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Imagine a bygone, chim-chimeny age when fog was "a pea-souper", Dickensian rozzers chased ten-year-old pickpockets, and every other bloke you met was a would-be anarchist with dreams of social destruction.
At least this is what London in Christopher Hampton's bleak adaptation of The Secret Agent is like: a film based on the classic Joseph Conrad book, which in turn is based on a real attempt (in 1894) to blow up the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. This terrorist act, by Verloc (Hoskins), leads to all manner of tragic consequences, jump-starting a twisting, turning tale of despair and madness.
To call The Secret Agent "torturous" would be like describing Birmingham's Spaghetti Junction as a "small roundabout". The story is an incredible piece of literature, but even Hitchcock shied away from filming a truly faithful version. Hoskins shuffles through the bleakness like a fat Fagin, but can't inject any interest into a movie that has all the mass-market pull of a night out bird-watching. No wonder Fox hushed it up and rushed it out.
The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.
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