Review: The Devil’s Agent

Set in 1950, Peter van Eyck plays a mild-mannered Austrian businessman and former Intelligence man during WW2. The sister (Helen Cherry) of an old war buddy (Christopher Lee) asks van Eyck to deliver a package to someone in West Germany and before long, van Eyck is drawn into the dangerous world of spies, a world he nonetheless seems quiet adept in. Macdonald Carey is the US spy who suspects van Eyck of working for the Commies and forces him to work as a double agent. Marianne Koch plays the love interest, Jeremy Bulloch is van Eyck’s son, Marius Goring is a one-armed, crazy General, and Billie Whitelaw plays a Russian girl van Eyck is briefly involved with.

 

Relatively unknown 1962 spy flick from director John Paddy Carstairs (“The Saint in London”) and his co-writer Robert Westerby (“Beautiful Stranger”, “War and Peace”, Disney’s “Greyfriars Bobby”) is solid and filled with enough recognisable names and faces that it shouldn’t be so unknown. Yes, it’s probably bottom-half of a double-bill, but it’s a pretty well-made one at that.

 

The film does a good job of conveying how difficult it is to get out of the spy game once you’re in it. It also has a brilliantly cynical downer of an ending that is probably the best thing about it. Despite fourth-billing, Christopher Lee is confined to the beginning and climax of the film. He’s wasted in terms of screen time, though his character manages to be interesting nonetheless and he’s certainly well-cast in the role itself. Our leading man is German-born Peter van Eyck, who is an interesting choice, normally he plays supporting parts and usually Nazi villains. Here he gets the lead (something he was more accustomed to in Germany) and he’s our protagonist. He’s got a bit of an urbane, Charles Gray quality to him and while that lends itself more naturally to villainous parts, he’s actually quite good here. In a small role we get MacDonald Carey, a sort of poor man’s Gregory Peck mixed with Walter Pigeon. He may not be the world’s greatest actor, but he’s a solid hand, and undeniably had one of the world’s most iconic speaking voices. The always underrated Billie Whitelaw similarly doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but she’s excellent here and a bit sexy too. A very serious Marius Goring is even better as a wild-eyed General, whilst a young Jeremy Bulloch (AKA Boba Fett) is quite likeable as van Eyck’s son.

 

Why is this solid spy film so little-known and hard to track down? It surely can’t just be because Peter van Eyck is the leading man. He’s good, and the film’s solid enough too. Top supporting cast, as well.

 

Rating: B-

 

 

 

 

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