Hitchcock Chronology: Secret Agent (1936)

May

10th - According to the title card after the credits, the opening scene in Secret Agent (1936) takes place on 10th May 1916 at 84 Curzon Street, London.

October

Principal photography begins on Secret Agent, starring John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young.^[1]

November

With filming on Secret Agent falling behind schedule, John Gielgud has to juggle filming insert shots and starring alongside Laurence Olivier in Romeo and Juliet on the London stage.^[2]

January

24th - BBC Radio broadcasts an episode of the 30-minute "The Cinema: The Director's Job" series in which Hitchcock talks about his work. The Yorkshire Post description reads, "The third of the talks on The Cinema (National, 8) is to be given by Alfred Hitchcock, the producer, who will speak about his work. Hitchcock has become outstanding among producers by reason of such successes as Blackmail some years ago, and later The Thirty Nine Steps, Secret Agent and Sabotage."^[3]^[4]

August

18th - Musical director and composer Louis Levy, who worked with Hitchcock on Waltzes from Vienna, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Secret Agent, Sabotage, Young and Innocent, The Lady Vanishes, Under Capricorn and Stage Fright, dies aged 62.

March

23rd - Actor Peter Lorre, who appeared in The Man Who Knew Too Much and Secret Agent, dies aged 59.

December

16th - Playwright and novelist W. Somerset Maugham, writer of the novel "Ashenden" which Hitchcock adapted into Secret Agent, dies in Nice, France, aged 91.