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Hollywood always has trouble translating the works of writers like Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway to the screen. Something always gets lost in the transition--and in this case, that's not good because the plot is murky enough without losing some of the novel's detailed explanation of what's really going on.

LAUREN BACALL, poised and mature beyond her years as she was in all of her early Hollywood roles, is a bit miscast here as a British girl and seems to know it. Her performance is less credible than most of her chores opposite Bogart. On the other hand, CHARLES BOYER is impressive as a man on a mission who is eventually betrayed. As in all such spy thrillers, this one has a plot line that is better left undisclosed, but suffice it to say that there is plenty to ponder as you watch the story unfold, and some interesting work by a large supporting cast. Set at the time of the Spanish Civil War, it has plenty of plot to follow.

Wanda Hendrix has a nice bit as a Cockney lass and Katina Paxinou delivers the goods in a malicious role. Too bad the chemistry between Boyer and Bacall is not quite on par with the kind she had with Bogart because their romance never seems quite credible. Neverthelss, she does not deserve the panning her performance received when the film was first released on the heels of two successful films with Bogart.

A bit dull in the stretches, but atmospheric and worth watching as an interesting example of Warner Bros. noir, the sort of cloak and dagger atmosphere needed to give the story some punch.

Charles Boyer is supposed to be Spanish, and he's come to London to buy coal in "Confidential Agent," a 1945 film also starring Lauren Bacall, Katina Paxinou, Peter Lorre, Dan Seymour, and Wanda Hendrix.

Boyer is Luis Denard, and everyone is out to stop him except Bacall. His papers are stolen, he's accused of murder but he's determined to get coal for his people so that they can fight the Fascists.

This film has its good and not so good points. It rates high for atmosphere and for suspense, and it is highly entertaining. Bacall is incredibly beautiful, Boyer is passionate, Paxinou is mean, Lorre is slimy, Hendrix appropriately pathetic, and Seymour outrageously wonderful.

The not so good points: Bacall is supposed to be English, and Boyer Spanish. Uh, no. Boyer is terrific in his role even with the wrong accent, but Bacall is 100% American, not of the British upper class. The two have no chemistry.

Conclusion: Bacall is somewhat miscast. Her acting isn't up to snuff either; she's better in other films. But she's an astonishing looking woman, and much can be forgiven.

Paxinou is nearly over the top and hateful. Dan Seymour almost steals the entire film as a hotel guest who studies human nature. It's a great part and his performance is perfect, while some of the direction of the other actors isn't as good.

This was definitely a case of no small parts, only small actors. Seymour wasn't a small actor.

Definitely worth seeing even with its flaws.

"In October 1937, a man crossed the English Channel knowing that the success or failure of his confidential mission could mean victory or defeat for his people," according to the opening statement. The secret agent man is former Spanish composer and pianist Charles Boyer (a Luis Denard). Spain is divided by a Civil War and Mr. Boyer is acting against the Fascists. His mission is to obtain exclusive rights to precious coal, which is needed for the war. The forces of evil are positioned to obstruct Boyer at every turn...

Missing a train due to questions about his passport, Boyer gets a lift into London with coal tycoon's daughter Lauren Bacall (as Rose Cullen). The beautiful heiress smokes and drinks up a storm, while wondering if Boyer's comings and goings are those of a completely sane man. A romance tentatively develops. Boyer takes up residence with cool, calculating Katina Paxinou (as Maria Melandez) and meets sad-eyed contact Peter Lorre (as Contreras). Unsavory characters continue to block Boyer from his mission...

"Watch on the Rhine" (1943) and "Confidential Agent" are the only two feature film credits for director Herman Shumlin, unfortunately. He died in 1979 and certainly should have received more film projects, based on the evidence presented here. Having photographer James Wong Howe and editor George Amy on your crew helps, obviously. Shumlin subsequently focused on stage work, and met with considerable success...

This film was scolded for miscasting the French Boyer as a Spaniard and Ms. Bacall as a British socialite...

Boyer plays the character well, rolling with his regular accent. Bacall charts the same course, with less success. In only her second film, she would have benefited from a script explaining how her character grew up in New York. Bacall showed more rapport with Bogart than Boyer, but maintains great sex appeal. The supporting cast is superb. Dan Seymour (as Muckerji) has a great part. In a startling debut, Wanda Hendrix (as Else) go head-to-head with Ms. Paxinou for best supporting actress honors.

******* Confidential Agent (11/2/45) Herman Shumlin ~ Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Katina Paxinou, Wanda Hendrix

An underrated addition to the Graham Greene cinematic canon - its perceived faults can now be seen as virtues. Director Shumlin, theatrical director, frames his action with an oppressive rigidity appropriate to the material, and the seemingly inept compositions compellingly suggest unease. Both a dark thriller and a story of moral regeneration (for the female character! In a 40s thriller!), the film has an upright hero who turns mad and murderous (and possibly paedophiliac), brilliantly brings the faraway ideologies of the Spanish Civil War into jolting dangerous reality, has one horrific murder, an astonishing insights into class and capitalism, clever theatrical metaphors, a rare approximation of Greene's God, and an ending that is only happy if you know nothing about history.

I watch a lot of films, good, bad and indifferent; there is usually something of interest to fixate upon, even if it is only set design, or the reliable labor of a good character actor, or the fortuitous laughter that emerges from watching ineptitude captured forever.

However, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this film, one I had never seen before. Graham Greene has been translated into film many times of course, in such masterpieces as "Thin Man" and in lesser vehicles. "Confidential Agent" is one of those lesser vehicles, yet it manages to get me somewhere anyway, despite lackluster direction, the incongruity of Bacall and Boyer's depictions as (respectively) British and Spanish, and the almost complete non-existence of any chemistry between the two leads. In some ways, this last "problem" actually begins to work in the film's favor, for how can love really blossom in the killing atmosphere of fascism and capitalism meeting about one person's tragedy? The most compelling aspect of the film arises directly from Greene's complex and guilt-ridden psychology, which pervades the film. I know some see the deliberate pacing here as dull, and I can understand that. Yet I found that plodding accentuated rather than detracted from what is a claustrophobic world. I was compelled to watch, not by any great acting (although Boyer is marvelous as usual, managing to convey a rich mixture of world-weariness, tragedy, hope, and fervor with his magnificent voice and yearning eyes), but by the down-spiraling rush of one man's slim hopes against a world of oppression and money. What is a thief? What good is love in the face of death? Where does mere profit-taking end and exploitation begin? The film does not rise to the level of art, and thus cannot hope to answer such questions, but it is much more than mere entertainment, and its murders and guilts are very grimly drawn. The lack of glitz, of "bubble," of narrative "bounce" help to make this movie very worthwhile.

And there is no happy ending, for history wrote the ending.

This enjoyable minor noir boasts a top cast, and many memorable scenes. The big distraction is the complete disregard for authentic accents. The Spanish characters in the film are played by a Frenchman (Boyer), a Belgian (Francen), a Greek (Paxinou) and a Hungarian (Lorre)! And to top it all off Bacall is supposed to be an English aristocrat! Despite these absurdities, the performances are all very good - especially those of Paxinou and Lorre. But the scene in which Boyer, Paxinou and Lorre meet, and talk in wildly different accents, is a real hoot! And I guess, seeing as how they were alone, that they should actually have been speaking in Spanish anyway! It seems pretty weird that the Brothers Warner couldn't find any Spanish speaking actors in Los Angeles! Of course Hollywood has often had an "any old accent will do" policy - my other favorite is Greta Garbo (Swedish) as Mata Hari (Dutch), who falls in love with a Russian soldier played by a Mexican (Ramon Novarro). Maybe they should have got Novarro for "Confidential Agent" - he would have been great in Boyer's role or at least in Francen's (which would have saved greatly on the dark make-up budget).

Even though I am a fan of its stars, I had never watched "Confidential Agent" prior to last night. It certainly is a good film noir with an engrossing story, but it was hard to accept Charles Boyer and Peter Lorre playing Spaniards, and young Lauren Bacall from the Bronx playing a British Socialite.... Top marks for Katina Paxinou pity that she hasn't appeared in more than a handful of Hollywood films.

Good old black and white Graham Greene based people in dangerous times doing heroic and mysterious things. Hardly a shot fired or a punch thrown and a hundred time more interesting than the glop that's being minted by Hollywood today. Bacall lights up the screen of course and Boyer is entirely engaging. They don't make movies like this any more.

In 1937, the Spanish Civil War rages. Luis Denard (Charles Boyer) is in Britain on a mission to buy coal for the Republican government. He's haunted by the war and his losses. He meets entitled rich girl Rose Cullen (Lauren Bacall) berating a customs officer upon arrival and immediately offers to drive her. Her father is the industrialist Lord Benditch from whom he needs to buy the coal. He is confronted by fascist agents. Even his contacts Contreras (Peter Lorre) and Mrs. Melandez have secretly sold out to the fascist side.

This is an adaptation of a Graham Greene novel. It seems to be taking it seriously but it lacks something. Boyer is a great actor but he doesn't have his dashing personality here. His character jumps at every bang and shrinks on the screen. The whole film is shrunk. Bacall starts out wrong and never fully recovers. Instead of a ditch, she could be simply frustrated at customs. She doesn't fit this upper class English snob. There is a heaviness to the sincerity in this film that leaves it a little tiring. Some of the best Graham Greene adaptations are located on foreign soil. This one is in foggy London which lacks the exoticism. Overall, it's missing something which I struggle to put a finger on. The final act is a good thriller but it seems to need an unhappy ending.

Lauren Bacall went to great lengths in her memoirs to come up with why she got such bad reviews in Confidential Agent. I put it down simply to she's way to American to cast well as the daughter of an English lord. Additionally as she says her director gave her no direction. A pity because Herman Shumlin the director had just come off doing Watch On The Rhine and this has similar subject matter.

Confidential Agent taken from a Graham Greene novel from 1939 and not one of his better ones. It casts Charles Boyer in the title role as just that, an agent for the Spanish government when it was clear it was already a losing cause. He's in a last minute attempt to stop English coal mine owners from consummating a deal with the new Falangist forces for coal. The miners just want to get back to work which won't make it an easy sell.

When you come right down to it Boyer is really inept. So much happens to him including his credentials being stolen that you wonder why they'd pick this guy. Still he muddles through some how.

One thing that the film has going for it is an incredible cast of character actors, most of whom have played villainous roles. Just the names of Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, George Coulouris, Katina Paxinou, Dan Seymour, Miles Mander and the nature of the story where Boyer does not know friend from foe for a lot of the film gives the story a boost. All these folks have essayed villainy well on the screen so you really can't tell who's good and who's evil.

One I will note is George Coulouris who in this film plays a real oaf and well. Usually he's smooth and evil, this was a new aspect to him and he carries it off well. And Katina Paxinou fresh from her Oscar for For Whom The Bells Toll lights the screen up with her brand of intensity.

But most of the time the story is slow and sluggish. Maybe Michael Curtiz could have gotten more from this cast. And Lauren Bacall got right back on track with The Big Sleep her next film.

I didn't read the book but this must one of Graham Greene's weaker novels. Either that or the Director made a hash out of it, because there is simply too much plot here to make a coherent story. There are several subplots at work that detract from the main storyline - which, truth be told, doesn't seem that interesting or compelling to start with.

Not much chemistry between the two principals, and Bacall's is the weakest performance in the picture. There are lots of notable character actors who try their best; Peter Lorre, Victor Francen and Katina Paxinou, to name a few. Ultimately, I felt the plot was obscured and Charles Boyer was not a strong presence. I rated it on potential and on the sterling cast.

Confidential Agent is a rather neglected film: it seems to be listed in very few film reference books, presumably because it was out of circulation for a long time. The story, from a book by Graham Greene, concerns a Spanish pianist turned anti-Fascist soldier in the Spanish Civil War (Charles Boyer) who comes to England on a secret mission to buy up a huge supply of coal with the dual purpose of using it to support the Republican side and denying it to Franco's forces; he's assisted by a spoiled rich girl he runs into (Lauren Bacall) who also falls in love with him.

It's easy to see what Warner's was hoping for from this film: by co-starring a solidly established male romantic lead (Boyer) with the hot new female sex symbol (Bacall, fresh from her sensation-making role with Bogart in The Big Sleep the previous year) in a patriotically anti-Fascist story while the war was still in progress, the studio might seem to have had all the bases covered. But in fact, the film is a very mixed bag.

On the negative side, Boyer struggles manfully with his role but never seems to really get inside his character. Bacall seems to be trying to portray a femme fatale of the sexy but ice-cold variety, but her performance (which the critics generally panned) comes off as just being wooden. And there's a complete lack of real chemistry between the two. The film also has a strained Hollywood happy ending, which seems tacked on.

But there are some virtues to set against this. The script is generally intelligent, and the complicated plot consistently clear. Several of the minor performances are memorable, especially Ian Wolfe and Dan Seymour as two quite different but equally amusing eccentrics, Peter Lorre is fine as his usual sniveling villain and Katina Paxou is excellent as the so-evil-she's-insane murderess. The best thing about the film, though, is the starkly noirish photography by great cinematographer James Wong Howe: those seriously interested in the art of cinema lighting will find much to admire.

All in all, not a classic, but worth seeing for its good points.

C Boyer and his THICK french accent is a Spaniard on a mission from his home country traveling to London during the Spanish Civil War. Lauren Bacall (Love. Her.) is supposed to be a British Lord's daughter, who becomes Boyer's sidekick. who knows WHAT accents P. Lorre & D. Seymour were supposed to have... interesting flick, in spite of the bad accents. the script kind of goes all over the place, kind of like The Big Sleep. Almost two hours, but fun to watch, except for when they smack the maid around over and over... was a little disturbing. A thin Dan Seymour (was Inspector Renard in To Have and Have Not) comes in to investigate. Written by Grahame Greene, who wrote TONS of stuff.. check it out!

The novel is easily superior and the best parts of the film are direct translations from what Greene wrote; for instance the quiet but grim humour that breaks into the scenes with Boyer and Lorre, or the murdered-child obsession that takes over some of the plot. Where the film deviates from the novel, it tends to the ludicrous.

However I don't want to suggest that the film is bad in any way. It always looks the part and the story stays in the mind like a good 'un. Some of the minor characters were stock actors who could turn their hand to anything.

It's a dreadful shame that the film's not available on DVD.

Somewhat underrated espionage tale, adapted from a Graham Greene novel, that stars Charles Boyer as a Spanish agent sent to England on a special mission. He meets lovely Lauren Bacall and tries to avoid being killed by fascist operatives. The primary complaint that I see about this film, judging from reviews here and elsewhere, is about the casting. Particularly that you have a Frenchman and a Hungarian playing Spaniards, an American playing a Brit, etc. with no effort to match the accents of someone from those countries. Honestly this doesn't bother me. It was standard for the era that an actor would speak in their own accent when playing someone from another country rather than wind up sounding like Speedy Gonzales or something. Bigger issues for me are Bacall's performance in the early scenes where she spits out her lines like she's angry at them and the lack of chemistry between her and Boyer. The latter hurts the film's romantic subplot but since that was a part that was of minor interest to me, it didn't impact my enjoyment much.

Any movie with a cast like this photographed by the great James Wong Howe can't be bad in my eyes. The supporting cast is especially good, featuring the always entertaining Peter Lorre, as well as Victor Francen, George Coulouris, Holmes Herbert, George Zucco, Miles Mander, and Dan Seymour looking considerably less fat than usual. Katina Paxinou makes for a vile villainess. Good work from Wanda Hendrix as a teenage hotel maid who pays a price for befriending Boyer. For her part, Bacall is pretty and, despite the issue I addressed before, she does get better as the movie goes along. But she is the weakest actor in the movie by far. Boyer is quite good as the nervous and befuddled hero. Perhaps not a perfect fit for the role but I think he does an admirable job. There is one scene involving him slapping another character that is a little unintentionally funny. Overall, it's an interesting picture with a noirish atmosphere and tension, particularly in one gripping scene with Paxinou and Hendrix.

Often, in the good old days of classic Hollywood, folks were oddly cast and occasionally accents simply made no sense at all. A couple examples that come to mind are Barbara Stanwyck in "The Plough and the Stars" where she didn't even try to do the appropriate Irish accent and Katharine Hepburn with her pathetic attempt to be Chinese in "Dragon Seed"! Here in "Confidential Agent", A French actor (Charles Boyer) is supposed to be a Spaniard visiting Britain, where very, very few of the folks sound British! The silliest was Lauren Bacall...who sounds about at British as fondue. Overall, it's like accent goulash and certainly is a strike against the movie at the onset.

This film is set just before WWII begins. Luis (Boyer) is in Britain to try to raise money for the cause of the Spanish Republic (the folks who were fighting against Franco and the Nazis). However, throughout his mission, he's attacked, beaten up and shot at....so all in all, he's NOT a happy man! Along the way, he meets up with Rose (Bacall) and together they have less chemistry than most folks have with their proctologists! As a result, it's an amazingly dull film...one that sure could have been a lot better and had more energy. The only thing I DID like was Peter Lorre playing a wonderfully pusilanimous character who is about to be shot near the end...that was pretty good. Of course, Lorre is another actor wasn't the least bit British but was Slovakian!

By the way, the same studio (Warner) also made "Fallen Sparrow" with a similar sort of plot. It was far better and more effective....though that isn't saying much considering I only score "Confidential Agent" a 3...which is sad, as I love Boyer films normally.

Never realized that Charles Boyer, (Luis Denard) appeared with Lauren Bacall,(Rose Cullen) in a film together and enjoyed their great acting together. Even Peter Lorre, (Contreras) had a role in this film and had a bad misfortune in his bathroom that caused him to faint. This story deals with a Republican Courier, Luis Denard who visits England during the Spanish Civil War and tries to disrupt a coal mining contract that will cause great harm to other nations. Lauren Bacall, (Rose Cullen) comes to the aid of Luis Denard by picking him up and at the same time falling in love with him and then proceeds to help him escape from an angry crowd of English Mine Workers who threaten his life. The real bad guy in this film is Victor Francen, (Licata) "Beast with Five Fingers" who gives an outstanding performance. Great Classic 1945 film without Humphrey Bogart.

Yet another forgettable Warners foreign intrigue "thriller," this is rendered even less enjoyable by the irritating presence of Lauren Bacall, who, without Humphrey Bogart's tender attentions to humanize her, comes off as her usual shrill, shallow self. Even master gigolo Charles Boyer cannot feign romantic interest in her.