Where the Spies Are (1966)

• Year: 1966
• Released: 19 Jan 1966
• Country: United Kingdom
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059905/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/where_the_spies_are
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Approved
• Genre: Adventure, Comedy
• Runtime: 110 min
• Writer: Wolf Mankowitz, Val Guest, James Leasor
• Director: Val Guest
• Cast: David Niven, Françoise Dorléac, John Le Mesurier
• Keywords: paris, france, assassination, based on novel or book, cold war, double agent, defection,

	5.6/10
	36% – Audience

Where the Spies Are Storyline

A local doctor is recruited as a cold war spy to fulfill a very important secret mission in the Middle East, only to experience that his mission is complicated by a sexy female double agent.

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Where the Spies Are Movie Reviews

A light satire on the cold war spy story

An amusing, tongue-in-cheek, British satire on the spy genre with David Niven at his debonair best. The comedy is dry and subtle, taking aim at the British and Russian spy-film caricatures. Niven plays the bumbling amateur who makes good but was recruited because all the other spies have been unfortunately lost – that’s MI5. John Le Mesurier plays the part of the harassed, penny-pinching, civil servant with aplomb. His use of understatement in suggesting that the purpose of the visit was just to find Rosser and nothing more and his reference to the radio in a biscuit tin, exemplifies the absurdity that underpins the satire. Françoise Dorléac plays the sexy double agent with a light touch. A good support cast with Nigel Davenport excelling as the hard-drinking expatriate Brit. and Ronald Radd suitably menacing as the Russian spy master. In the 1960’s the Lebanon was considered an exotic location, essential for this kind of film. As in the Bond films, the travelogue element with a “holiday” romance was an important part of the overall attraction.

In Beirut

Something dreadful is about to happen in Lebanon, but John Meseurier doesn’t have any agents he can send there, so he recruits doctor David Niven, who flies to Beirut, has an affair with Françoise Dorléac, and winds up being kidnapped and tortured.

MGM thought they had an answer to James Bond in the Jason Love novels of James Leasor, but the result is a peculiarly weightless movie. There’s not much fun, except for Mlle Dorléac and a sequence in which Niven charms Lebanese auto mechanic Eric Pohlmann with tales of his Cord roadster. We are expected to believe that a random English doctor can scale buildings with the ease of a mountain climber, and even the torture scenes seem to be wasted; Niven has no information on the local espionage scene. The movie is competently handled by Val Guest, but the show didn’t set any box office records and the series never happened.

never takes off

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.