By David in TN
monday, may 8, 2023 at 10:42:00 p.m. edt
Tomorrow (Tuesday May 9), TCM shows at 4:15 p.m. ET Herman Shumlin’s Confidential Agent (1945), with Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Victor Francen, Wanda Hendrix, Peter Lorre and Katina Paxinou.
Film Noir Guide: “A Spanish patriot (Boyer) travels secretly to England to purchase coal for the Loyalist cause in Spain, but his every move is thwarted by his Fascist nemesis (Francen). Fortunately for Boyer, he meets up with the coal mining company’s daughter (Bacall); she falls hard for him and helps him elude police, who wrongly suspect he’s a murderer.”
“Hendrix is the 14-year-old girl whose crush on Boyer leads to tragedy, and Lorre and Paxinou are the Spanish quislings who are interested more in gold than coal.
“Bacall, who made no attempt to disguise her American accent, isn’t believable as the aristocratic English girl who falls for the Spaniard. Boyer gives an enjoyable, low-key performance, but Lorre and Paxinou, both of whom brazenly ham it up, are the top attractions.”
David in TN: The Warner Brothers’ bosses were afraid bad reviews would destroy Bacall’s career so they re-shot several scenes in The Big Sleep to give her better screen time.
Boyer is supposed to be a Spaniard but still seems a Frenchman. Confidential Agent has a Noirish atmosphere and makes for a good story.
N.S.: Like Hemingway (For Whom the Bell Tolls), Hollywood supported the Spanish “loyalists” (anarchists/communists).
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When I was a high school student, I devoured "Three by Graham Greene," a volume that included "This Gun for Hire," "The Confidential Agent," and "The Ministry of Fear." Although the author supposedly disparaged these “entertainments,” I preferred them to his more serious novels. The 1944 and 1945 American films of the latter two books were disappointing in some ways, and not just in the weird casting: Fritz Lang’s movie, for example, cut out the section of the story dealing with the amnesiac hero’s adventures in a creepy nursing home. Still the films are enjoyable for what they are, exciting and suspenseful, and not just as time capsules of the 1940s.
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