SECRET AGENT

GB
1936
1hr 26mins
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: John Gielgud and Peter Lorre

After three British agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent to the task

This typical Hitchcock thriller is loosely based on two stories in the 1927 collection Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. It is mainly set on the Continent, and uses some obvious models, though the final crash at the end is believed to have been filmed on the Longmoor Military Railway. If this is the case then this was the first time that the railway appeared in film, only one year after it had been renamed from the Woolmer Instructional Military Railway.

The railway journey in Continental Europe culminates in a violent crash. This used models but it is believed that the burning wreckage of the aftermath used real trains on the Longmoor Military Railway, where the Royal Engineers could use their expertise to help with such a scene.