It's always such a pleasure to see Leslie Howard. His acting is superb and his romance with Kay Francis touching. How director Michael Curtiz put so much plot and action into such a short film about the Russian Revolution is impressive.It is interesting to observe that the British Embassy was in Petrograd,and just a British Consulate in Moscow. How the Embassy was able to amass all those guests, in all their finery, in the middle of war torn Russia on the brink of revolution, is surprising.Howard's cohorts, Reed, Gargan, and Romero were immensely enjoyable. Gargan's addiction to gum was amusing and provided a light element to all the drama.When their world is about to blow up around them Howard and Francis are saved by the bell and they ride off into the sunset. A happy ending after much disappointment, failure and sadness.

The earth has turned 36,500 days since New Years 1917, and the end of the empire meant a new Russia, one that would impact world history. As a new regime rises with a different style of leadership at the helm, the world held its breath, but certain governments were not about to stand idly by. That's where the British coming in, sending secret agent Leslie Howard over to check everything out, hoping for the best as World War I airs its ugly head, but not taking any chances. This involved the possible release of German soldiers, something that England and much of the rest of the world could not resist.Handsomely put together by Warner Brothers at their most lavish, it was under the direction of Michael Curtiz, one of the most versatile of all Hollywood directors. Howard represents the English embassy after many British flee, and when he begins a romantic liaison with Russian revolutionary Kay Francis, his ideals are brought into question as more havoc breaks out. On her part, Francis (who is first seen shooting at a Cossack) has strong ideals herself, and when asked to betray the man she lives, is torn apart. Lavish but politically convoluted, thus is problematic because one should know more about the Russian revolution if one expects to understand everything. A lot of footage appears to have been edited out and while the film tries to flow without cohesion, there's enough history brought up to tie together a few loose ends.The cast is fine, with Howard a hot leading man at the time with at least two other classics released at the time. He delivers a powerful performance equivalent to the same year's "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Francis is cast in quite a different role, not a majorly romantic part, and certainly far from her dozen of other films concerning mother love. Her wardrobe is a far cry from her many clothes horse parts, and she does fine alternating between sympathetic and deceitful.Others who stand out include a young Cesar Romero and Irving Pichel, although some of the accents are questionable. In Francis's case, it's nonexistent. As a huge fan of hers, I've seen many of her films three, four times, some more. But for some reason, prior to this viewing, I was unable to make it through the whole film. I can see now why: it has a rather oddly paced structure where you have to really listen to every word and take in every frame to really comfortably follow it.

Well, a film starring Leslie Howard and Kay Francis and directed by Michael Curtiz could never be a complete disaster. "British Agent" from 1934 is far from that, but because of the script, it's a little strange.This film is based on the memoirs of R.C. Lockhart. "British Agent" is only 80 minutes long and it packs in a tremendous amount of plot. Leslie Howard is Steven Locke, who works for the British embassy in Russia at the time of the revolution. He falls for Elena Moura (Francis), a woman he saves. This is the first problem because they meet in one scene and are madly in love in practically the next.Locke is instructed to keep Russia from signing a separate peace with Germany, which would be harmful to England. Elena holds to a different ideology, being a follower of Lenin. The two clash, and when Elena finds out Locke's assignment, she's quick to tell the other side. That's the second problem -- in the midst of a revolution, Locke receives a dispatch from London and reads it out loud while Elena is in the house.Elena continues to be in love with Locke, betraying him at the same time.The acting is very good, and Howard and Francis have wonderful chemistry. It's just not very plausible. Possibly if the love story had been developed more, it would have been more believable.It's always a delight to see Leslie Howard in a film, as well as Kay Francis. I'll take them any way I can get them, and here, it's in "British Agent."

Hollywood and the American people seem to know very, very little about the Russian Revolution--I should know, I am a retired history teacher. In particular, few would realize that portions of Russia were occupied by foreign troops to ostensibly guarantee the safety of their nationals--though the US, Britain and others actually helped the White Russians (the anti-Communists) militarily during the period near the end of WWI up until about 1920. So, the fact that "British Agent" is set in Russia during this period makes it very interesting and unique. Aside from the very leftist film "Reds" (don't get me started on my I dislike this dull film) and "Dr. Zhivago", this is the only mainstream film I can think of that actually tries to discuss this period in history.Leslie Howard plays a government agent sent to Russia following their first revolution--the one that preceded the Communist revolution five months later. The brand-new Karensky government replaced the Czars and tried to strike a balance between conservative and liberal camps. Unfortunately, they chose to try to remain in WWI--something that the people just couldn't take, as Russian losses had been staggering and the people were starving. So Howard is given the impossible task to convince this teetering government to stay in the war because the Allied forces were afraid Russia exit would doom them to lose. And, such missions to Russia DID occur--but they had absolutely no effect and the country soon had a new revolt and they simply quit fighting.All this is pretty interesting and here is where the film starts to bog down--even though it's actually supposed to be based on the true story of a lady revolutionary. Kay Francis plays this woman and although Leslie is not in the least sympathetic to the communist cause, they inexplicably fall in love. Perhaps in real life this made sense but in the movie they simply went from point A to point C--skipping the explanation as to WHY they fell in love and why she was suddenly willing to abandon the nation she so loved. Why?! According to this movie, it was almost a whim! My other gripe against the film is small and very typical for movies of the era. This is that no one in the film really looked or sounded Russian! Heck, most didn't even bother to put on a fake Russian accent! Still, if you can ignore these two problems, the film is interesting and informative. And, that makes it worth seeing.