Robert Buckner, based on the 1939 novelThe Confidential Agent byGraham Greene. The music score was byFranz Waxman and the cinematographer wasJames Wong Howe. The supporting cast includedGeorge Coulouris andPeter Lorre.
In the midst of theSpanish Civil War, Luis Denard (Charles Boyer), a former concert pianist and composer, travels to England as a confidential agent of theRepublican government. His mission is to buy coal or to deny it to theFascist rebels. On the ship, he meets bored rich girl Rose Cullen (Lauren Bacall), whose father, Lord Benditch (Holmes Herbert), heads the firm with which Denard will negotiate.
On the road to London, he is beaten and robbed by Fascist agents, who do not find the documents he hid in his shoe. At his hotel he enlists the aid of the young maid, Else (Wanda Hendrix), who hides his documents in her stocking. When he meets his contacts, Contreras (Peter Lorre) and Maria Melandez (Katina Paxinou), he finds they have sold out to the Fascists and want him discredited or killed. They kill the maid, for which Denard takes revenge. Contreras dies of a heart attack as Denard prepares to shoot him, after which Mrs. Melandez takes poison.
Unable to buy any coal, Denard tries to persuade the miners to support their fellow workers in Spain, but they put work ahead of principle. His mission a failure, Rose gets an admirer to help him leave the country secretly. Reaching the coast atBexhill-on-Sea, he learns that Benditch's firm have repudiated their contract with the Fascists, so he has succeeded after all. On the ship, he finds Rose, to whose life he has given meaning.
The screenplay was based on aGraham Greene novel of the same name. There is evidence ofjump cuts, which suggest that some crude editing was done to get the running time under two hours.[3] Though regarded as overly long, the film remains true to Greene's original story.[4]
According to "The Big Sleep Comparisons 1945/46", a featurette on the 2000 DVD release of Bacall's filmThe Big Sleep, her reviews forConfidential Agent, her second movie role, were largely negative, with particular aspersions cast on her performance as a "jaded industrial heiress".[5]
According to film historian Robert Gitt, host of the featurette, Warner studio headJack L. Warner was lobbied to have certain scenes inThe Big Sleep re-shot, to rectify performance problems with Bacall identified inConfidential Agent, which he did. In her own autobiography, Bacall said that she begged not to have to do the film, but couldn't break her contract that early.
InThe Nation in 1945, criticJames Agee wrote, "Confidential Agent is a surprisingly serious translation of Graham Greene's thriller ... this is in some ways an exciting and good picture, the best attempt yet, though still inadequate, to make the most of a Greene novel. Charles Boyer, imaginatively cast, gives the agent a proper balance of incongruous frailty, incompetence, tragic responsibility, and moral courage; Lauren Bacall is still amateurish and she is about as English as Pocahontas, but her very individual vitality more than make up for her deficiencies."[6]
Greene, generally critical of film adaptations of his works, disagreed with the critics. In 1979, whenPhilip Purser returned to the question of the casting of Bacall inThe Sunday Telegraph, Greene commended the acting of both Bacall and Boyer. He also praisedShumlin as the only American director to make a good film from one of his stories. In a letter toThe Sunday Telegraph, titled "An Honourable Performance", Greene wrote: