British Agent
Encyclopedia
British Agent is a 1934 espionage film directed by Michael Curtiz
and starring Leslie Howard
and Kay Francis
. It is based on Memoirs of a British Agent, the 1932 autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart
, who had spent a number of years working for the British Secret Service. The film was produced by First National
, which was then a division of Warner Bros.
The same book was partly used as an inspiration for the television series Reilly, Ace of Spies
which also portrays the adventures of Lockhart and Sidney Reilly
during their years in Moscow
around the time of the Russian Revolution.
soldier; when she retreats onto the grounds of the consulate, the soldier follows, forcing Stephen to intervene to protect British extraterritoriality
. After the Cossack leaves, Elena emerges; she and Steven are attracted to each other, but their politics clash. Elena departs.
After the Russian Empire
is overthrown and the Soviet Union
is born, most of the Western diplomats evacuate. Stephen is left behind with just a servant, "Poohbah" Evans. Day after day, he waits with mounting frustration for instructions, passing the time with others in the same situation, American Bob Medill (William Gargan
), Gaston LeFarge (Phillip Reed
) and Tito Del Val (Cesar Romero
).
His boredom is lifted when he meets Elena again. She is now an important member of the government, working for Commissioner of War Trotsky
(J. Carrol Naish
). He romances her, and they quickly fall in love.
However, her first loyalty is to her country. She demonstrates this when Stephen finally receives orders from England. He is to try to prevent the Soviet Union from concluding a separate peace with Imperial Germany, which would free up large numbers of German soldiers for the Western Front
; however, he is warned that he is only an "unofficial" British representative. Stephen carelessly reads the message in Elena's hearing. She passes along the information to her boss. As a result, when Stephen pleads with the Soviet government in Moscow
to keep fighting, his arguments are undercut by their awareness of his status. He manages to get a delay of three weeks, to see if he can persuade his superiors to agree to Soviet demands: £50 million, five army divisions and munitions. Instead, without Stephen's knowledge, the British send a force to Archangel to fight with the internal enemies of the Soviets.
After the Czar is executed, Medill, LeFarge and Del Val persuade Stephen to join them in supporting counterrevolutionary
forces. When Lenin
is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, the Soviets initiate a harsh crackdown. LeFarge and Del Val are killed while attempting to contact a rebel military leader in the city. Medill tries to do the same, but is caught and tortured for Stephen's whereabouts. When he refuses to crack, he is sentenced to die by firing squad the next day.
Elena is ordered to persuade him to tell her where Stephen is; knowing she is in love with Stephen, Medill gives her the address. She reluctantly gives the information to Trotsky, who orders soldiers to level the building. Elena sneaks into the building, determined to die with Stephen. They are reprieved, however. Just as the soldiers start shooting, news arrives that Lenin will recover, and that he has ordered the release of all political prisoners. Later, Stephen and Elena depart for England; at the train station, Medill requests they send him a supply of bubble gum.
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész...
and starring Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
and Kay Francis
Kay Francis
Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
. It is based on Memoirs of a British Agent, the 1932 autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart
R. H. Bruce Lockhart
Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart KCMG , was a journalist, author, secret agent, British diplomat in Moscow and Prague, and footballer...
, who had spent a number of years working for the British Secret Service. The film was produced by First National
First National
First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...
, which was then a division of Warner Bros.
The same book was partly used as an inspiration for the television series Reilly, Ace of Spies
Reilly, Ace of Spies
Reilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 television miniseries dramatizing the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian Jew who became one of the greatest spies to ever work for the British. Among his exploits in the early 20th century were the infiltration of the German General Staff in 1917 and a near-overthrow of...
which also portrays the adventures of Lockhart and Sidney Reilly
Sidney Reilly
Lieutenant Sidney George Reilly, MC , famously known as the Ace of Spies, was a Jewish Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard, the British Secret Service Bureau and later the Secret Intelligence Service . He is alleged to have spied for at least four nations...
during their years in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
around the time of the Russian Revolution.
Plot
In the days leading up to the Russian Revolution, Stephen Locke (Leslie Howard), a minor British diplomat, watches rioting in the streets. Revolutionary Elena Moura (Kay Francis) shoots it out with a CossackCossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
soldier; when she retreats onto the grounds of the consulate, the soldier follows, forcing Stephen to intervene to protect British extraterritoriality
Extraterritoriality
Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations...
. After the Cossack leaves, Elena emerges; she and Steven are attracted to each other, but their politics clash. Elena departs.
After the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
is overthrown and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
is born, most of the Western diplomats evacuate. Stephen is left behind with just a servant, "Poohbah" Evans. Day after day, he waits with mounting frustration for instructions, passing the time with others in the same situation, American Bob Medill (William Gargan
William Gargan
William Gargan, born William Dennis Gargan July 17, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, USA and died February 17, 1979 aged 73 on a flight between New York and San Diego.He was an American motion picture, television and radio actor...
), Gaston LeFarge (Phillip Reed
Phillip Reed
Phillip Reed was an American actor. He was perhaps best known for his role as Steve Wilson in a series of four films based on the Big Town radio series. Television appearances include a lead role in the 1955 anthology drama series Police Call. He also appeared as King Toranshah in the 1965 Elvis...
) and Tito Del Val (Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
).
His boredom is lifted when he meets Elena again. She is now an important member of the government, working for Commissioner of War Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
(J. Carrol Naish
J. Carrol Naish
Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish was an American character actor born in New York City. Naish was twice nominated for an Academy Award for film roles, and he later found fame in the title role of CBS Radio's Life With Luigi , which was also on CBS Television .Naish appeared on stage for several years...
). He romances her, and they quickly fall in love.
However, her first loyalty is to her country. She demonstrates this when Stephen finally receives orders from England. He is to try to prevent the Soviet Union from concluding a separate peace with Imperial Germany, which would free up large numbers of German soldiers for the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
; however, he is warned that he is only an "unofficial" British representative. Stephen carelessly reads the message in Elena's hearing. She passes along the information to her boss. As a result, when Stephen pleads with the Soviet government in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to keep fighting, his arguments are undercut by their awareness of his status. He manages to get a delay of three weeks, to see if he can persuade his superiors to agree to Soviet demands: £50 million, five army divisions and munitions. Instead, without Stephen's knowledge, the British send a force to Archangel to fight with the internal enemies of the Soviets.
After the Czar is executed, Medill, LeFarge and Del Val persuade Stephen to join them in supporting counterrevolutionary
Counterrevolutionary
A counter-revolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part...
forces. When Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, the Soviets initiate a harsh crackdown. LeFarge and Del Val are killed while attempting to contact a rebel military leader in the city. Medill tries to do the same, but is caught and tortured for Stephen's whereabouts. When he refuses to crack, he is sentenced to die by firing squad the next day.
Elena is ordered to persuade him to tell her where Stephen is; knowing she is in love with Stephen, Medill gives her the address. She reluctantly gives the information to Trotsky, who orders soldiers to level the building. Elena sneaks into the building, determined to die with Stephen. They are reprieved, however. Just as the soldiers start shooting, news arrives that Lenin will recover, and that he has ordered the release of all political prisoners. Later, Stephen and Elena depart for England; at the train station, Medill requests they send him a supply of bubble gum.
Cast
- Leslie Howard as Stephen Locke
- Kay Francis as Elena Moura
- William GarganWilliam GarganWilliam Gargan, born William Dennis Gargan July 17, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, USA and died February 17, 1979 aged 73 on a flight between New York and San Diego.He was an American motion picture, television and radio actor...
as Bob Medill - Phillip ReedPhillip ReedPhillip Reed was an American actor. He was perhaps best known for his role as Steve Wilson in a series of four films based on the Big Town radio series. Television appearances include a lead role in the 1955 anthology drama series Police Call. He also appeared as King Toranshah in the 1965 Elvis...
as Gaston LeFarge - Irving PichelIrving PichelIrving Pichel was an American actor and film director. He married Violette Wilson, daughter of Jackson Stitt Wilson, a Methodist minister and Socialist mayor of Berkeley, California. Her sister was actress Viola Barry...
as Sergei Pavlov - Ivan F. Simpson as "Poohbah" Evans (as Ivan Simpson)
- Halliwell HobbesHalliwell HobbesHalliwell Hobbes was an English actor.-Life:His stage debut was in Sir Frank Benson's company in 1898, playing in Shakespearean rep alongside actors such as Ellen Terry and Mrs Patrick Campbell...
as Sir Walter Carrister - J. Carrol NaishJ. Carrol NaishJoseph Patrick Carrol Naish was an American character actor born in New York City. Naish was twice nominated for an Academy Award for film roles, and he later found fame in the title role of CBS Radio's Life With Luigi , which was also on CBS Television .Naish appeared on stage for several years...
as Commissioner of War TrotskyLeon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
(as J. Carroll Naish) - Walter Byron as Under Secretary Stanley
- Cesar RomeroCesar RomeroCesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
as Tito Del Val - Arthur AylesworthArthur AylesworthArthur Aylesworth was an American actor who was a part of the Warner Brothers studio of film actors.Aylesworth was born in Apponaug, Rhode Island and starred on Broadway in the musical Follow Thru . He was on the stage for over a quarter of a century and created all but two of his one hundred and...
as Mr. Henry Farmer - Alphonse Ethier as Paul DeVigney
- Frank ReicherFrank ReicherFrank Reicher , was a German-born American stage and film actor, director and producer.-Early life:Frank Reicher was born in Munich, Germany, the son of actor Emanuel Reicher and Hedwig Kindermann, a popular German prima donna who was a daughter of the famous baritone August Kindermann...
as Mr. X - Tenen HoltzTenen HoltzTenen Holtz was a Russian actor. He appeared in nearly 60 films between 1926 and 1961.He was born Elihu "Elye" Tenenholtz in the hamlet of Azran, near the city of Rovne and came to the United States the age of ten...
as LeninVladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a... - Doris LloydDoris LloydHessy Doris Lloyd was an English actress.She appeared in over 150 films between 1920 and 1967, including the 1933 low-budget Monogram Pictures version of Oliver Twist, in which she played Nancy...
as Lady Carrister - Mary ForbesMary ForbesMary Forbes was an English film actress. She appeared in over 130 films between 1919 and 1958....
as Lady Catherine Trehearne - Marina Koshetz as Maria Nikolaievna (as Marina Schubert)
- George C. PearceGeorge C. PearceGeorge C. Pearce was an American film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 133 films between 1914 and 1939.He was born in New York, New York, and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:*Mrs...
as Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
(as George Pearce) - Gregory GayeGregory GayeGregory Gaye was a Russian-American actor. The son of an actor, he was born Gregory De Gay in Petrograd, now known as St. Petersburg....
as Mr. Kolinoff - Paul PorcasiPaul PorcasiPaul Porcasi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 142 films between 1917 and 1945.He was born in Palermo, Sicily and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Broadway...
as Count Romano