Mörder unter weißer Maske

Above average (just) minor thriller with Dermot Walsh in a slightly atypical role as a mild-mannered accountant who's initial intent is to audit the books of a company that turns out to be mixed up with all sorts of hokey pokey. This leads to our villain, played by Alexander Gauge, in full Sydney Greenstreet mode ("upon my soul sir, you are the most impatient man...." etc etc; That nice Bill Travers, of all people, crops up as a heavy and Hazel Court (Mrs Walsh at this time), is generally underused for much of the film.

A reasonable way to pass 68 minutes and probably not very memorable but at least no American "B" star shoehorned into the cast in an attempt to raise its transatlantic appeal.

This is a nicely understated comedy-thriller about an ordinary accountant who gets mixed up with spies. Such a plot is nowadays routine, but in 1953 was a little ahead of the game. Dermot Walsh is on particularly good form as the not-too-bright pen-pusher; his little sulk when contradicted by Paulson is a lovely little cameo. Interesting early performances from Hazel Court and Bill Travers, and a rare film outing for John Penrose, famous for his portrayal as the horrible Lionel in Kind Hearts and Coronets. Of course, from this studio, on this budget, this was never going to be a work of art. But Vernon Sewell was excellent at producing interesting and entertaining results from unpromising material. This won't stick in the mind for very long, but it passes its short running time easily, and provokes a few chuckles along the way.

This is the sort of film I like. All the other reviews here are positive but I am struggling to find something I like about this film. It is so bad it has not been shown on the old film tv channel which has some standards.

I know this is a low budget film made in 1953 it really is uninteresting.

I used to wonder why my late parents hated British films,I think they saw too many films like this one.

It has to be said that Dermot Walsh tended to play rather more red blooded characters than the meek and mild accountant who unwittingly gets involved in this spy thriller.It seems so unlikely also that he would be married to the vivacious dancer Hazel Court.The cast is full of interest.As has been mentioned Bill Travers plays an almost unrecognisable heavy.Then there are Alexander Gauge(Friar Tuck) and Archie Duncan(little John) from the Robin Hood TV series.Unfortunately for poor Gauge he couldn't get any more work after the end of the TV series and committed suicide.Here he plays the head of a spy ring determined to stop at nothing to obtain the papers which are the "macguffin" of this film.Passes the time pleasantly.

UNDERCOVER AGENT is a very typical British crime film but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad one. Sure, it moves at a sedate pace and it features not a single surprise anywhere in its running time, but at the same time it keeps the amiable viewer watching quite happily thanks to plenty of incident and perilous situations. The film stars the hard-working Dermot Walsh who somewhat unusually plays a mild-mannered accountant this time around (he's usually a brooding, dashing anti-hero thanks to that Mallen streak in his hair). The film's MacGuffin sees him come into possession of an envelope containing secret plans that both the British government and a gang of international spies will do anything to get their hands on. It's all very Hitchcockian albeit done on a very low budget.

What follows is watchable enough as it goes through the trappings of the genre: there are assassinations, hidden character motivations, and even a couple of mild torture sequences including a climactic hospital set-piece which may have inspired GOLDFINGER. Walsh is very good actually, and there are some choice faces in the supporting cast: Hazel Court's lovely love interest, Hugh Latimer's dogged cop, Alexander Gauge's stock slimy villain. Hermione Baddeley makes for an effective femme fatale but one of the most interesting of all is a pre-stardom Bill Travers, years before BORN FREE and cast as a ruthless thug!