Which 1936 Alfred Hitchcock film is based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent?

The 1936 Alfred Hitchcock film based on Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent is Sabotage. The British thriller stars Sylvia Sidney as Mrs. Verloc, whose husband, played by Oscar Homolka, secretly works for a terrorist organization.

Hitchcock and screenwriter Charles Bennett adapted Conrad’s 1907 novel very freely. The book’s politically charged agents provocateurs became foreign terrorists operating in London, while Verloc’s shop was changed into a cinema. The film builds suspense through an investigation into bombings and the devastating consequences of Verloc’s actions for his family.

Viewers often confuse Sabotage with Hitchcock’s other 1936 film Secret Agent. Despite the similar titles and spy-thriller setting, Secret Agent is based on W. Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden stories, not Conrad. Sabotage is particularly remembered for its tense London sequences and for Hitchcock’s willingness to make suspense emotionally painful rather than merely adventurous.