Not to be confused with Sabotage (1936 film) which is a loose adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel. Secret Agent (1936) is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, and Robert Young. Future star Michael Redgrave made a brief, uncredited appearance; he would play the male lead in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). This was also Michael Rennie's film debut (though an uncredited one).