Delightful spy comedy with plenty of good humour in its cheeky mix of ironical satire, flippant comedy, serious paranoia, the full terror of a dictatorial police state and diplomatic charm. The introductory scene sets the mood: the remnants of a certain agent 007 are turned in and filed in a box labelled 'deceased' while the caretakers remark on the necessity of getting a replacement. Dirk Bogarde is fished out as a suitable candidate and is appropriately recruited without being informed what it is all about. He is sent on a mission to Czechoslovakia on what seems to be some quite innocent business where he is to be contacted by someone about something. That is all. The Prague authorities welcome him and give him a beautiful driver to show him around, which contact develops into a love affair, but she works for the police, and her father (the formidable Leo McKern) is chief of the secret police. The satirical comedy drastically turns into a political thriller half way into the film with ensuing complications and lots of manhunts and crowded confusions.
The film is gilded by some very enjoyable performances by especially Robert Morley, Dirk Bogarde himself of course, the aforesaid Leo McKern and his daughter Sylva Koscina. It's really very close to the real Czech comedies by Milos Forman and others later on, it's the same kind of intelligent humour, and the film gets better all the time. Ultimately no one gets hurt, so in spite of the serious political business, as it was in Czechoslovakia before 1968, which it gives a fairly correct and realistic rendering of, it's a spiritual and entertaining comedy of some great excitement but all laughs and no tears.
The film is gilded by some very enjoyable performances by especially Robert Morley, Dirk Bogarde himself of course, the aforesaid Leo McKern and his daughter Sylva Koscina. It's really very close to the real Czech comedies by Milos Forman and others later on, it's the same kind of intelligent humour, and the film gets better all the time. Ultimately no one gets hurt, so in spite of the serious political business, as it was in Czechoslovakia before 1968, which it gives a fairly correct and realistic rendering of, it's a spiritual and entertaining comedy of some great excitement but all laughs and no tears.