Trailer—Where the Spies Are

source: Where the Spies Are

A British spying thriller on cold war era with soft treatment by the director Val Guest, after they got a doctor to a dangerous assignment at Rome and Beirut, Lebanon, to find out a missing spy, maybe killed by Russian agents, at Rome's airport he has to meet an agent to aid him before to leave there, actually this connection was a pretty young girl played by Dorleac and before he goes to Lebanon she actually falling in love by Doctor Love, an suggestive name to an irresistible lover....I see, Françoise Dorleac was enchanted by a man 32 years eldest.....I see...well starting this very (im) plausible point of view all about to comes collapse for itself, also bound by a weak special effects made by odd thumbnails, an easy going production that l'd recorded from TCM on original and rare dubbed version!!! Resume: First watch: 2008 / How many: 3 / Source: DVD-R / Rating: 6.25

When one of their agents is killed the British intelligence agency known as MI6 is suddenly confronted with a huge manpower shortage in Lebanon. This results in their contacting a person who served with them during World War 2 as a combat physician by the name of "Dr. Jason Love" (David Niven). But in order to recruit him for this special assignment they have to offer him something that is very rare-a 1937 Chrysler LeBaron. He eagerly accepts and heads off to Rome where he meets an attractive secret agent at the airport by the name of "Vikki" (Françoise Dorléac). Wanting to spend a little time with her he reschedules his flight to Beirut. He then watches in horror as the flight he was supposed to be on explodes in mid-air and realizes that this assignment may not be as simple as he was led to believe. At any rate, rather than reveal any more of the film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a fairly good spy movie for the most part. Although it slightly resembled a "James Bond" film it was a bit more light-hearted in comparison and wasn't quite as polished. Even so it was still somewhat enjoyable and having an actress as beautiful as the aforementioned Francoise Dorléac certainly didn't hurt in any way. Slightly above average.

Dr. Jason Love (David Niven) is simply a doctor...nothing more. During WWII, he worked with British Intelligence and because of this connection, he's recruited by MI6 for one teensy, weensy assignment. Not surprisingly, though (after all it is a movie), this easy assignment turns out to be anything but...and Love is pulled into an assassination attempt in Beirut! Along the way, there are exploding airliners, murders, gun fights and more. In many ways, this reminds me of some of the Harry Palmer spy films (starring Michael Caine), as the spies in the film are nothing like the folks in a James Bond film! No, they are more ordinary looking folks...and so Dr. Love fits right in! Overall, quite enjoyable though the relationship Love has with the double agent never really made a lot of sense.

I usually wouldn't begin a review of a movie with a simple math problem, but for those looking for simple escape with lush settings and lots of shoot-outs and chases, this is an OK time filler. But for story, forget about it. I gave up after 20 minutes trying to figure out what was going on, what the mission was, and who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. It's another one of the many Bond rip-offs, cheekily revealing so in its title, and cast with the always dashing David Niven, just coming off of "The Pink Panther" which wasn't a spy movie, but was similar as far as a caper theme. Niven is a former agent from the war recruited for a mission, and finding himself involved with the pretty Françoise Dorléac who seems to be his contact but as he finds out somewhere along the way is a double agent who doesn't care who she works for as long as she gets paid and has fun. This is supposed to be a spoof, but a spoof should at least have a plot that makes sense, and after realizing where this was going (nowhere), I began to not care about whatever I was missing. I gather from the number of spy comedies I've seen that tried to gain some box-office clout through the Bond films that they were pretty much a dime a dozen in the 1960's, coming out at a rate of at least one a week in the mid to late 1960's. I'll take Bond or even good ole' American Matt Helm any day over these rip-offs, although it is obvious that David Niven is having a lot of fun.

A bit over-talkative (although some droll humor is artfully concealed in the dialogue) with standard heroics and action brought to more life than it deserves by an especially hardworking cast: David Niven, Francoise Dorleac (her last film! Disappointingly her role is not all that large. She disappears for a long stretch while Niven is partnered by the redoubtable Nigel Davenport). Val Guest's direction too is not as fluent as Wolf Mankowitz's, but it could be the other way around. Both are credited, but who did what has not been officially told to us. As the movie was produced by Guest, my educated guess is that Mankowitz started the movie, but director Guest was unhappy with the rushes, fired Mankowitz and took over the direction himself. It's easy to tell the directors apart as one of them is not as fluent as the other and tends to concentrate and over-do close-ups. Real locations in Beirut, etc. help, but there also some very obvious models and studio scenes, Grant's close-ups of Miss Dorleac are attractive whilst Nascimbene's score is a bit too reliant on mechanical effects to be continually effective.

A foreign power is taking out British Intelligence. Another agent gets murdered in Lebanon and the service is forced to recruit doctor Jason Love (David Niven). He worked for the service during the war. He is assured that it's a safe and easy job. It's not. He pretends to be attending a medical convention. At the Paris airport, he encounters his contact, beautiful model Vikki. He misses his flight which explodes in mid-air. This is neither funny nor thrilling. It's trying to be a fun spy action flick. He is definitely no Bond. There is a few attempts at humor but they mostly fall flat. This is not the gritty realistic type but it's also not that fun. It's stuck in the muddy middle. Even the exotic locations don't feel that exotic. This is the start of a franchise which never took off.

A dated little movie,but which ,thanks to the cast ,remains entertaining today.It was Goldfinger time and it shows.The scene on the plane recalls the ending of the best James Bond of all time,Vikki broadly playing the part of Pussy Galore. But it is difficult to believe that a doctor can become a secret agent overnight.But if you forget that (in the highly superior "North by Northwest ",Cary Grant portrayed the same kind of hero),you may find his adventures palatable. Also notable for the presence of Catherine Deneuve's sister ,Françoise Dorleac,then one of the most promising French actresses who tragically died two years later.

Director Val Guest got his fame for directing horror/science-fiction movies in the '50's. His movies never have really been the greatest but they were decent enough genre pieces, that are also quite well known, all over the world. With comedies he just never received much fame or praise and for a good reason, also especially when you look at this film. Though the right intentions are definitely there, this just isn't a good enough genre movie. The movie is obviously trying to be a light entertaining espionage movie, perhaps even a genre spoof- and cold war spoof at times. The movie as a whole just isn't light enough in its settings and events to consider this really an entertaining movie, that doesn't successfully parodies or even entertains enough. The movie works in parts as a comedy and entertainment, especially in the beginning but its many more weaker moments really downgrade the movie and in parts even makes it a totally unwatchable and bad one. The movie has a main plot line but it almost seemed as if they simply shot the movie as it was on the call-sheets, without paying much attention to development. Because of that the movie also becomes mostly uninteresting to watch and the events in the movie almost impossible to follow or care for. The movie its main problem is really how poorly developed it is. Also with its seemingly important characters in the movie, that come and go and never get properly introduced or developed. The movie has further more a great cast, filled with mostly some of the best British actors from its period. It are the sort of actors you perhaps not know by name but definitely by face. Of course David Niven is well known and he carries the movie well with his role and he also proofs how well he can handle the comedy genre but no matter how great he is, he feels out of place nevertheless, mostly due to his age. He just doesn't seem believable enough as a spy who gets the girls and charms his way through things. The movie is shot at some nice far off locations but still the movie feels very low-budget. This is also due to some incredibly lame and fake looking miniature effects. Pay especially attention toward the ending when a character is jumping from a riding plane. Not a complete train-wreck but not exactly a movie worth searching out either. 5/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/