''The Devil's Agent'' () is a 1962
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
John Paddy Carstairs and starring
Peter van Eyck,
Marianne Koch
Marianne Koch (; born 19 August 1931) is a German retired actress, best known for her appearances in Spaghetti Westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician.
Career
Between 1950 and 1971 ...
,
Christopher Lee and
Macdonald Carey
Edward Macdonald Carey (March 15, 1913 – March 21, 1994) was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera '' Days of Our Lives''. For almost three decades, he was the show's central cast membe ...
.
It was a co-production between Britain, West Germany and Ireland. It was based on a 1956 novel by
Hans Habe. It is set in
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
during the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
.
Plot
Mild-mannered Viennese wine merchant George Droste, an intelligence expert during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, unexpectedly encounters old friend Baron Von Staub, and spends a weekend with him on his estate in the Soviet zone. The two revive a friendship interrupted by the war. However, when Von Straub's sister asks Droste to transport a small package to a friend in
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, the bewildered Droste is set up for a series of complicated spy games, at first becoming an unwilling dupe for the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, and then retaliating by offering his services to a
US intelligence agency.
Cast
*
Peter van Eyck as Droste
*
Marianne Koch
Marianne Koch (; born 19 August 1931) is a German retired actress, best known for her appearances in Spaghetti Westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician.
Career
Between 1950 and 1971 ...
as Nora
*
Christopher Lee as Baron von Staub
*
Macdonald Carey
Edward Macdonald Carey (March 15, 1913 – March 21, 1994) was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera '' Days of Our Lives''. For almost three decades, he was the show's central cast membe ...
as Mr Smith
*
Albert Lieven
Albert Lieven (born Albert Fritz Liévin; 22 June 1906 – 22 December 1971) was a German actor.
Early life
Lieven was born in Olsztynek, Hohenstein, German Empire. His father was the head physician of the Tuberculosis sanatorium Hohenstein, ...
as Inspector Huebring
*
Billie Whitelaw as Piroska
*
David Knight as Father Zambory
*
Marius Goring
Marius Re Goring (23 May 191230 September 1998) was an English stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell and Pressburger, Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in ''A Matter of Life and D ...
as General Greenhahn
*
Helen Cherry
Helen Mary Cherry (24 November 1915 – 27 September 2001) was an English stage, film and television actress. She was born in Worsley, Lancashire, and brought up in Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire.
Marriage
Whilst working at the Arts Th ...
as Countess Cosimano
*
Colin Gordon as Count Dezsepalvy
*
Niall MacGinnis
Patrick Niall MacGinnis (29 March 1913 – 6 January 1977) was an Irish actor and physician. On screen, he was well-known for his character roles with a "poetic timbre", though he occasionally played leading parts like the title character in ...
as Paul Vass
*
Eric Pohlmann
Eric Pohlmann (; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the primary antagonist of t ...
as Bloch
*
Peter Vaughan as Chief of Hungarian Police
*
Michael Brennan as Horvat
*
Jeremy Bulloch
Jeremy Andrew Bulloch (16 February 1945 – 17 December 2020) was an English actor. In a career that spanned six decades, he gained recognition for originating the physical portrayal of Boba Fett in the '' Star Wars'' franchise, appearing as ...
as Johnny Droste
Critical reception
The ''
Monthly Film Bulletin
The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' wrote: "A ragged and episodic affair, which no sooner gets going on one thing than it switches to another, this in no way lives up to the promise of its cast which, for a B picture, is formidable. None of Droste's three adventures is developed in sufficient detail, and something is obviously missing from the abrupt picnic ending."
''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
'' gave it two out of four stars, noting an "Occasionally gripping spy drama with a very good cast."
''
Allmovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was ...
'' wrote, "Somewhat lost amidst the flashier
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
clones of the late 1960s, ''The Devil's Agent'' holds up pretty well when seen today."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil's Agent, The
1962 films
1960s spy drama films
British spy drama films
Irish drama films
West German films
English-language German films
Films directed by John Paddy Carstairs
Films set in Germany
Cold War spy films
Films based on Austrian novels
Films shot in Ireland
British black-and-white films
1962 drama films
Films set in East Germany
1960s English-language films
1960s British films
Films scored by Philip Green