This film is very funny indeed, because it was well directed by Ralph Thomas, who could sometimes make terrible films, such as SOME GIRLS DO (1969, see my review). But primarily the film is carried by the superb and delicately delivered performances of those three old pros, Robert Morley, Leo McKern, and Dirk Bogarde. They all knew so well what they were doing that they could always direct themselves. McKern had a passion for Indian food, and I often used to sit near him in the Shahbhag on Roslyn Hill, as he scoffed his curry, but I never thought it tactful to speak to him, as disturbing a man at his curry is simply not the done thing. McKern's greatest acting triumph was his performance as Peer Gynt, in the play of that title by Ibsen. I saw that extremely long and brilliant production at the Old Vic in a long-gone era, but have never forgotten that McKern was a classical actor of enormous stature, and if he had not had such a rumpled face and a funny expression, he might have done more to prove it to people. This film has an absurd story which is satirically and lightly done, so that it all ends up being just lots of fun on the principle of: Who cares if it's ridiculous? It works. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. You take your life in your hands when you try to make a satirical comedy. John le Mesurier provides solid backup, as usual, making his comical long face and joining in the fun of pretending to be a spy. Everyone in the film is either a spy or pretends to be a spy or doesn't know he is a spy because nobody has told him. During the Cold War we needed this kind of comic consolation sometimes, because the realities were so grim. There are also some pointed jokes about people sponging on the dole, lazy chaps who claim to be writers and will one day write a great novel but never do (Bogarde plays this for all the laughs he can get), and there is Sylva Koscina having fun falling in love with him whilst spying on him in Prague. All good solid sixties nonsense. And there is a wonderful 'in-joke'. At one point Bogarde is looking at a newspaper, and a secondary story which most people would not notice is headed: '"I'm not a spy!' says Ralph Thomas', Ralph Thomas of course being the film's director. Lots of laughs on the set, I'm sure. 'And now time for a pint,' I suspect.
Review of Agent 8 3/4
